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View Full Version : Bush caves on FISA review of domestic activities


Judy G. Russell
January 17th, 2007, 07:35 PM
See what a few Democrats in control of a few key committees in the Congress will do... After maintaining for a very long time that the Executive Branch by itself has total authority to monitor international communications, even when one of the parties is an American citizen inside the United States, the Bush Administrative has caved. It now essentially concedes that Congress put the oversight of those activities into the hands of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and that the Administration will act pursuant to the Court's orders.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that it appears that the Government got one single judge of the FIS Court to approve its program and agree to its oversight. I'm not at all comfortable with what LOOKS like blanket approval of the spying program rather than what Congress clearly intended -- case-by-case review of surveillance on an expedited basis. It's hard to tell from the Attorney General's letter to the Congress, but it sounds that way.

Let's hope the Democrats continue to demand oversight -- real oversight. But at least the reality that the Congress gave oversight to the Court and did not give carte blanche to the Executive has been validated in a big way.

Lindsey
January 17th, 2007, 11:08 PM
I agree that Bush conceding the principle is in itself a victory, but I can't say I'm surprised that they found a way to end-run it. I don't think they'd have made the concession without some idea of how they were going to make it meaningless. :( But the precedent is important.

You might be interested in an clip (http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002358.php) from Tony Snow's press briefing on this subject.

Q: How is this different from the way it worked before?

A: We can't tell you.

<sigh>

--Lindsey

Judy G. Russell
January 17th, 2007, 11:44 PM
from Tony Snow's press briefing on this subject.

Q: How is this different from the way it worked before?

A: We can't tell you.

<sigh>yAnd if we did, we'd have to kill you. Sigh indeed.