CIVIL LIBERTIES
'One Bomb Away' From No Oversight
Last month, just before leaving for August recess, Congress caved to
White House pressure and passed a revision to the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA), known as the Protect
America Act, which "they may not have fully understood" and "may
have given the administration more surveillance powers than it sought." Due to ambiguous language, the new legislation may allow, without
court approval, certain types of physical searches
on American soil and the collection of Americans' business
records. Additionally, the legislation trampled warrant requirements by
broadly redefining "electronic
surveillance" while shifting
significant oversight responsibility for the surveillance from the
FISA court to the Attorney General and the Director of National
Intelligence. Calling the bill "unacceptable,"
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wrote to the respective
chairmen of the House Judiciary and House Intelligence committees soon
after the legislation passed, asking that they address the "many
deficiencies" in the Protect America Act before the legislation sunsets
in five months. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has requested
similar fixes in the Senate. This morning, in a hearing
before the House Judiciary Committee, Congress will take its first
steps towards addressing the overreach of the bill. But they can expect
stiff resistance from the Bush administration, which has signaled a
desire to further
strip oversight of their surveillance powers.
SEEKING IMMUNITY FOR PAST CRIMES: The Bush administration is currently seeking "the
power to grant legal immunity to telecommunications companies" that
violate privacy laws by "cooperating with the White House's
controversial warrantless eavesdropping program." Though the
administration refuses to "identify which companies participated in the
operations," at least two companies -- AT&T and Verizon -- are currently facing lawsuits for their alleged involvement in the
program. The administration has invoked
the "state secrets" privilege as an attempt to dismiss such
lawsuits, but some judges
are skeptical of that argument. The administration is pushing
forward with an
effort to "shield any person who allegedly provided information,
infrastructure or 'any
other form of assistance' to the intelligence agencies after the
Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks." Democrats, such as Sen. Ron Wyden
(D-OR), charge that the administration's proposal "would go far beyond
protecting private companies and their employees,
also giving cover to any government officials who may have broken the
law." But the White House is preparing to push its proposal using its
usual scare tactics. In a recent interview with the El Paso Times, Director of National Intelligence Mike
McConnell claimed that "if you play out the suits at the value
they're claimed, it would bankrupt these companies." In the same
interview, McConnell ominously warned that public discussion of the
administration's surveillance powers would cause "some
Americans...to die."
LEGISLATION
VIA FEARMONGERING: Though the administration has consistently
sought expanded surveillance powers since soon after 9/11, the
recent push for changes to FISA began in March when a judge on the
secret FISA court "challenged
for the first time the government's ability to collect data"
through aspects of the administration's so-called Terrorist
Surveillance Program. The White House claimed the ruling, which
concluded "that the
government had overstepped its authority in attempting to broadly surveil communications between two locations
overseas that are passed through routing stations in the United
States," forced them to seek warrants from the FISA
court every time it wanted to capture such communications.
Congressional leaders were willing to
fix the gap, but demanded proper oversight of the program as well
as access
to the legal opinions the administration used to originally justify
the NSA program. But the administration balked, instead "using fresh
reports of a growing terrorism threat" to scare Congress into
passing the legislation before leaving for the August recess. "The
situation was key to making it work," said a senior administration
official, adding that a July report
of a resurgent al-Qaeda was "fortuitous"
for the administration's legislative maneuvering.
CONTEMPT FOR OVERSIGHT: In an interview with The Progress Report soon after the Protect America Act was pushed
through Congress, Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA), one of 183
representatives to vote against the bill, described the
administration's contempt for the oversight provided by the FISA court.
"We made the three major changes that [McConnell] wanted," said Sestak.
"The issue here is they just
don't want to come to the FISA court.
That's enough to tell me we need them to." In recent
interviews and an upcoming book, former Bush administration official
Jack Goldsmith confirms Sestak's description of the administration's
fundamental contempt for oversight. "After 9/11, they and other top
officials in the administration dealt
with FISA the way they dealt with other laws they didn't like," writes
Goldsmith in his upcoming
book. "They blew through them in secret based
on flimsy legal opinions that
they guarded closely so no one could question the legal basis for
the
operations." "We're
one bomb away from getting rid of that obnoxious [FISA] court,"
Goldsmith recalls current vice presidential chief of staff David
Addington, whom he described as "the
chief legal architect of the Terrorist Surveillance Program,"
saying in February 2004. Goldsmith is set to testify
before the Senate Judiciary Committee this month at a yet to be
determined date.
TERRORISM -- NEW TERRORISM SURVEY
FINDS
IRAQ HAS MADE WORLD MORE DANGEROUS: The Center for American
Progress and Foreign Policy magazine recently issued a new report that found that 91
percent of foreign policy experts surveyed believe that the world is
becoming more dangerous for the United States. The third report of
their "Terrorism Index" series asked more than 100 foreign policy
experts from both political parties -- 80 percent of whom have served
in
the U.S. government or military -- about their views about the United
States's
fight against terrorism. The report found that 84 percent disagreed
that the United States is winning the war on terror; a full 92 percent
of the
experts said that the Iraq war negatively affects U.S. national
security. Over half of those interviewed, including 64 percent of
conservatives,
said the impact of the troop escalation in Iraq has been negative, and 68
percent believed troops should be redeployed out of Iraq. Today,
the
Center for American Progress will host a 90-minute
discussion on the index, featuring, among others, former
CIA Director R. James Woolsey.
