Cheney Stalks The Elephant

Posted By: rdrover
Posted on: Feb. 14, 2006 at 9:18 PM

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The Vice President bagged a lawyer on Saturday and for the past two days, as President of the Senate, he's been after bigger, more dangerous, game.

Congress appeared ready to launch an investigation into the Bush Administration's warrantless domestic eavesdropping program last week, but an armed-to-the-teeth White House elephant hunting expedition may have wounded that effort. OneNationUnder1

The Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to vote tomorrow (Wednesday) on a Democratic-sponsored motion to start an inquiry into the NSA program which continues to listen in on an undisclosed number of phone calls and e-mails involving U.S. residents without obtaining warrants from the FISA Court.

Two committee Democrats are reported to have said the Committee -- made up of eight Republicans and seven Democrats -- was clearly leaning in favor of the motion last week but now is closely divided and possibly inclined against it.

They attributed the shift to last week's closed briefings given by top White House officials to the full House and Senate Intelligence Committees, and to private appeals to wayward Republican Senators by those and other officials, including Cheney.

Olympia Snowe (R-ME) illustrates the Administration's success in cooling Congressional zeal for a more extensive examination of the beast. On Dec. 20, she was one of two Republicans who joined two Democrats to sign a letter expressing "our profound concern about recent revelations that the United States Government may have engaged in domestic electronic surveillance without appropriate legal authority." The letter urged the Senate's Intelligence and Judiciary Committees to "jointly undertake an inquiry into the facts and law surrounding these allegations."

In an interview yesterday, Snowe said, "I'm not sure it's going to be essential or necessary" to conduct an inquiry "if we can address the legislative standpoint" that would provide oversight of the surveillance Program

The White House characterized last week's closed-door briefings to the full Intelligence Committees as a significant concession and a sign of the Administration's respect for Congressional oversight responsibilities. Many Democrats dismissed the briefings as virtually useless, but Senators said yesterday they appear to have played a big role in slowing up the momentum for an inquiry.

Jay Rockefeller (D-WVA), the Senate intelligence Committee Vice Chairman, has drafted a motion calling for a wide-ranging inquiry into the NSA surveillance program, but is reported to be frustrated by what he sees as heavy-handed White House efforts to dissuade Republicans from supporting his measure.

Cheney, yesterday, conducted a Republicans-Only Meeting on intelligence matters which seems to have "reoriented" GOP awareness.

Senate Intelligence Committee member Mike DeWine (R-OH) now says he supports the NSA program and would oppose a Congressional investigation. He said he is drafting legislation that would "specifically authorize this program" by excluding it from the FISA.

Snowe said she is inclined to support DeWine's plan. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), who also signed the Dec. 20 letter, said yesterday that the FISA law should be amended to include the NSA program and to provide for congressional oversight.

But Hagel backed away from Rockefeller's motion, saying, "If some kind of inquiry would be beneficial to getting a resolution to this issue, then sure, we should look at it. But if the inquiry is just some kind of a punitive inquiry that really is not focused on finding a way out of this, then I'm not so sure that I would support that."

Perhaps Cheney's "take no quail" attitude over the weekend showed the Republican Senators that he was serious about bagging bigger game. It's not been reported what caliber weapon he used in his closed-door meeting yesterday but sure looks like the GOP "compromise" will be to legitimize the elephant's presence somehow and ignore the tracks it's left for the past four years.

Anyone interested an allegorical article about Sabu, the elephant-herding moron-boy, whose herd trampled his village to dust?

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maggie

Feb. 15, 2006 at 06:59:22 AM

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Do you want a government that's accountable to you for their actions?

I urge all readers to email Senators Snowe and Hagel to ask the put put aside partisan differences and vote for the Rockefeller motion.

Hagel: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/webreturn/?url=http://hagel.senate.gov

Snowe: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/webreturn/?url=http://snowe.senate.gov

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June

Feb. 15, 2006 at 04:08:46 PM

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Thanks for the update Rdrover and thanks to Maggie for the contact links. I cannot contain my anger at over the Bush Administration considers everything to be a political game whether it's violation of the Constitution, lying us into war or abandoning a friend you've shot!

This gang of thugs has no political scruples, no allegiance to the truth nor do they value friendships except as a political commodity.

I do not know how any thinking, feeling human being can support them. But, then, they do have some unthinking, uncaring and unfeeling supporters here at Voice of Arizona - who seem remarlably silent on current affairs other than cartoons!

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rdrover

Feb. 15, 2006 at 06:02:12 PM

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I'm sorry, I misread the Senate Meeting calendar. The Senate Intelligence Committee convenes tomorrow (Thursday) to take up the NSA secret domestic spying business.

My apologies to all who tuned to C-Span today or bought plane tickets to Washington.

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captainmarvel

Feb. 15, 2006 at 06:36:42 PM

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Senator DeWine is inhaling some of that White House smoke. He should know better! T

The Justice Department rejected DeWine's 2002 effort to reform FISA. Our old friend, General Hayden, told a committee investigating the 9/11 attacks that any surveillance of persons in the United States was consistent with FISA.

