I’ve already explained my thoughts on the whole “domestic spying” controversy – it isn’t domestic, and why my phone/email communications can’t be searched by a US government agent without a warrant while crossing a border yet I and my property can be is beyond me.
But Tom Maguire does his usual treatment of subjects that fascinate him (he’s still even posting on the Plame kerfuffle, bless his heart) which means he’s thorough (but gentle, as a blogger should be). So we have not just one post, not just two posts, but three whole posts about it. He gives a hypothetical situation on why even the 72 hour retroactive warrent may not be good enough – and frankly why the whole framework of FISA may simply be OBT (Overtaken By Technology) and rendered obsolete. He takes us through the thoughts of the Democrats who were briefed (including the New York Times – you know, the media wing of the Mediacratic party of which the Democrats are the political wing (kind of like the IRA and Sinn Fein, but different because we don’t know which side of the media/democrats is calling the shots and we know the IRA is calling the shots (pun not intended and regretted)) and concludes:
Possible unifying answer – Harman, Rockefeller, and the editors of the Times are all dupes. Uh huh. Another possible answer is, they know enough about this program to know that there might still be some secrets there.Folks who think that the catalog of Atrios’s ignorance and the limits of his imagination define the boundaries of human endeavor will remain bemused by his question. For myself, I am convinced that I don’t know enough about this program to have any solid idea what security issues might be involved, so I am relying on the good, if unsteady, judgments of elected representatives such as Harman and Rockefeller.
It’s clear from the Brit Hume interview with Rep. Harman that Tom links to that she thinks that there are still secrets there:
HUME: You say it’s basically foreign. Were you not made aware individuals within the United States’ conversations with the suspected terrorists overseas were part of the program?HARMAN: It’s a classified program, so I can’t discuss what I was made aware of. But let me say…
HUME: Well, I know, but the…
HARMAN: No.
HUME: … toothpaste is out of the tube…
HARMAN: … it was made clear to me — no…
HUME: … when it’s known that that’s the case.
HARMAN: But it was made clear to me that conversations between Americans in America were not part of the program and require — and I think they do — a court warrant in order to eavesdrop on them.
And that’s been a point of confusion, because some of the press articles allege that this is a so-called, as you said, domestic surveillance program. That’s not what I believe it is.
HUME: Well, all right. So in other words, your belief is that this was indeed a case of Americans being picked up, perhaps within the United States, in discussions with people overseas.
HARMAN: Well, let’s just leave your comment there. I really don’t want to confirm what…
HUME: All right.
No Brit, the toothpaste isn’t all out of the tube, and even if it were, the information hasn’t been declassified yet. The New York Times may rule the Mediacrats, but they don’t have the power to declassify (something that Joe Wilson forgot when he blew the cover off his wife being a covert operative).
And it’s nice to know that Rep. Harman and I agree that this isn’t domestic surveillance, but foreign and international if need be.
The same papers that demand we search every cargo container entering the US and fault the administration for moving too slowly here are the very ones who are attacking them for listening in on foreign and international calls without a judge’s approval. Again, what gives phone calls such privileges? What makes a judge so special? Is a judge more sober than members of Congress?
Frankly, it’s nice to know the Bush administration was on the ball with this one. And I hope they catch the SOB who leaked and comprimised an ongoing and effective covert intellegence operation in wartime – a war that is has been and continues to be fought partly on American soil. Sometimes I think some people forget that.
