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More on McCain and FISA |
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Just a few quick things to add to Red Wind’s great post on McCain and warrantless wiretapping.
First, McCain’s top economic advisor, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, has a chilling interpretation of the law that anyone concerned with civil liberties should pay attention too:
In a letter posted online by National Review this week, the adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, said Mr. McCain believed that the Constitution gave Mr. Bush the power to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor Americans’ international phone calls and e-mail without warrants, despite a 1978 federal statute that required court oversight of surveillance.
Mr. McCain believes that “neither the administration nor the telecoms need apologize for actions that most people, except for the A.C.L.U. and trial lawyers, understand were constitutional and appropriate in the wake of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001,†Mr. Holtz-Eakin wrote.
And if Mr. McCain is elected president, Mr. Holtz-Eakin added, he would do everything he could to prevent terrorist attacks, “including asking the telecoms for appropriate assistance to collect intelligence against foreign threats to the United States as authorized by Article II of the Constitution.â€
You read that right. Not only would John McCain continue Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program and support amnesty for the telecom companies that broke the law to spy on people like you and me, McCain apparently agrees with the assessment that such warrantless wiretapping programs - whether authorized by Congress or not - are Constitutional.
Let’s just remind ourselves of what the Constitution says, real quick:
Amendment 4 - Search and Seizure. Ratified 12/15/1791.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Nope, sorry. It’s pretty clear, warrantless wiretapping of American citizens is not allowed under the current Constitution.
Second, the reason for McCain’s support of a clearly unconstitutional policy shouldn’t be surprising:
Last fall Newsweek reported on the telecom’s “secretive lobbying campaign to get Congress to quickly approve a measure wiping out all private lawsuits against them for assisting the U.S. intelligence community’s warrantless surveillance programs.” The magazine named some of the chief telecom immunity lobbyists:
Among the players, these sources said: powerhouse Republican lobbyists Charlie Black and Wayne Berman (who represent AT&T and Verizon, respectively), former GOP senator and U.S. ambassador to Germany Dan Coats (a lawyer at King & Spaulding who is representing Sprint) …
All three are now working with McCain. Charlie Black is now the chief political adviser for McCain. In March, Black left BKSH & Associates, a lobbying firm he helped found. Up until Black left BKSH, he was paid by his lobbying firm, while his firm was paid by AT&T [BKSH Lobbying Disclosure]
How’s that for a maverick, eh?
Yes, the only group that needs to apologize is the one devoted to civil liberties. Yep.
And Obama wants to destroy the 2nd Amendment.
LOL, Of course he does! He is dictator Bushes “Mini-Me” McBush and I wouldnt expect anything less.
JT
http://www.anondo.alturl.com