-
Abramoff
Bali
bombings
TIA:
Total Information Awareness
U.S.
Sniper
Police
Archives...
2008 Police News
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2005 Police News
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2002 Police News
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LAW ENFORCEMENT News:
20080621
China
- Hackers
- US
- GOV
- Lawmakers
- Human
Rights - Politics
- Military
- Intelligence
- Investigation
- Va
- NJ
- Ill
"More
congressional computers hacked from China." ... "More
Members of Congress have had their computers infiltrated by hackers within
China than initially suspected, a lawmaker has revealed." ... "[Representatives]
Reps. Frank Wolf (R-Va. [Republican-Virginia), Chris Smith (R-N.J. [Republican-New
Jersey), and Mark Kirk (R-Ill. [Republican-Illinois]) admitted to having
data removed from their Capitol Hill computers last week, but Wolf says
there are more." ... "“I would suspect that the Foreign Affairs, Armed
Services, Intelligence, (and) Appropriations committees would all be top
targets,” Kirk said." ... "Wolf and Smith said they believe the hackers
focused on them because of their continued objections to China’s human
rights violations, and suspected that the hackers were looking for information
on dissidents." ... "The FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] asked the
lawmakers not to speak publicly, fearing that if they did, they would be
unable to track the IP addresses of the hackers, Kirk said." ... "“When
you’re in the middle of a criminal investigation, you try not to alert
the criminal of what’s happened so you can track it down,” he said." -By
Jordy Yager -TheHill.com
20080620
John
McCain - Criminal
- Financing
- Lawyering
- Politics
- Federal
- 2008
Election
"McCain
Breaking the Law in Plain Sight." ... "I mentioned
earlier today that it was quite a thing to see John McCain denouncing Barack
Obama for breaking his word on public financing when McCain himself is
at this moment breaking the law in continuing to spend over the spending
limits he promised to abide by through the primary season in exchange for
public financing. (By the FEC's [Federal Election Commission's] rules,
we're still in the primary phase of the election and will be until the
conventions.)" ... "I want to return to this subject though because this
is not hyperbole or some throw away line. He's really doing it. McCain
opting into public financing, accepted the spending limits and then profited
from that opt-in by securing a campaign saving loan. And then he used some
clever, but not clever enough lawyering, to opt back out. And the person
charged with saying what flies and what doesn't -- the Republican head
of the FEC -- said he's not allowed to do that. He can't opt out unilaterally
unless the FEC says he can." ... "The most generous interpretation of what
happened is that McCain's lawyer came up with an ingenious legal two step
that allowed him to double dip in the campaign finance system, eat his
cake and spend it too. But even if you buy that line, successful gaming
of the system doesn't really count as strict adherence. And the point is
irrelevant since the head of the FEC -- a Republican -- says McCain cannot
do this on his own. " -By Josh Marshall
-TalkingPointsMemo.com
WATCH:
"TPMtv: [McCain] Campaign Finance Deformed"
-By Josh Marshall -Veracifier
20080619
Military
- Tech
- Safety
- Investigation
- Government
- Accounting
- Politics
- US
- Taiwan
"US
N-weapons parts missing, Pentagon says." ... "The
US military cannot locate hundreds of sensitive nuclear missile components,
according to several government officials familiar with a Pentagon report
on nuclear safeguards." ... "Robert Gates, US [Republican President Bush's]
defence secretary, recently fired both the US Air Force chief of staff
and air force secretary after an investigation blamed the air force for
the inadvertent shipment of nuclear missile nose cones to Taiwan." ...
"According to previously undisclosed details obtained by the FT, the investigation
also concluded that the air force could not account for many sensitive
components previously included in its nuclear inventory." ... "One official
said the number of missing components was more than 1,000." ... "The disclosure
is the latest embarrassing episode for the air force, which last year had
to explain how a bomber mistakenly carried six nuclear missiles across
the US." -By Demetri Sevastopulos
-FT.com
John
McCain - Barack
Obama - Iowa
- Flood
- Disaster
- Law
- Enforcement
- 2008
Election
"Culver
aides: McCain ignored request to cancel Iowa visit."
... "An aide to [Iowa Democratic Governor] Gov. Chet Culver said Thursday
that [2008 Election] Republican presidential candidate John McCain ignored
the governor's request to cancel a campaign visit amid a massive flood
recovery effort in the state." ... "Patrick Dillon, Culver's chief of staff,
said the governor was concerned that McCain's trip would divert local law
enforcement from the flood recovery effort to provide security for McCain."
