Johnathan Alter - noticeably pissed that the Risen's treasonist hack job basically pinged off the White House toilet - not to mention rising Presidential poll numbers - tries his own hand at "hacking" - of which he is the master hacker!
"Dec. 19, 2005 - Finally we have a Washington scandal that goes beyond sex, corruption and political intrigue to big issues like security versus liberty and the reasonable bounds of presidential power. President Bush came out swinging on Snoopgate—he made it seem as if those who didn’t agree with him wanted to leave us vulnerable to Al Qaeda—but it will not work. We’re seeing clearly now that Bush thought 9/11 gave him license to act like a dictator, or in his own mind, no doubt, like Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.
No wonder Bush was so desperate that The New York Times not publish its story on the National Security Agency eavesdropping on American citizens without a warrant, in what lawyers outside the administration say is a clear violation of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. I learned this week that on December 6, Bush summoned Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger and executive editor Bill Keller to the Oval Office in a futile attempt to talk them out of running the story. The Times will not comment on the meeting, but one can only imagine the president’s desperation.
The problem was not that the disclosures would compromise national security, as Bush claimed at his press conference. His comparison to the damaging pre-9/11 revelation of Osama bin Laden’s use of a satellite phone, which caused bin Laden to change tactics, is fallacious; any Americans with ties to Muslim extremists—in fact, all American Muslims, period—have long since suspected that the U.S. government might be listening in to their conversations. Bush claimed that “the fact that we are discussing this program is helping the enemy.” But there is simply no evidence, or even reasonable presumption, that this is so. And rather than the leaking being a “shameful act,” it was the work of a patriot inside the government who was trying to stop a presidential power grab.
Alter - you're an idiot! It was a Washington Time's 'expose'" that tipped Bin Laden that we knew his Satelitte phone number. Such news leaks and we've had more than a few have gone on too long to just be ignored - although pinkos like you wouldn't think so.
"This will all play out eventually in congressional committees and in the United States Supreme Court. If the Democrats regain control of Congress, there may even be articles of impeachment introduced. Similar abuse of power was part of the impeachment charge brought against Richard Nixon in 1974."
Yeah, yeah....wannabe King Kerry let that cat out of the bag. That's the entirety of the Democrat/MSM juggernaut that you are so much a part of - just get Bush on anything you can.
Yet your comparison isn't even close. Nixon was spying on Political opponents, you know, like Clinton, stuff like this.
I do think Congress ought to be looking into this. They could start by charging Risen and the Ny Times editorial board with treason, for that is truly what the divulgence of this story was. By the way Alter, you might check that link for some information about the FISA, you seem a little lacking in knowledge of it's scope and application.
"In the meantime, it is unlikely that Bush will echo President Kennedy in 1961. After JFK managed to tone down a New York Times story by Tad Szulc on the Bay of Pigs invasion, he confided to Times editor Turner Catledge that he wished the paper had printed the whole story because it might have spared him such a stunning defeat in Cuba.
This time, the president knew publication would cause him great embarrassment and trouble for the rest of his presidency. It was for that reason—and less out of genuine concern about national security—that George W. Bush tried so hard to kill the New York Times story."
One word dude - Metamucil!
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin with an excellent run down of the NSA and the Law from around the blogsphere that might even help Johnathan out a little further!
(Although, he's so full of it the Metamucil might work better)
UPDATE II: Rick Moran Rightwing Nuthouse with a great smackdown! Also Real Clear Politics Blog.
iraq Politics News murtha Able Danger Curt Weldon bush war on terror spying patriot act nsa CIA jonathan alter
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