[Clips] Who's Spying Now? (was Re: OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today - March 29, 2006)

[R. A. Hettinga]

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  Delivered-To: clips at philodox.com
  Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 16:22:37 -0500
  To: "Philodox Clips List" <clips at philodox.com>
  From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
  Subject: [Clips] Who's Spying Now? (was Re: OpinionJournal - Best of the Web
  Today - March 29, 2006)
  Reply-To: rah at philodox.com
  Sender: clips-bounces at philodox.com

  At 3:56 PM -0500 3/29/06, OpinionJournal wrote:
  >Who's Spying Now?  http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/28/D8GKO3I85.html
  >
  >Congressional Democrats' domestic spying program suffered a setback in
  >court yesterday, the Associated Press reports from Washington:
  >
  >*** QUOTE ***
  >
  >A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that Rep. Jim McDermott violated
  >federal law by turning over an illegally taped telephone call to reporters
  >nearly a decade ago.
  >
  >In a 2-1 opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
  >upheld a lower court ruling that McDermott violated the rights of House
  >Majority Leader John Boehner, who was heard on the 1996 call involving
  >former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. . . .
  >
  >McDermott, D-Wash., leaked to The New York Times and other news
  >organizations a tape of a 1996 cell phone call The call included
  >discussion by Gingrich, R-Ga., and other House GOP leaders about a House
  >ethics committee investigation of Gingrich. Boehner, R-Ohio, was a
  >Gingrich lieutenant at the time and is now House majority leader.
  >
  >A lawyer for McDermott had argued that his actions were allowed under the
  >First Amendment, and said a ruling against him would have "a huge chilling
  >effect" on reporters and newsmakers alike.
  >
  >*** END QUOTE ***
  >
  >Meanwhile, the  Washington Times
  >http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060329-120346-1901r.htm  reports that
  >the president's terrorist surveillance program got support from some
  >experts in the field:
  >
  >*** QUOTE ***
  >
  >A panel of former Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judges yesterday
  >told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that President Bush did not
  >act illegally when he created by executive order a wiretapping program
  >conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA).
  >
  >The five judges testifying before the committee said they could not speak
  >specifically to the NSA listening program without being briefed on it, but
  >that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act does not override the
  >president's constitutional authority to spy on suspected international
  >agents under executive order.
  >
  >"If a court refuses a FISA application and there is not sufficient time
  >for the president to go to the court of review, the president can under
  >executive order act unilaterally, which he is doing now," said Judge Allan
  >Kornblum, magistrate judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern
  >District of Florida and an author of the 1978 FISA Act. "I think that the
  >president would be remiss exercising his constitutional authority by
  >giving all of that power over to a statute."
  >
  >*** END QUOTE ***
  >
  >The Times, of course, has been crusading against the program. But in a
  >December 2000 editorial
  >http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/07/opinion/07THU2.html?ex=1143781200&en=e9d860760a2ab08b&ei=5070
  >it argued that because McDermott himself did not make the recording of the
  >GOP phone conversation, he should be off the hook:
  >
  >*** QUOTE ***
  >
  >[Boehner's] suit seeks damages from Mr. McDermott for his disclosure of a
  >tape he received from a Florida couple in which former House Speaker Newt
  >Gingrich was heard discussing his ethics case. The Times published
  >transcripts of those conversations.
  >
  >The correct way to combat illegal interception of private conversation is
  >to prosecute the people who actually do it, and to hasten the development
  >of technology to make interceptions more difficult. It is not to trample
  >on the rights of the press and ordinary citizens to disclose the content
  >of information they received legally. The Supreme Court needs to affirm
  >that.
  >
  >*** END QUOTE ***
  >
  >It would seem the Times is more troubled by the U.S. government spying on
  >foreign enemies than by Democrats spying on their domestic opponents.

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  R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
  The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
  44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
  "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
  [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
  experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'