... "[2008 Election] Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama canceled
a scheduled visit to eastern Iowa last week at the request of state officials."
-By Mike Glover -AP
via -Google
20080618
War
Crimes - Criminal
- Politicians
- US
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Guantanamo
Bay - Cuba
- Military
- Intelligence
- Prison
- Torture
- Human
- Human
Rights - Law
- Medical
- Psychological
- Science
"General
who probed Abu Ghraib says [Republican President] Bush officials committed
war crimes." ... "The Army general who led the investigation
into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison accused the [Republican
President] Bush administration Wednesday of committing "war crimes" and
called for those responsible to be held to account." ... "The remarks by
[Major General] Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who's now retired, came in a
new report that found that [United States] U.S. personnel tortured and
abused detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using beatings,
electrical shocks, sexual humiliation and other cruel practices." ... ""After
years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports
from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether
the current administration has committed war crimes," Taguba wrote. "The
only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered
the use of torture will be held to account."" ... "Taguba, whose 2004 investigation
documented chilling abuses at Abu Ghraib, is thought to be the most senior
official to have accused the administration of war crimes. "The commander
in chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture,"
he wrote." ... "The group Physicians for Human Rights, which compiled the
new report, described it as the most in-depth medical and psychological
examination of former detainees to date." ... "Also this week, a probe
by the Senate Armed Services Committee revealed how senior Pentagon officials
pushed for harsher interrogation methods over the objections of top military
lawyers. Those methods later surfaced in Afghanistan and Iraq." -By
Warren
P. Strobel -McClatchyDC.com
Special
Report - Noteworthy
- US
- Guantanamo
Bay - Cuba
- Military
- Intelligence
- Torture
- War
Crimes - Prison
- Investigation
- Legal
- Rights
- Religious
- Terrorism
- School
- Politics
"Guantanamo
Bay detainees investigation." ... "An eight-month
McClatchy investigation of the detention system created after the [September]
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has found that the [United States] U.S. imprisoned
innocent men, subjected them to abuse, stripped them of their legal rights
and allowed Islamic militants to turn the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba into a school for jihad."
"
-McClatchyDC.com
Torture
- Crimes
- Unlawful
- US
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Guantanamo
Bay - Cuba
- Military
- Intelligence
- Prison
- Terrorism
- War
Crimes - Politics
- Human
- Rights
- Medical
- Psychological
- Science
"Broken
Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by
the US." ... "About: Broken Laws, Broken Lives shows the
human consequences of harsh and unlawful US interrogation practices. This
landmark report reveals the excruciating pain and continued suffering of
men who, never charged with any crime, endured torture at US detention
facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay [Cuba]. Based
on internationally accepted standards for clinical assessment of torture
claims, the report documents practices used to bring about long-lasting
pain, terror, humiliation, and shame for months on end." -Physicians
for Human Rights -BrokenLives.info
20080616
Electricity
- Market
- Law
- Enforcement
- Texas
"Power
firms’ treatment angers Texans." ... "Prices aren’t
the only thing skyrocketing in the state’s deregulated electricity market."
... "Amid continuing company failures — and the resulting forced transfer
of tens of thousands of ratepayers to default electric companies — Texans
in growing numbers are griping about their ill treatment by power companies."
... "According to the Texas Public Utility Commission, complaints related
to the electric market jumped from 704 in January to 1,123 in May. Complaints
against three of the four recently failed electric companies jumped about
2,400 percent, from about 20 at the beginning of the year to 508 in May."
... "E-mails and phone calls also continue streaming into the Star-Telegram.
Frustrated consumers tell stories of poor treatment by their regular electric
competitors, confusing PUC rules, uninformed marketers and the near impossibility
of obtaining reliable information about the financial status of companies
seeking their business." ... "One company has collected payments from customers
but not delivered any electricity, according to some complaints." -By
R.A. Dyer -Star-Telegram.com
20080613
J
Robert Flores
- Crime
- Political
- Juvenile
- Justice
- Science
- Sports
- New
Jersey - Texas
- "Football
Charity Says It Deserved a $500,000 Govt Grant: Despite
Not Even Applying, the Charity Was Awarded a Grant; Some [Department Of
Justice] DOJ Staffers Objected." ... "A group that promotes leadership
through football says it doesn't know how it was awarded a $500,000 federal
grant to help stop juvenile crime, but that it "wasn't political."" ...
