From today’s Washington Post:
When he was asked about the National Security Agency’s controversial domestic surveillance program last Monday [May 8, 2006], U.S. intelligence chief John D. Negroponte objected to the question and said the government was “absolutely not” monitoring domestic calls without warrants.
“I wouldn’t call it domestic spying,” he told reporters. “This is about international terrorism and telephone calls between people thought to be working for international terrorism and people here in the United States.”
Of course, perhaps he wasn’t lying. Maybe he really believes that “tens of millions of Americans” (i.e., a euphemism for everyone who didn’t have their phone service with Qwest) really are in league with Al Qaida. Certainly it appears the Bush administration believes that about ABC, The New York Times and the Washington Post.
(More after the break)
Nah.
He’s was lying all right. I sincerely doubt that the the Godfather of all US sponsored Death Squads in Central America and Iraq would have any moral qualms about telling a little lie to the American people. Especially since it is clearly Administration policy to do so:
But, as illustrated by Negroponte’s remarks last week, administration officials have been punctilious in discussing the NSA program over the past five months, parsing their words with care and limiting comments to the portion of the program that had been confirmed by the president in December.
In doing so, the administration rarely offered any hint that a much broader operation, involving millions of domestic calls, was underway. Even yesterday — after days of congressional furor and extensive media reports — administration officials declined to confirm or deny the existence of the telephone-call program, in part because of court challenges that the government is attempting to derail.
[…]
Caroline Fredrickson, Washington legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the administration has purposely misled Congress and the public about the scope and character of the NSA’s domestic intelligence activities. She pointed to comments in January by Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, Bush’s nominee for CIA director, who said the NSA program “is not a driftnet” over U.S. communities.
“Clearly they actually were using a net; a vacuum cleaner might be a better way to put it,” Fredrickson said yesterday. “I think it is misleading what they’ve said, even if you might not characterize it as lying in every instance. There are far too many times where they basically play it way too cute . . . and it just makes you wonder what else is out there.”
It does make you “wonder” what else is going on, doesn’t it. Tricky Dick Nixon would be so proud!
I am telling you this whole mess is making me sicker by the moment. I could not stand negroponte way back when nor could I stand him when he went to Iraq…I could have dropped out of my chair when he got the dni and I am so disgusted with this administration over everything they have done in the past 5+ years that I want to throw up all the time. He fits the profile tho with his past qualifiers…now, is that not so??!! Seems as tho bad habits are hard to break…The old man has a habit of doing things that always gets ppl killed…he is a bag of shit that needs to be burned and discarded. Maybe this time we can indict him and get his sentence for good this time…….what ya think…He and abrams(sp?)and many others of the nixon/reagan years, too…They have learned now to screw others and they do so well at it.
Imagine the absolutely worst possible scenario, and everytime the reality of BushCo will surpass your imagination.
Lies about what Bush knew before 9/11.
Lies about what he planned to do after 9/11.
Lies about the reasons from invading Iraq.
Torture as official US policy.
Concentration Camps (that’s what Guantanamo is after all).
White Phosphorus used on civilian targets in Iraq.
Air strikes against civilian targets in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The use of Mercenaries in Iraq.
The employment of MEK, a known terrorist group to operate on our behalf in Iran
Outing covert CIA operatives as retribution for being exposed in a lie.
Witch hunts in the Intelligence community to get rid of dissenters from the approved party line
Rewards for polluters, mining companies, Big Oil, Defense contractors, etc.
Government funded propaganda and disinformation directed at the American people.
Illegal wiretaps and interception of electronic communications
Suppression of free speech rights
Unlawful arrests of peaceful protesters at the GOP convention.
The use of the IRS to target political opponents.
New Orleans.
Use of the military to gueard the borders against illegal immigrants from Mexico.
Cover-ups of so many scandals it’s hard to keep track.
Claims that the President has unlimited powers in a “time of war” which allow him to ignore Congress, violate the Law, and avoid Judicial review of his actions.
Illegal government files kept on antiwar and peace groups under the guise of labeling them terrorists.
. . . I give up. The list coudl go on all night.
Well, Steven, you have just about covered it in total.
Just to think they had the patriot act already written and ready to go before 9/11 is so unreal! I just can’t imagine what they were doing for years ahead of time for their plans to destroy us all.
Well Newt just repeated the Sunday the meme that Saddam and al qaede were working together…where has he been hiding under the bed?
To waste our energy talking about negroponte and his present actions borders on the absurd. I realize that as long as the pig has the backing of this admin, there is no chance that anyone will bother trying to get out to the public this bastards’ history as a murderer. Screw him folks cause as long as we keep picking on the stooges and not going straigh at the effing chimp, we will be banging our heads on the wall!
I just keep waiting for the folks out there that should know better to rise up and let these effers just what is going to happen if they don’t finally get their shit straightened out.
If as you highlite he is going to play word games then I guess that we will have to see what the folks want to do.
Have we reached the tipping point yet or are we still waiting to see just when they plan to start putting us into pens or holding tanks or restricted communities or whatever euphemism they come up with.
Can’t wait. billjpa