At the time of his statements, Hayden was fully aware of the presidential order to conduct warrantless domestic spying issued the previous year. But Hayden didn’t feel as though he needed to share that with Congress.

Apparently, Hayden believed that he had been legally authorized to conduct the surveillance, but told Congress that he had no authority under FISA to do exactly what he was doing. The blogosphere was abuzz about this when Hayden popped up more recently arguing that the NSA warrantless domestic eavesdropping was legal.

However, DeWine’s solution completely overlooks the really big problem with Bush’s illegal domestic spying program. The administration has argued that FISA doesn't apply - and DeWine simply wants to embed that view into law. By doing so, the DeWine legislation would grant authority to the administration to continue conducting its program without any legal checks or safeguards whatsoever on its powers.

Even the hardest-core party faithful wouldn't go for that, would they?

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rdrover

Feb. 16, 2006 at 06:59:55 AM

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Captain, I've read that Hayden is vulnerable to prosecution for lying to Congress because of his 2002 testimony. Richard Helms' suffered that fate for his misrepresentations about CIA involvement in Chile in the Allende days so General Hayden is certainly pulling for defeat of the Rockefeller motion.

Snowe's and Hagel's remarks have received broad coverage but their staffs' refusals to elaborate may indicate that neither senator is locked into that position.

Thanks for the links, Maggie.

I haven't been able to uncover a thing about the leverage Cheney employed with the Republicans other than threat of excommunication from the Party of Rove. It's hard to believe Snowe would yield to such pressure. Hagel, with his presidential dreams, may be more vulnerable.

Is there a cause more important than preservation of the Constitution? Party solidarity or political survival?

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bobf

Feb. 16, 2006 at 07:15:33 AM

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Senator Byrd has made a fiery, lengthy condemnation of the NSA warrantless domestic eavesdropping program in the runup to the Senate Intelligence Committee vote on Rockefeller's call for investigation.

"In the name of "fighting terror" are we to sacrifice every freedom to a President's demand? How far are we to go? Can a President order warrantless house-by-house searches of a neighborhood, where he suspects a terrorist may be hiding? Can he impose new restrictions on what can be printed, broadcast, or even uttered privately, because of some perceived threat to national security? Laughable thoughts? I think not. For this Administration has so traumatized the people of this nation -- and many in the Congress -- that some will swallow whole whatever rubbish that is spewed from this White House, as long as it is in some tenuous way connected to the so-called war on terror…

"I plead with the American public to tune-in to what is happening in this country. Please forget the political party with which you may usually be associated, and, instead, think about the right of due process, the presumption of innocence, and the right to a private life. Forget the now tired political spin that, if one does not support warrant-less spying, then one may be a bosom buddy of Osama Bin Laden…

"There is a need for a thorough investigation of all of our domestic spying programs. We have to know what is being done, by whom, and to whom. We need to know if the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act has been breached, and if the Constitutional rights of thousands of Americans have been violated without cause. The question is, can the Congress, under control of the President's political party conduct the type of thorough, far-ranging investigation which is necessary? It is absolutely essential that Congress try, because it is vital to at least attempt the proper restoration of the checks and balances. Unfortunately, in a congressional election year, the effort will most likely be seriously hampered by politics...

"I want to know how many Americans have been spied upon. I want to know how it is determined which individuals are monitored and who makes such determinations. I want to know if the telecommunications industry is involved in a massive screening of the domestic telephone calls of ordinary Americans. I want to know if the United States Post Office is involved. I want to know if the law has been broken and the Constitution has been breached..."

The entire speech is at rawstory.com.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Senator_Byrd_to_call_for_special_0215.html

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rdrover

Feb. 16, 2006 at 08:06:24 PM

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Vice President Cheney's expedition to the Hill hasn't bagged the elephant but it's succeeded in keeping it up wraps. However, a Federal Court judge has decreed that the public deserves it's first peek under the blankets.

The Senate Intelligence Committee adjourned after a 2 hour closed session without voting on Senator Rockefeller's motion for a thorough investigation of the NSA warrantless domestic. spying program.

Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) said he and the White House had reached an agreement to both provide more information to the Senate about the nature of the NSA program and to consider legislation to modify existing laws to accommodate the it.

Sounding remarkably like Big Gamer Cheney, Roberts said, "an investigation at this point ... would be detrimental to this highly classified program." He went on to say that the investigation would also be detrimental to his efforts to reach some accommodation with the White House.

So much for being a Co-Equal Branch -- again, eh?!

Yet, Roberts promised to consider the Democratic request for a vote on the Rockefeller motion at the March 7 meeting.

In a clear set-back to the White House Elephant Hunters, the Judicial Branch weighed in today when U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy ordered the Department of Justice to release information related to the NSA domestic spying program which had been requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

DOJ failed to respond to the December FOIA requests filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Policy Information Center and others within the prescribed period, so the ACLU and EPIC had gone to court. DoJ now has 20 days to produce the documents or justify further withholding to the Court.

EPIC also filed a FOIA request with the NSA today.

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