"The grant is one of a number for the Department of Justice's Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) that has come under
scrutiny after current and former employees said the official who awarded
the money ignored professional staff recommendations and played favorites
with groups connected to the [Republican] Bush White House. ABC
News conducted an investigation into the OJJDP, which aired earlier this
week on "Nightline"." ... "The National Football Foundation (NFF),
formerly based in New Jersey and now in Texas, says they did not apply
for the grant and have had no contact with J. Robert Flores, the official
who awarded the money." ... "Some OJJDP staffers said this program did
not deserve the funding." ... ""The football program, like the World Golf
Foundation, has lots of private resources and outside funding. They have
wealthy powerful people on the board," one staffer said." ... "The staffer
added that by law the OJJDP's primary focus is to fund programs that intervene
and protect kids who are on the cusp of entering into the juvenile justice
system or who are already in the system, and there is no research that
shows this program targets the most at-risk kids." (1,
2)
-By Anna Schecter -ABCNEWS.com
20080611
Secret
- Surveillance
- Cellphone
- Tracking
- Technology
- Internet
- Financial
- Data
- Electronic
- Intelligence
- Counterterrorism
- Investigation
- Law
- Politics
"Secret
Spy Court Repeatedly Questions FBI Wiretap Network."
... "Does the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] track cellphone users'
physical movements without a warrant? Does the Bureau store recordings
of innocent Americans caught up in wiretaps in a searchable database?
Does the FBI's wiretap equipment store information like voicemail passwords
and bank account numbers without legal authorization to do so?" ... "That's
what the nation's Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court [FISC] wanted
to know, in a series of secret inquiries in 2005 and 2006 into the bureau's
counterterrorism electronic surveillance efforts, revealed for the first
time in newly declassified documents." ... "The inquires are the first
publicly known questioning of the FBI's post-9/11 surveillance activities
by the secret court, which has historically
approved nearly every wiretap application submitted to it. The
court handles surveillance requests in counterterrorism and foreign espionage
investigations. The inquiries add to questions surrounding how the FBI
has used the broad powers handed to it by Congress in the 2001 USA Patriot
Act, including the FBI's admitted
abuse of so-called National Security Letters to get stored telephone
and financial records." ... "Among other things, the declassified documents
reveal that lawyers in the FBI's Office of General Counsel and the Justice
Department's Office of Intelligence Policy Review queried FBI technology
officials in late July 2006 about cellphone tracking. The attorneys asked
whether the FBI was obtaining and storing real-time cellphone-location
data from carriers under a "pen register" court order that's normally limited
to records of who a person called or was called by." ... "Separately, the
secret court questioned if the FBI was using pen register orders to collect
digits dialed after a call is made, potentially including voicemail passwords
and account numbers entered into bank-by-phone applications." ... "EFF's
Bankston says it's clear that FBI offices had configured their digit-recording
software, [Digital Collection System] DCS 3000, to collect more than the
law allows." ... "For more on the FBI's sophisticated wiretapping technology
and how it links in with the nation's phone and internet infrastructure,
see Point,
Click, Eavesdrop." -By Ryan Singel
-27B/6 -Wired
20080609
John
McCain - Tom
Loeffler - Susan
E Nelson - Rick
Davis - Illegal
- 2008
Election - Accounting
- Politics
- Federal
- Investigation
"Group
files complaint against McCain campaign." ... "A
group that supports public financing of campaigns filed a federal complaint
against [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain's
presidential campaign Monday, calling for an investigation into two financial
transactions involving two top McCain aides." ... "The Federal Election
Commission complaint by Campaign Money Watch, a group that has received
financing from Democratic leaning donors, questions payments from former
finance chair Tom Loeffler to campaign finance director Susan Nelson. It
also questions the reduction of a debt to a Web services firm co-owned
by McCain campaign manager Rick Davis." ... ""A campaign manager renegotiating
a debt with a company he partly owns raises serious conflict of interest
questions," said David Donnelly, the director of Campaign Money Watch."
