AG Claims President Had Total Authority To Snoop

What an interesting press conference held by Attorney General Gonzales today. Let's take a look at what he had to say I'm sure you will find it as informative as I did giving us a look inside the warped and dangerous mind of both the dictator king and his torture man. Q I wanted to ask you a question. Do you think the government has the right to break the law? ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Absolutely not. I don't believe anyone is above the law. Q You have stretched this resolution for war into giving you carte blanche to do anything you want to do. ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Well, one might make that same argument in connection with detention of American citizens, which is far more intrusive than listening into a conversation. There may be some members of Congress who might say, we never -- Q That's your interpretation. That isn't Congress' interpretation So in other words, they went ahead and wiretapped without informing congress because they knew they would refuse authorization. But that still doesn't explain why they didn't use the FISA court when they have 72 after the fact to do so. But apparently even that is too much of a hindrance to these fascists. Q If FISA didn't work, why didn't you seek a new statute that allowed something like this legally? ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: That question was asked earlier. We've had discussions with members of Congress, certain members of Congress, about whether or not we could get an amendment to FISA, and we were advised that that was not likely to be -- that was not something we could likely get, certainly not without jeopardizing the existence of the program, and therefore, killing the program. And that -- and so a decision was made that because we felt that the authorities were there, that we should continue moving forward with this program. Well now that's really interesting. They didn't think Congress would agree to a change in the law even though they control all branches of Government? Some would say four branches if you include the press. If you think what you have read so far is stunning in it's arrogance, then make sure your sitting down, preferably with a good stiff drink handy before you read this little tidbit provided by General Hayden. Q And who determined that these targets were al Qaida? Did you wiretap them? GENERAL HAYDEN: The judgment is made by the operational work force at the National Security Agency using the information available to them at the time, and the standard that they apply -- and it's a two-person standard that must be signed off by a shift supervisor, and carefully recorded as to what created the operational imperative to cover any target, but particularly with regard to those inside the United States. Q So a shift supervisor is now making decisions that a FISA judge would normally make? I just want to make sure I understand. Is that what you're saying? GENERAL HAYDEN: What we're trying to do is to use the approach we have used globally against al Qaida, the operational necessity to cover targets. And the reason I emphasize that this is done at the operational level is to remove any question in your mind that this is in any way politically influenced. This is done to chase those who would do harm to the United States. So there you have it, two clerks and a shift supervisor decide if you a U.S. citizen is really an al Qaida operative or supporter. And of course the three people are not at all politically motivated. Why would anyone suspect that? Maybe because every appointment made at every level in this administration was either a campaign contributor or supporter. In order to justify not using FISA, they are now saying that the passage of the U.S. Patriot Act gave dictator George automatic authorization to wiretap. Well that's a load of crap. There is nothing in that act that gives him carte blanche to do anything he wants to do. Senator Feingold puts that rationalization to rest in today's Washington Post "This is just an outrageous power grab," he said. "Nobody, nobody, thought when we passed a resolution to invade Afghanistan and to fight the war on terror, including myself who voted for it, thought that this was an authorization to allow a wiretapping against the law of the United States. "There's two ways you can do this kind of wiretapping under our law. One is through the criminal code, Title III; the other is through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. That's it. That's the only way you can do it. You can't make up a law and deriving it from the Afghanistan resolution. "The president has, I think, made up a law that we never passed," said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) It is painfully obvious that George and his crime family have broken the law, and no amount of spin will remove that taint from this administration.