Monday, December 19, 2005
More On The NSA Non-Story
From NRO:
ECHELON AND NOW [Mark R. Levin]
Under the ECHELON program, the NSA and certain foreign intelligence agencies throw an extremely wide net over virtually all electronic communications world-wide. There are no warrants. No probable cause requirements. No FISA court. And information is intercepted that is communicated solely between U.S. citizens within the U.S., which may not be the purpose of the program but, nonetheless, is a consequence of the program. ECHELON has been around for some time. The media and members of Congress didn't accuse Bill Clinton, under whose administration the program apparently moved into full swing, of "domestic spying" or violating the Constitution. Is ECHELON constitutional? Congress hasn't defunded it. So, it seems to me this entire current debate, unleashed by the New York Times last week, about expanding the NSA's eavesdropping authority (exactly what is expanded and how, we still aren't certain) is, well, disconnected from reality.
Also from NRO, James S. Robbins has a lesson for the fever swamp about the facts of the laws behind NSA surveillance as opposed to the idiot left's fevered propaganda:
Unwarranted Outrage: The Times blew our cover.
ECHELON AND NOW [Mark R. Levin]
Under the ECHELON program, the NSA and certain foreign intelligence agencies throw an extremely wide net over virtually all electronic communications world-wide. There are no warrants. No probable cause requirements. No FISA court. And information is intercepted that is communicated solely between U.S. citizens within the U.S., which may not be the purpose of the program but, nonetheless, is a consequence of the program. ECHELON has been around for some time. The media and members of Congress didn't accuse Bill Clinton, under whose administration the program apparently moved into full swing, of "domestic spying" or violating the Constitution. Is ECHELON constitutional? Congress hasn't defunded it. So, it seems to me this entire current debate, unleashed by the New York Times last week, about expanding the NSA's eavesdropping authority (exactly what is expanded and how, we still aren't certain) is, well, disconnected from reality.
Also from NRO, James S. Robbins has a lesson for the fever swamp about the facts of the laws behind NSA surveillance as opposed to the idiot left's fevered propaganda:
Unwarranted Outrage: The Times blew our cover.
Strata-Sphere takes a comprehensive look at Government Surveillance Since Clinton.
Time for the idiot left to grow up on this whole subject, but then it has long been time for the idiot left to grow up about everything. They won't; they'll go right back to the "Bush is eeevil" thing and it will be business as usual, which is what makes them idiots.
Few bloggers have a more well-rounded discussion of this story than Hugh Hewitt.