... "Donnelly also questioned whether Loeffler's payments to Nelson amounted
to an illegal subsidy to a campaign staffer. Loeffler is a lobbyist and
former congressman and Nelson is a former associate of Loeffler's lobbying
firm." -By Jim Kuhnhenn
-AP via-AJC
J
Robert Flores
- Crime
- Political
- Federal
- Sports
- Religious
- Juvenile
- Justice
"Justice
Department Official Awards $500,000 Grant to Golf Group:
Former Staffer Tells ABC News Anti-Crime Funds Given to Programs With The
"Right" Connections." ... "A senior Justice Department official says a
$500,000 federal grant to the World Golf Foundation is an appropriate use
of money designed to deal with juvenile crime in America." ... "The Justice
Department, in a decision by [Republican President Bush's Department of
Justice Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention J. Robert] Flores, gave the money to the World Golf Foundation's
First Tee program, even though Justice Department staffers had rated the
program 47th on a list of 104 applicants. The allegations were first reported
earlier this year by the trade journal Youth
Today." ... "Current and former Justice Department employees allege
that Flores ignored the staff rankings in favor of programs that had political,
social or religious connections to the [Republican President George W.]
Bush White House." ... "The honorary chairman of the First Tee program
is former [Republican] President George [H.W.] Bush [George W. Bush's father]."
... "A key witness will be a former employee of Flores' office, Scott Peterson,
who says the grants were awarded based more on politics than merit." ...
""This is cronyism, this is waste, fraud and abuse," Peterson told ABC
News in an interview aired on Nightline Monday night." ... "Many top-rated
programs were denied federal grants." ... "Flores was appointed to the
position by President Bush six years ago and has overseen about $1.5 billion
dollars in grants during that time." ... "A Washington, D.C. program, Best
Friends, that promotes abstinences was awarded $1.1 million by Flores even
though it ranked 53rd on a list of 104 applicants." ... "Best Friends is
run by Elayne Bennett, the wife of Bill Bennett, a former Republican cabinet
member and now political commentator." (1, 2,
3)
-By Brian Ross, Anna Schecter, and Murray Waas
-ABCNEWS.com
WATCH:
"Does the White House favor social programs based on politics?"
20080607
Money
- Accounting
- Politics
- Investigation
- Maryland
- Home
- Construction
"Former
NRCC [Republican] Treasurer Embezzled $500,000, Court Papers Say."
... "The former treasurer of a key Republican campaign committee embezzled
more than $500,000 over a five-year period, using it to fund mortgage payments
and a six-figure remodeling of his Bethesda [Maryland] home, according
to court documents filed yesterday." ... "The papers were filed by federal
prosecutors in an attempt to force the former treasurer, Christopher J.
Ward, to forfeit his home to the government." ... "The government alleges
that Ward, who had worked for National Republican Congressional Committee
(NRCC) since the 1990s, made numerous unauthorized diversions of funds
from its accounts and joint accounts set up with Senate Republicans. He
often shifted money into his personal account just as payments for his
mortgage or home remodeling were due, according to the court filing." ...
"Ward, who was fired earlier this year, has not been charged with a crime,
but the civil action filed yesterday seeks to seize his home in the 6300
block of Massachusetts Avenue. Such efforts prevent subjects of investigations
from selling properties that were allegedly part of their crimes and hiding
the proceeds." -By Paul Kane and Del Quentin Wilber
-WashingtonPost
20080605
Dick
Cheney - Secret
- Government
- Military
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Politics
- Investigation
- Osama
bin Laden
- Nuclear
-
- US
- Iraq
- Iran
- Czech
"Senate
committee: Bush knew Iraq claims weren't true." ...
"[Republicans] President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other top
officials promoted the invasion of Iraq with public statements that weren't
supported by intelligence or that concealed differences among intelligence
agencies, the Senate Intelligence Committee said on Thursday in a report
that was delayed by bitter partisan infighting." ... "A second report found
that a special office set up under then-secretary of defense Donald H.
Rumsfeld conducted "sensitive intelligence activities" that were inappropriate
"without the knowledge of the Intelligence Community or the State Department."
That report revealed that Pentagon counterintelligence officials suspected
that Iran might have tried to use the group to influence administration
policymakers." ... "The Senate report, the first official examination of
whether top officials knew that their public statements were unsubstantiated
when they made them, reviewed five speeches by Bush, Cheney and former
Secretary of State Colin Powell between August 2002 and February 2003.
It also dissected key statements made by them and other top officials,
including Rumsfeld and then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice."
