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Glenn Greenwald's Questions for Gonzales on Warrantless Wiretaps
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There is an interesting first amendment attorney in town, Glenn Greenwald, who has been working hard to make sure that Senate Judiciary Committee Members pose the most important lines of questions to Attorney General Gonzales.
I have been out of the office most of the day and will have to watch the hearings later, but I want to highlight two pieces of his. The first is a short op-ed that appeared today on Alternet and the second is a set of "10 questions" that should be posed in today's hearings.
In his op-ed today, Greenwald points out that the debates over FISA, the rush to modify FISA rules, and all that FISA hullaballoo was simply subterfuge for the fact that the White House had gone monarchial -- uncontestedly monarchial.
From his piece:
The theories embraced by the Bush Administration are both radical and unprecedented. These theories hold that, with regard to responses to the threat of terrorism both abroad and within the U.S., decisions are "for the President alone to make" and neither the Congress nor the courts can limit the president in any way.Thus, the question faced by the Congress is whether it will continue to stand by and allow the administration to claim unchecked power and relegate the Congress to an impotent, useless appendage.
The first chance the Congress has to answer that question will be on February 6 when it questions Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and it is not hyperbole to say that what is at stake are the founding and most fundamental principles for how our government operates.
And here are the ten questions that Greenwald poses, which I find useful in framing this debate:
Questions 1-5
I don't know if Glenn Greenwald has made a dent in the hearings today, but I will listen in later to find out, and some of you may already know.
Here are some other resources, however,
First, National Journal's Intelligence & Homeland Security Correspondent Shane Harris has a fantastic article titled "Spying 101: A Legal Primer" on these hearings regardling wireless wiretaps and what we should be looking for and trying to understand in these debates.
(Sorry it was not up earlier but should be a good resource for those watching re-runs)
Here is the pdf of Shane Harris's piece, which I am posting with permission.
Secondly, here are a number of links recently posted by Think Progress, all quite useful. Just scroll down and read them as there are too many to list individually. One of the most interesting to me was Lindsey Graham's comment that by Gonzales's definition, there seemed to be no "natural boundary" to Executive authority.
Exactly.
More later.
-- Steve Clemons
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Ten questions that Reynolds poses? Who TF is Reynolds?
jr, our host meant "greenwald." he simply allowed prof instanitwit (glen reynolds) to infiltrate his brain, which caused him to type "reynolds" when he meant "greenwald."
Ex-President Carter: Eavesdropping Illegal
Hopefully more Americans will wake the f*ck up and sent these amoral bastards and their totally corrupt and fearmongering party packing in 2006 and 2008.
Steve, next time you see Grover, ask him if he's worried that his conversations have been tapped.
"Grover Norquist has for some years now been promoting Islamist organizations, including even the Council on American-Islamic Relations; for example, he spoke at CAIR's conference, "A Better America in a Better World" on October 5, 2004. Frank Gaffney has researched Norquist's ties to Islamists in his exhaustive, careful, and convincing study, "Agent of Influence" and concludes that he is enabling "a political influence operation to advance the causes of radical Islamists, and targeted most particularly at the Bush Administration."
But if Grover Norquist is indeed a convert to Islam, it could be that he is not just enabling the Islamist causes but is himself an Islamist." (April 14, 2005)
Steve---- your links to ques 1-5 and questions 6-10 do NOT work.
I watched the entire hearing, partly on tape. (It was a real power-trip to be able to fast-forward through the Republicans who had nothing to add to the proceedings). I was surprised, however that Senator Brownback, of all people, was not one of them. And Senator Graham is just bent out of shape enough, by the President's fingers-crossed-behind-his-back signing statement attached to his anti-torture bill, that he might fight the high-handedness of the FISA end runs. Do I dare hope that Senator Specter, despite his cute little no-oath ploy, will go toe to toe on this, too. I get the feeling, however, that the two Intel chairs will do nothing, nothing, nothing. And the Judiciary Committee may then be stuck. If this comment is a little disjointed, it is because my head is still spinning from the AG's convoluted, contorted, circumloqueted, confounding arguments in favor of an Imperial Presidency, all with a straight face!
