by digby
The
bizarre and dishonest National Intelligence chief, Michael McConnell, is back up on the hill pushing for a permanent expansion of the warrantless wiretapping law he browbeat the congress into passing last August. Only this time making sure that his former (and future?) employers, the telcoms, are granted immunity from any liability for illegally spying on their customers and handing the information over to the government without a warrant.
He's very reassuring:The National Security Agency has not conducted wiretapping without warrants on the telephones of any Americans since at least February, the nation’s top intelligence officer told Congress on Tuesday.
Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, told the House Judiciary Committee that since he took office that month, the government has conducted electronic surveillance only after seeking court-approved warrants.
That's nice. Why then did he and the administration feel it was necessary to ram through that bill last August? I don't suppose the fact that he very, specifically and explicitly said "wiretapping without warrants on the telephones of any Americans" might lead one to believe that he is once again doing a little misdirection is he? After all, he is known to be an outright liar.
Is that too harsh a word?
I don't think so:Congress agreed to give President Bush and the nation's intelligence agencies extra authority to spy on Americans just hours before lawmakers left for a month-long recess in August. In the legislative session's final week, news emerged of an impending plot by foreign terrorists to attack the US Capitol, and Republicans pointed to the reports as justification to expand the administration's powers.
"That specific intelligence claim, it turned out, was bogus; the intelligence agencies knew that," Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) said at a forum on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act organized by the Center for American Progress in Washington. However, lawmakers did not learn of the claim's unreliability until "the day" they approved the FISA expansion, she said.
If they aren't spying on Americans then they don't need a law giving them permission to do so. It's that simple. They should not renew that bill.
This allegedly independent Michael McConnell, who stabbed the Democrats in the back last August by reneging on the deal he'd made after the White House yanked his chain and then ran around screaming "the terrorists are coming to kill all of you in your offices RIGHT NOW if you don't support this bill" is a bad actor. He's a liar and a kook and the congress ought to steer clear of him. This administration has cried wolf so many times, it's completely pointless to believe anything they say. Just follow the constitution.
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