... "The committee found that the administration's warnings that former
dictator Saddam Hussein was in league with Osama bin Laden, a highly inflammatory
assertion in the wake of the [September] Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaida attacks,
weren't substantiated by U.S. intelligence reports. In fact, it said, [United
State] U.S. intelligence agencies were telling the White House that while
there'd been sporadic contacts over a decade, there was no operational
cooperation between Iraq and al Qaida, the report said." ... "The administration's
repeated statements "suggesting that Iraq and al Qaida had a partnership,
or that Iraq had provided al Qaida with weapons training, were not substantiated
by intelligence," it said." ... "Contentions by Bush and Cheney that Saddam
had to be removed because he could give terrorists weapons of mass destruction
to strike the United States were "contradicted by available intelligence
information" that found that the late Iraqi dictator was unlikely to make
such transfers, the report said." ... "Cheney's assertions that Mohammad
Atta, the chief Sept. 11 hijacker, had met months before the attack with
an Iraqi intelligence officer in the Czech capital, Prague [Czech Republic],
were also unsubstantiated, the inquiry found." ... "The committee said
that Bush and Cheney "failed to reflect concerns and uncertainties" expressed
in intelligence analyses that questioned administration assertions that
Iraqis would welcome U.S. troops as liberators and warned that American
forces could face violent resistance." ... "Statements by Bush, Cheney
and other top officials that Saddam had stockpiled chemical and biological
weapons in violation of U.N. resolutions were "generally substantiated"
by what turned out to be erroneous U.S. intelligence analyses, the report
said." ... "However, while intelligence reports "generally substantiated"
their claims that Iraq had secretly restarted a nuclear weapons program,
the committee said, Bush and other officials failed to disclose that the
State Department disputed that finding." ... "The administration's statements
also failed to disclose that the Energy Department joined the State Department
in rejecting allegations that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Africa,
the report said." ... "The reports released Thursday brought to an end
a lengthy investigation into how U.S. intelligence appeared to be so wrong
in the run-up to the Iraq war." -By
Jonathan
S. Landay with contributions by Nancy
A. Youssefand
Mark Seibel
-McClatchyDC.com
[PDF]
- "Senate
Intelligence Iraq Phase II Report (Phase 2 a): REPORT on Whether Public
Statements Regarding Iraq by U.S. Government Officials Were Substantiated
by Intelligence Information."
[PDF] -
"Senate
Intelligence Iraq Phase II Report (Phase 2 b): REPORT on Intelligence
Activities Relating to Iraq Conducted by the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation
Group and the Office of Special Plans Within the Office of the Under Secretary
of Defense for Policy."
[PDF] -
"Phase I Senate
report on Iraq Intelligence."
Dick
Cheney - Stephen
A Cambone - Larry
Franklin - Noteworthy
- US
- Italy- Iraq
- Iran
- Military
- Politics
- Investigation
"Did
Iranian agents dupe Pentagon officials?" ... "Defense
Department counterintelligence investigators suspected that Iranian exiles
who provided dubious intelligence on Iraq and Iran to a small group of
Pentagon officials might have "been used as agents of a foreign intelligence
service ... to reach into and influence the highest levels of the [United
States] U.S. government," a Senate Intelligence Committee report said Thursday."
... "A top aide to [Republican President Bush's] then-secretary of defense
Donald H. Rumsfeld, however, shut down the 2003 investigation into the
Pentagon officials' activities after only a month, and the Defense Department's
top brass never followed up on the investigators' recommendation for a
more thorough investigation, the Senate report said." ... "The revelation
raises questions about whether Iran may have used a small cabal of officials
in the Pentagon and in [Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney's office
to feed bogus intelligence on Iraq and Iran to senior policymakers in the
[Republican President] Bush administration who were eager to oust the Iraqi
dictator." ... "Iran, which was a mortal enemy of Iraqi dictator Saddam
Hussein and fought a bloody eight-year war with Iraq during his reign,
has been the primary beneficiary of U.S. policy in Iraq, where Iranian-backed
groups now run much of the government and the security forces." ... "The
aborted counterintelligence investigation probed some Pentagon officials'
contacts with Iranian exile Manucher Ghorbanifar, whom the CIA [Central
Intelligence Agency] had labeled a "fabricator" in 1984. Those contacts
were brokered by an American civilian, Michael Ledeen, a former Pentagon
and National Security Council consultant and a leading advocate of invading
Iraq and overthrowing Iran's Islamic regime." ... "Stephen Cambone, then
the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, shut down the counterintelligence
investigation after only a month, the Senate report said." ... "The Senate
committee also found that Pentagon officials concealed the contacts with
Ghorbanifar from the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the State
Department. Pentagon officials also provided Senate investigators with
an inaccurate account of events and, with support from two unnamed officials
in Cheney's office, continued meeting with Ghorbanifar after contact with
him was officially ordered to stop." ... "The first meetings with Ghorbanifar,
which were disclosed in August 2003 by the Long Island, N.Y. [New York],
newspaper Newsday, took place in Rome [Italy's capital] in December 2001.