CONGRESS
-- BOEHNER CAUGHT SHIFTING HIS OWN BENCHMARKS ON IRAQ ESCALATION: On
Jan. 23, 2007, just weeks after President Bush announced his escalation plan in Iraq, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH)
said on CNN, "I
think it will be rather clear in the next 60 to 90 days as to whether
this plan is going to work." Fifty-nine days later, with violence
still high in Iraq, The Progress Report noted that Boehner's time had expired. But Boehner refuses to relent. After
yesterday's Government Accountability Office report stated that
violence "remained
unchanged"
despite the troop increase -- over seven months after Boehner gave his
timeline -- Boehner backtracked on his word and claimed that the
escalation has been in effect "only
for a couple of months." "The
GAO report really amounts to asking someone to kick
an 80-yard field goal and criticizing them when they came up 20 or 25
yards short," he said. "Rather than weighing whether or not Iraqis are
making
progress toward meeting goals, it asked whether or not they've met them
-- even though Operation Phantom Thunder has been underway for only a
couple months. That's an unfair way to judge our troops'
progress." After admitting the escalation began in January,
Boehner now has
shifted his own benchmarks in order to demand another Friedman Unit for
the surge.
IRAQ -- BUSH'S
'SUPPORT THE TROOPS' CLAIM PROVES LITTLE MORE THAN RHETORIC: Though
President Bush has frequently pledged to
protect and support the U.S. armed forces -- campaigning on a constant
call to "support the troops" -- a USA Today investigation found that
the White
House and military had consistently cut or underfunded programs,
forcing Congress to take "extraordinary measures" to secure
armor for the troops. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and
the Pentagon were slow
to respond to calls from the battlefields for the lifesaving or Mine
Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle (MRAP) prompting Rep. John
Murtha (D-PA) to step up his demands, along with several other members
of Congress. "My sorrow is
that it took an inordinate number of deaths of soldiers...to make the
Pentagon realize we needed to get away from Humvees," said Rep.
Mary Landrieu (D-LA), who worked to secure the production of Army
Security Vehicles. These failures are "a manifestation of this
larger issue: doing
just enough to try to win this...without mobilizing the nation
for
war," said retired Marine Lt.Gen. Paul Van Riper, a
Vietnam
and Desert Storm veteran.
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A recent poll finds 52
percent of Australians believe President Bush is the worst
U.S.
president ever, primarily due to his Iraq war policy.
Yesterday, Australian Prime Minister John Howard told Bush he would
not reduce the 1,600 Australian forces in Iraq.
The nation's Medicaid directors yesterday told the Bush
administration that its new restrictions on the federally funded State
Children's Health Insurance Program will limit
the number of children covered.
In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, the
National Association of State Medicaid Directors "said the new
standards reduce flexibility, making it difficult for states to expand
coverage."
"A half-hour before his Saturday news conference announcing his
plans to resign, Sen. Larry Craig left a voice mail -- at a number he apparently didn't intend to dial --
stating his
intent to possibly rethink the decision.' Listen to the audio here.
The Americans Against Escalation in Iraq have
released a new ad calling out President Bush's suggestion that he will
reduce
troop levels. "Do they really mean it this time?" Watch the ad here.
By a vote of 69-24, the Senate approved Jim Nussle to replace Rob Portman as the director of the Office of Management and
Budget. Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) voted against
Nussle's confirmation because he feared Republicans could portray
a yes
vote "as a sign of support
for the president's failed fiscal policy."
"His speech will be noticeably slower and he'll be zipping
around in a motorized wheel chair, but Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) will do something on Wednesday that did not seem possible last
December -- he'll
give an address on the Senate floor."
The controversial docudrama Path to 9/11 has hit a snag in its plans
for a nationwide DVD release. The $40-million, five-hour ABC miniseries
"is for now on
the path to nowhere." Cyrus Nowrasteh, the conservative
activist who produced the series, is blaming the Hillary Clinton
campaign for the stalled release.
And finally: Al Gore (No. 1) tops President Bush (No. 2) -- at
least in the second annual "Harvard 100" ranking,
recognizing the university's
most influential living alumni. "Interestingly enough, newly
resigned Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales finished
last on the list at No. 100."
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"New York's first publicly-funded
Arabic-language school opened on Tuesday, defying critics who
warned it could foster anti-American Islamist extremism."
CALIFORNIA:
Partisan power grab for votes linked to Swift Boat funder.
EDUCATION:
In recent months, "governors and lawmakers from more than a dozen
states have sealed deals to spend far more public money on childhood
education."
ECONOMY:
Gulf Coast states affected by Hurricane Katrina are facing a crisis in
homeowners insurance coverage.
THINK
PROGRESS: Government Accountability Office chief suggests the Bush
administration is cooking the books on levels of sectarian violence in
Iraq.
YEAS
& NAYS: Supreme Court Justice David Souter was so upset with
the decision in Bush v. Gore that he considered resigning from the
court.
POLITICAL
INSIDER: Some conservatives, such as the Weekly Standard's William
Kristol, are dreaming of Gen. David Petraeus as a vice presidential
candidate.
CLIMATE
PROGRESS: "Arctic ice loss is 'stunning,' total loss possible by
2030, scientists warn."
"General Petraeus told The Australian during a face-to-face interview
at his Baghdad headquarters there had been a 75 percent reduction in
religious and ethnic killings in the capital between December last year
and this month."
-- The Australian, 8/31/07
VERSUS
"[A]verage daily attacks against civilians have remained unchanged from
February to July 2007."
-- Government Accountability Office report, 9/4/07
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