Spent a good part of the day covering the Senate Judiciary Committee’s NSA FISA & The Executive hearing, especially as it pertains to Censure… and there was some controversy about Feingold walking off the Senate floor after, as Specter put it, “berating the president for 25 minutes”….. Specter wants to discuss the issue with Feingold… Feingold made himself unavailable to Specter…. Specter said Feingold tried to postpone the Censure hearing… Feingold issued a statement that it is flat out not true… Specter insists that the Censure Hearing go on as scheduled this week…. things are not looking too good at the moment…. Until Feingold makes it up to Specter he has not secured an important ally on the Senate Judiciary Committee…. And there are storm clouds brewing….
But it was Senator Joseph Biden, Democrat of Delaware who brought the house down… that is to a standstill when he established that:
The President broke the law.
On the upside, Feinstein asked flat out, more than once.. “Is the President bound by law?” Morton
Halperin gave excellent testimony and his statements can be found…MortonHalperin AmericanProgress
Several judges and at least one expert witnesse said there needs to be an investigation into what exactly the President’s program is… and there was a shocking silence when Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware summarized the situation this way:
“There are three possibilities….
1) The President operated within existing law
2) The President did not operate within existing law
3) The President drafted new legislation.Well we know number one is not true, and we know number three is not true.”
The President broke the law. And that is the fact that stopped the proceedings.
No one at the hearing could say what the President’s program of domestic warrantless surveillance is…. And although SOME Senators have been briefed, and SOME FISA judges have been briefed, all at the hearing were in agreement that the Attorney General is not aware of the full extent of the surveillance program… and that in itself is a cause for some alarm bells being set off.
Biden said that there is a problem in the Censure Resolution in that “we don’t know what the President did.” Biden said that the Intelligence Committee should be censured. He quoted journalist Stewart Taylor… “The administration’s argument about not tipping our hand to terrorists by sharing our surveillance program with the Intelligence Committee is alarming.”
“WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE? WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?”
“There’s a third branch of government and it’s called the Congress… does it make sense…. Not is it legal… does it make sense?”
“WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE NOTION THAT THIS IS SOMETHING THAT THE PEOPLE HAVE A RIGHT TO HAVE AN IMPUT ON?”
“It’s bizarre,” said Biden. “Somebody tell me the risk of leakage… when we had during the Cold War, information about mobile missiles, and all the intelligence we gained on the Soviet Union at the time…. Somebody tell me that the those times were less dangerous than now? Nothing got leaked.”
“Without anyone knowing what the President’s program is, not even the Attorney General… It’s absolutely amazing.. Does anybody here think that the Attorney General knows the extent of this program? I asked him under oath, `Can you assure us that this program is the only one?’ And he said no. I don’t even believe that the Attorney General of the United States of America knows the extent of this domestic surveillance program and I find it breathtaking the arrogance of this administration. Concluding that a group of people we do not even know so called “experts on terror” making judgments on the spot upon whom to eavesdrop … with no assurance or any way of with no oversight. This is like Alice in Wonderland.”
“And then this malarkey that (immitates Bush’s Texas drawl)”Well, ya know, if you raise questions about this you’re only supporting the terrorists…”
…..
Morton Halprin: You have to find a way to compel the President to obey the law.
Biden’s concluding remarks:
“I truly appreciate your willingness, Senator Specter, not to let this issue go away, nobody else in Congress is doing anything about it. My frustration is not with you. I understand the truth of the assertion that the only thing that is going change this administration’s mind is a political judgement reached by the US Congress and confronting the president with a political situation where he politically concludes that it is not advantageous to pursue the avenue he is currently taking.
Without consultation with anybody….
What frustrates me…. I never thought I’d sit here after thirty three years from Richard Nixon to this guy… to President Bush, and find ourselves in the posture where we are literally paralyzed from having any notion about having any idea… And I’m supposed to accept, and others are supposed to accept the word of Dick Cheney? Accept the word of the President? “Trust me?”… “Trust me?”
Silence in the room.
“Thank you for your time.”
(the above is my transcription of some part of the proceedings.
What I understand about what happened today is that no one knows what the President’s surveillance program is, not even the Attorney General. Presidential signing statements (use and abuse of) will be taken up at another hearing. Specter will revise his FISA 2006 asap. Feingold’s Censure Resolution will be taken up on Friday…. in all due dispatch as the Immigration Legislation is the most important pressing matter right now. And Biden has established… The President broke the law.
The best possible outcome is that Biden will support Censure, there will be an investigation into the President’s warrantless domestic spying, and it will be determined that the President broke the law. But since the President will not divulge the extent of the program, not even to his Attorney General… it’s going to take more than oversight… it’s going to take subpoena power.