Best lie of the day:
Alberto: President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all authorized electronic surveillance on a far broader scale.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/
Must read article from Fox News on Zacarias Moussaoui:
Must read article from Fox News on Zacarias Moussaoui:
I saw the hearing today with Attorney General Gonzales. He never answered any questions without using that it was secrets, secrets, and again secrets therefore my conclusion is that when they spy on opponents and anti war demonstrators, they use the secret law! No records but secrets! But goes under the FISA court! (That they seem to have fewer than before). This is even worst than NIXON. Who look more and more like a pussycat versus this Bush Administration?
If the republicans really want to show themselves as doing people’ works, they better start to do it, because they sure are doing the work of the corporations and this Emperor!
Senator Jeff Sessions is really a waste of power. I had yet to hear this crook asked a real question. I always feel he is promoting himself or giving a BJ to bush.
Gonzales wants the person that revealed to the newspaper this spying been punish? OK, why are they dilly dally about the WH. revealing the named of Palme gate, what a joke they are really are. They have so many secretive that I have to ask, did they let 9/11 happened for their agenda!!
They are still a lot of question about that terrible day that have not been answer. Why was a Bush in all level, involve in every part of this disaster, One as president elected by the Supreme Court, the other owner of the security of the twin tower. These towers came down as a control demolishment. Why have no taped of the pentagon has been release. I am talking of the ones across the street that the FBI did confiscated. I have a lot of question who has never been answer.
What we seem to forget, is that the biggest pictures that no one was to look at! Vietnam children are born malformed, while 45 years has passed since that war!
The same thing is happening in Iraq from the first Gulf war!
What will happen when our soldiers who are A OK, that have been exposed to the air of our DU bombs for a year????? Will it be the same than after the first Gulf war when families where not help?
Our returning soldiers will die. Their children will be weaker, Are we ready to die for a phony leader!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Make your choice.
The AG looked like the least prepared AG that I can remember appearing before Congress. I considered his lack of preparedness as an insult and/or instructive on what we are talking about here. Basically, it was a demonstration on how not to be responsive to the States' representatives in the halls of our Congress. It was a challenge to tell the Administration to stop and to make them stop. Any politician with half a pea-brain could see that. And that we are not talking about cooperation between the branches but an actual disinterest in the Congress in taking any responsibility for the maintenance of the US Constitution. Where was the outrage, the insistence on legal testimony? Is every US Senator now afraid that Busholini has something on them? Is political embarassment more important than our own Constitution now?
Senator Specter should get a backbone before its too late! Sam Irving didn't sit there and ask if you might not want to be sworn in as a favor...what the heck has happened to the once great Congress of the United States?!
Speedy Gonzales is very slippery and squirmy, he avoided many questions and just kept on repeating himself, sounded like a broken record, hmmm hey! just like Bush..
If we are fighting a war on terror, then why are terrorists running our country? Anyone Bush appoints comes out to be a scam to support his terrorist acts on America and the world. Why is he and his cronnies not doing life in jail yet? September 11th was a setup. I believe it was a cooperation with the BinLadens and the Bush Administration. Why else would a grey military airliner fly in to the towers? Where is flight 77? I didnt see any airplane pieces by the pentagon? What happened to the 3.5 billion dollars before the attack of September 11th?
Medicare plan written by pharmacy companies, Social Security will be written by bankers.
Bush downplayed outsourcing jobs, but jobs are disapearing faster then the blink of the eye. If this isnt a problem, is it a solution? to what?
feb. 7, 2006
Steve --
There's a report out saying Rove has threatened the Senate Judiciary Committee.
http://www.insightmag.com/Media/MediaManager/Rove2.htm
What do your sources say?
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