Bush Won’t Talk – Declines Comment on NSA Spying Report
by Pamela LeaveyBush refused to comment on whether the National Security Agency eavesdropped without warrants on Americans today, in an interview to be aired Friday evening on “The Newshour with Jim Lehrer.”
Leaders of Congress condemned the practice of eavesdropping without warrants on Friday and “promised to look into what the administration has done.” This from some of Bush’s leading defenders:
“There is no doubt that this is inappropriate,” said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He said there would be hearings early next year and that they would have “a very, very high priority.”
He wasn’t alone in reacting harshly to the report. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the story, first reported in Friday’s New York Times, was troubling.
Democratic Leaders were more to the point:
“This is Big Brother run amok,” declared Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. “We cannot protect our borders if we cannot protect our ideals.” Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., called it a “shocking revelation” that he said “ought to send a chill down the spine of every senator and every American.”
The NY Times report came two days after NBC News had reported on the existence of a “secret Defense Department database of information about suspicious people and activity inside the United States, including anti-war groups.” See my post on the NBC story here.
The Times said reporters interviewed nearly a dozen current and former administration officials about the program and granted them anonymity because of the classified nature of the program.
In a clear case of whoring for the Bush administration, The NY Times held the story for a year.
It also said in its story that editors at the newspaper had delayed publication of the report for a year because the White House said it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny. The Times said it omitted information from the story that administration officials argued could be useful to terrorists.
Of course that leaves out the possibility that innocent Americans have been targeted.
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Anyone else upset and suspicious about positioning McCain at every turn as righteous. With Bush’s PR guru Mark McKinnon now with McCain, we know they are transferring power. Dems, beware.
All of a sudden he doesn’t like torture, after no comment until Bush was elected (for which the GOP will be grateful). And Arizonians say he’s a recent convert to the environment. Still spreading neo-con nonsense in Europe as I speak. Don’t like being played, again, after three weeks as a maverick strait-shooter some time in 2000.
A poster on DU referred to him as a wolf in sheep’s clothing — I think that’s about right. It does appear that McCain will be annointed the GOP nomination. He also now believes in intelligent design and is moving right on a lot of the religious right’s pet issues. I know this might sound crazy but I actually think he will be worse than Bush in regards to Iraq, because he favors sending more troops there.