Any member of Congress that votes to confirm General Hayden to head the CIA will be ending their political career.
Hayden directed the NSA’s Domestic Surveillance program, and also directed the collection of millions of U.S. phone calls for customers of AT&T Corp., MCI, Sprint, Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp.
His role in these operations makes him an unacceptable candidate to continue to serve the American people.
The complexity of these issues are political HOT!
The matter of General Hayden’s involvement with 2 NSA Programs whose Constitutionality are in question is paramount to his appointment. These programs have not been proved to be legal because the Republicans refuse to allow for real investigations.
Furthermore it has not been made clear that the rules of FISA Courts are followed when surveillance is being conducted on a U.S. citizens. My position has been clear from the beginning. When it come to U.S. citizens the book must be followed zero exceptions.
It does not matter what opinion polls say, as public servants these people swear an oath to Executive the laws established by Congress not to make them. It was my understanding that traditional Conservatives too would support such my position.
This all began with Joe Wilson and his wife Valarie Plame, an CIA agent and has led us to a point where the position of the Directorship of the CIA is of great concern to the American public. The CIA and NSA both organization whom once held the complete trust and of the of the public, now whose operations both in sever question.
Years ago I had a gut feeling the moment that President Bush said in his State of the Union Speech “that terrorist were obtaining yellow cake uranium from Africa” that something was deadly wrong with Bush and his administration. An African nation who can barely produce food nether less high grade nuclear material.
All of these issues are connected and my gut tells me if we had an Attorney General other than friend of G.W. Bush Gonzalez that many more government officials besides Scooter “Loose-Lips” Libby would be indicted.
Administration policy is so corrupt that certain legal matters must be addressed:
"When sensitive intelligence is leaked it effects national security G.W. Bush". Mr. Bush authorizes the leak of classified information himself for political reasons, not reasons of National Security so this statement is clearly a contradiction.
My concern is the definition of sensitive.
Why is Congress asking for information from AT& T, Bell south and Verizon opposed to getting it directly from Executive Branch.?
Information is being collected on persons with known links to terrorist.
My concern is the definition of links.
WH on NSA Phone logs:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/05/20060511-1.html
USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-02-05-nsa-telecoms_x.htm
Hayden’s Words:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060512/ap_on_go_co/nsa_phone_records
5 comments:
Mr. Brooks:
You state that "any member of Congress that votes to confirm Gen. Hayden (...) will be ending their policital career". I ask why? You seem to point to Gen. Hayden's involvment with the recently discovered NSA Domestic Surveillance program as the reason that Congress should not support the nomination of Gen. Hayden as the head of the CIA. However, I disagree, this is exactly the reason why ALL of Congress needs to support Gen. Hayden and provide a united front on the War on Terror.
In a recent Washington Post/ABC poll a resounding 63 percent of the America people stated that they believed this program was acceptable. 66 percent would not be bothered by the NSA collecting information on their domestic phone calls. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/12/AR2006051200375_pf.html)
His role in these operations is exactly what will make Gen. Hayden a fine choice to lead the CIA. As a military leader, and note not the first military head of the CIA, Gen. Hayden will bring discipline and loyalty to the ranks of the CIA. Currently the CIA is running amuck with no leadership and Gen. Hayden seems to be the person who can fix these problems at the CIA.
Hopefully, with Gen. Hayden at the helm of the CIA this organization will be much better at protecting the American people, becoming a stronger intelligence gathering organization, and as well bring to the surface many of our senators and representatives who support a strong national security policy.
I urge all Americans and our Congress to support the nomination put forth by President George W. Bush of Gen. Hayden to lead the CIA in these difficult and trying times.
Mr. Gruber,
Thanks for your comments.
Are you advocating that policy dealing with privacy and civil liberties be made based on public opinion?
Are you also advocating that certain government agencies should be empowered to act without regard to laws such as Americans being protected from unlawful searches & seizures. E-mail, phone calls, etc... would be classified as searches of a persons privacy & property.
I do believe that Gen. Hayden is highly qualified, but his involvement in these 2 programs makes him a tainted player in this culture of corruption.
You should also be aware of a poll that shows a majority of Americans do not approve of a database of their phone calls.
As far as I’m concern everything the CIA & NSA does should be brought into the Sunshine. We need o know what they are doing, and they must be held accountable to the People.
Mr. Brooks:
Yes, I am advocating that ALL policies, not just ones dealing with privacy & civil liberties, be made based upon public opinion. Is your opinion that they should not be? That the Congress should make policy based upon their own ideals and concerns? Yes, as your site is called there needs to be a Checks & Balances to make sure the "unpopular" or "small" voices are heard but ultimately it is what the American people want that should be policy.
You ask if I am advocating unlawful searches & seizures -- to that I reply no. I strongly believe in the Fourth Admendment however the NSA wiretaps do not necessarly constitute an UNLAWFUL search & seizure. A warrantless wiretap is not prohibited by FISA. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in and of itself is very vaque. In fact, a FISA review held "that the President did have inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches to obtain foreign intelligence information." The President has already stated that the wiretapes are in place to detect potential Al Qaeda activity within the United States and I do not believe that be unlawful. The NSA is not listening to your pizza order -- in fact they are not listening to any calls (without court approval). They are merely monitoring what numbers you are calling. No more monitoring than the websites you visit at your place of employment. What the President ordered might have been wrong, the country is uncharted waters at the moment. Unconstitutional however? I say no.
Regarding your comment that everything the CIA & NSA does should be brought into the Sunshine scares me. Do you honestly believe that EVERYTHING, every single piece of information that the CIA & NSA have as well as every program they are working on needs to be public record? "Hey guys! Guess what? We think Bin Laden is right here. I just want to make sure everyone knows." THAT IS INSANE! We need to keep our secrets -- right now that is tremendously difficult especially with all of the leaks at the CIA. Gen. Hayden is the person to fix that -- his military leadership makes him the right person for the job at the right time.
Mr. Gruber,
I do not agree that all laws especially those dealing the Right to Privacy should be based on public opinion.
Because the government should protect minority rights against tyranny of a majority in power.
What is favorable in public opinions polls does not mean it is right, nor do such opinion support such matters as universal human rights.
I would like to know how Conservatives will satisfy us folk that are concerned with civil liberties more than creating a Security State.
Let’s see how this plays out.
Thanks for your comments.
To be clear:
The Conservative attempts to circumvent laws such as those the 4th Amendment, & Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and justified only by asserting these changes are in the name of national Security is absurd, illegal, unaccountable, and unethical.
Laws must be followed with no deviation. National Security is not justification enough alone to support creating new programs first with Congressional approval.
The laws must be changed first.
You are wrong in that ALL policy should be based on public opinion. The founders of our nation intended to secure freedoms for all Americans not simply a mob majority rule. That is why all States have equal representation within the Senate. They were intelligent enough to foretell corrupt people abusing their powers like we see now.
If the NSA & CIA cannot act within the Law then hell yes there operations need to be brought into the Sunshine.
Every agency within the U.S. government must be held accountable. There must be Checks and Balances at all levels.
The full Congress is not even aware of the operations of these agencies.
This is unacceptable within the United States of America. An elected member of Congress is just as privileged to intelligence information as a 4 Star General.
****With ZERO exception any surveillance upon a U.S. citizen must follow the book, not some ad-hoc program created in the name of National Security!!!
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