They were attended by two Pentagon Iran experts, Harold Rhode and Larry
Franklin; by an Italian military intelligence official, and by Ledeen."
-By John
Walcott -McClatchyDC.com
John
McCain - Corporate
- Military
- Government
- Telecommunications
- Surveillance
- Amnesty
- Politics
- Intelligence
- John
Yoo - Torture
- Detainee
- Human
Rights - Enforcement
- Florida
- 2008
Election
"McCain
tangled in flip-flop flap over wiretapping immunity."
... "A series of statements about immunizing telecommunications companies
that violated federal wiretapping laws have become something of an embarrassment,
and perhaps even a problem, for [2008 Election Republican] John McCain's
presidential campaign." ... "The statements revolve around whether McCain,
like [Republican] President Bush, supports legislation that could be voted
on this month extending retroactive immunity to those companies and perhaps
many more." ... "In 2005, at least, McCain was in favor of letting
the courts decide whether
AT&T
and other telecos violated the law." ... "... [Late December 2007]
McCain told
the Boston Globe this: "I think that presidents have the obligation to
obey and enforce laws that are passed by Congress and signed into law by
the president, no matter what the situation is."" ... "But after McCain
became the all-but-official nominee, his political principles appear to
have become more malleable. He voted
in February for retroactive immunity -- even though there were no explicit
statements telling AT&T and other telecommunications companies that
this is not a "blessing." There were no deals providing for "oversight
hearings." And there certainly were no "provisions" to ensure this won't
happen again." ... "Our story may have ended there. Except that campaign
representative Chuck Fish (not an actual campaign lawyer, as has been incorrectly
reported, but a surrogate) subsequently suggested
that his candidate still wanted "hearings," which The Washington Post
picked
up on last week. McCain's campaign fired off a nastygram to the Post
saying that their candidate's "position on immunity has not changed.""
... "Meanwhile, McCain was questioned about his position at a town hall
meeting the next day -- he replied that Congress needs to "have hearings"
-- which The Wall Street Journal dutifully reported.
The fuss became enough to prompt the conservative National Review
to begin questioning McCain's the-executive-can-wiretap-as-it-pleases credentials.
Salon entered
the fray too." ... "[Florida Democratic Representative] Rep. Robert
Wexler of Florida, who is a member of the House Judiciary committee, sent
us this statement on Wednesday:"
"I
am appalled by Senator John McCain's reaffirmation of support for the use
of warrantless wiretapping on American citizens. Senator McCain has once
again chosen to align himself with President George Bush, whose reprehensible
spying program on Americans is a grave threat to our Constitutions guarantees
of privacy and limited executive power. It is clear that Senator McCain,
President Bush, and their Republican allies in Congress will continue to
use scare tactics and fear mongering to claim that a president can simply
chose to ignore America's laws... Senator McCain opposes a bipartisan House
compromise bill that preserves appropriate court review of all surveillance
of US citizens and gives judges the discretion to review all the necessary
documents related to telecom lawsuits without offering blanket immunity."
"Yet
there's a more important issue here, which is why the neo-cons are pressing
McCain to adhere to the Bush administration's line. And that's the administration's
theory of the so-called unitary
executive, which says that the president's use of military force cannot
be reviewed by courts." ... "McCain's earlier statements -- especially
where he says presidents must "obey and enforce laws that are passed by
Congress" -- seem to question the administration's interpretation. Beyond
wiretapping, that touches on topics such as John Yoo's so-called torture
memos, the applicability of the Geneva Convention to detainees, Bush's
signing statements, and military commissions. Questioning the justifications
for Bush's warrantless wiretapping means questioning the rest; no wonder
McCain seems a little worried about where this may lead." -By
Declan
McCullagh -CNET
[note: The conservative/Republican
opinion magazine National Review supports lawless surveillance.]
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