So first, Dan Rather and Mary Mapes give us the fake Bush National Guard memos.
Now, in an article by titled "Judges on Secretive Panel Speak Out on Spy Program", the New York Times provides this little snippet (emphasis added):
Five former judges on the nation's most secretive court...urged Congress on Tuesday to give the court a formal role in overseeing the [NSA] surveillance program.
In a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the secretive court, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, several former judges who served on the panel also voiced skepticism at a Senate hearing about the president's constitutional authority to order wiretapping on Americans without a court order. They also suggested that the program could imperil criminal prosecutions that grew out of the wiretaps.
However, reading the transcripts, it is clear that the FISA court judges raised anything but skepticism over the NSA program.
A few snippits from the hearing (emphasis added):
- Judge Kornblum: As you know, in Article I, Section 8, Congress has enumerated powers as well as the power to legislate all enactments necessary and proper to their specific authorities, and I believe that is what the President has, similar authority to take executive action necessary and proper to carry out his enumerated responsibilities of which today we are only talking about surveillance of Americans.
- Judge Kornblum (asked whether a law can infringe (or limit, change, etc) a President's Constitutional powers): I think--as a Magistrate Judge, not a District Judge, that a President would be remiss in exercising his Constitutional authority to say that, "I surrender all of my power to a statute," and, frankly, I doubt that Congress, in a statute, can take away the President's authority, not his inherent authority, but his necessary and proper authority.
- Judge Stafford (same question): Everyone is bound by the law, but I do not believe, with all due respect, that even an act of Congress can limit the President's power under the Necessary and Proper Clause under the Constitution.
- From (one of) Our moronic Senators from Illinois (Durbin AKA Turbin Durbin):
Senator Durbin: Well, as we have heard it described--and I have not been briefed either, there are only a few Senators who have--it is the interception of domestic communications between people in the United States and those in foreign lands, and that strikes me as falling within the four corners of the FISA law as written.
Judge Keenan: But you use the word in your introductory question and in that question, "domestic," and as I understand from the lay press, again, this is international, it is not domestic. So that's why I'm not in a position to answer, sir. (Ed: In other words, you blowhard, it is NOT a DOMESTIC SPYING PROGRAM! You even said so yourself: "between people in the United States and those in foreign lands." Sheesh.)
Judge Baker: Senator, did the statute limit the President? You created a balance between them [in the FISA statute], and I don't think it took away the inherent authority that Judge Kornblum talked about.
- And on the admissibility of information in a court of law:
Judge Kornblum: To be admissible, the evidence would have had to have been lawfully seized or lawfully obtained and the standard that the district judge would use is that, depending upon where this is, is the law in his circuit. In most of the circuits, the law is clear that the President has the authority to do warrantless surveillance if it is to collect foreign intelligence and it is targeting foreign powers or agents. If the facts support that, then the district judge could make that finding and admit the evidence, just as they did in Truong-Humphrey.
Well, seems to me from the transcripts, that the judges actually, for the most part, presented a case that the NSA program is entirely legal. Not even close to what the NYT reported.
Links:
PowerlinePowerlinePowerlineThe New York TimesHearing TranscriptThe internet is now officially providing better, more accurate news than the Old Media.
And they wonder why circulation numbers are dropping.
