Nadia Prupis writes at Common Dreams
Bush-Era Dragnet Memos Show 'Virtually Unlimited' Presidential Power:
The Justice Department on Friday released two legal memos written during the Bush administration justifying the National Security Agency surveillance program that spied on American citizens' phone calls and emails shortly after the terrorist attacks in 2001, the Washington Post reports.
The program, called Stellar Wind, created legal support for mass collection of communications data based solely on Presidential authorization. It allowed the NSA to spy on communications within the U.S. when at least one party was believed to be affiliated with al-Qaeda, and at least one end of the communication was overseas. Authored by then-Assistant Attorney General Jack Goldsmith, the memos argue that Stellar Wind does not violate Fourth Amendment rights of U.S. citizens because invasion of privacy is outweighed by the government's "interest" in stopping terrorist attacks—and that Article 2 of the Constitution gives the president power to conduct a communications dragnet "even in peacetime."
"Their conclusions are deeply disturbing," ACLU staff attorney Jack Toomey told the Post. "They suggest that the president’s power to monitor the communications of Americans is virtually unlimited—by the Constitution, or by Congress—when it comes to foreign intelligence."
The Post reports:
Goldsmith argued that Congress’s 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force passed shortly after the al-Qaeda attacks on the United States provided “express authority” for the warrantless program. “In authorizing ‘all necessary and appropriate force,’ ” he reasoned, the AUMF necessarily applied to electronic surveillance, including domestically.
While the New York Times revealed the existence of Stellar Wind in 2005, the somewhat-redacted documents (pdf) released last night to the ACLU go much deeper into detail about the program.
"The President has inherent constitutional authority as Commander in Chief and sole organ for the nation in foreign affairs to conduct warrantless surveillance of enemy forces," wrote Goldsmith. "Congress does not have the power to restrict the President's exercise of that authority. [...]"
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Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2005—Media Already Going Wobbly on Katrina:
In the past day, I've twice expressed concern that we may not be able to rely on the media to do its job in terms of reporting on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Today, Larry Johnson at TPM Cafe provides a chilling behind-the-scenes story that confirms my fears:
While watching the MSNBC program, CONNECTED, COAST TO COAST with Ron Reagan, a man from the Evergreen Foundation was on air spinning the myth that the President had to "beg" the Governor of Louisiana to take action. Having been on this show several times I called one of the bookers, Susan Durrwatcher, to alert her to the fact that this man was misrepresenting what happened. I offered Susan the following objective, documented facts (see timeline below). Susan thanked me for my "opinion" and said "we just have a different perspective." Stunned, I asked her by what standard of journalism that an objective fact was mere opinion? I asked her to simply look at the documents and correct the record. She declined. I asked her to remove me from the MSNBC list of contacts. I'm sure MSNBC won't miss me and I am certain I will have a happy life without having to subject myself to their unprofessional approach to journalism.
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Issues of fact are considered "opinion" by the mainstream media - that's both absurd and sickening. This is the kind of posture which allows Newsweek and the Washington Post to swallow double super-secret background spin instead of correctly reporting uncontroverted facts. |
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