When the WaPo reported that a McCain spokesman had said he supported immunity for the telecoms regarding the wiretapping of foreign communications BUT only if they testified in Congress, Andy McCarthy was a bit taken aback.
Is he saying that in a time of national crisis, the president should not be permitted to ask the telecoms for assistance that is arguably beyond what is prescribed in a statute?
Is he saying that, contrary to the indication of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, Sen. McCain does not believe the president has authority under Article II of the Constitution to collect intelligence against foreign threats to the United States unless a federal judge gives permission?
When he says, “there must be clear guidelines for [the telecoms’] participation,” does that mean — even if it is not a precondition for immunity — Sen. McCain believes the telecoms should, as his surrogate Mr. Fish asserted, be subjected to “hearings, real hearings, to find out what actually happened, what harms actually occurred, rather than some sort of sweeping of things under the rug”?
But today the McCains campaign responded and its all good news:
Senator McCain supports the FISA modernization bill passed by the Senate without qualification. He believes no additional steps should be necessary to secure immunity for the telecoms; both the 109th and 110th Congresses have conducted extensive evaluation and examination of this topic and have satisfied the public’s need for appropriate oversight; hearings purportedly designed to ‘get to the bottom of things’ have already occurred; and neither the Administration nor the telecoms need apologize for actions that most people, except for the ACLU and the trial lawyers, understand were Constitutional and appropriate in the wake of the attacks on September 11, 2001.
Senator McCain has never stated, nor does he believe that telecoms should only receive retroactive immunity in exchange for congressional testimony about their actions. We do not know what lies ahead in our nation’s fight against radical Islamic extremists, but John McCain will do everything he can to protect Americans from such threats, 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.
~~~Senator McCain believes that the Democrats’ reckless delay in passing a FISA modernization bill is unnecessarily risking our national security and dangerously restricts the vital efforts of our intelligence community.
I think the most important part of this statement is his underlying support of the Presidential powers given to him under Article II of the Constitution. Something the Democrats have been fighting against since Bush came into office.
Andy asks one more question tho. Why isn’t McCain hammering this talking point daily?
Why isn’t Sen. McCain leading on this crucial national-security issue?
This is a home-run waiting to happen. The Democrats, deeply in the thrall of the trial lawyers and Leftists who would prefer to see America vulnerable, are opposing commonsense legislation. Even the awful post-Watergate Congress, in its hostility to executive power, understood that foreign intelligence collection should not be managed by federal judges. Yet, the House Democrats’ position holds that if terrorists in Baghdad kidnap a U.S. Marine, we need to get a federal judge’s permission to authorize eavesdropping as those terrorists contact their confederates in Sadr City … or Tehran.
That’s lunacy. But it’s the Obama position. And it is classically symbolic of how the Democrats’ likely standard-bearer views our national security. McCain should be hammering him on this daily.
Meanwhile the legislation sits dormant, at the Democrats behest, and our intelligence gathering capabilities is badly damaged.
The damage to US intelligence gathering has accumulated, and in August will become overwhelming. The FISA court orders which have enabled some intelligence gathering to continue despite the expiration of the earlier bill will themselves expire in August. At that point, Usama bin Laden can begin using pay phones.
So someone needs to be making a stink about it. As Andy stated, Bush really can’t anymore so the only person who can…and who should use it like a hammer over the head of Obama, is McCain:
President Bush has done what he can do, and has admirably held the line against further compromise on our security. But the brute politics are that he cannot lead on surveillance reform anymore.
Only Senator McCain can do that.
Hopefully we will see that soon. The Democrats have shown nothing but allegiance to the trial lawyers on this issue and they are vulnerable to that argument. We need to start hearing that soon.
As a sidenote check out this article on the whole “warrantless wiretapping” debate and why it should not even be called warrantless.
See author page
Why is McCain not hammering this? Simple. It’s because he’s saving his energy for all his issues where he can cooperate with the Democrats, not oppose them. He figures there’s no reason to hammer them on this, because he thinks that anyone voting on national security issues is already voting for him, so why expend the energy?
I think there should have been questionings on what was happening. Just look what happened when the FBI was given free reign in collecting data. Every famous and important American had thick files on them. None of that data was gathered through the court system. Were these people Communist spies? No, but that was the excuse to dig into private lives like paparazzi. It’s Congress’s job to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Imagine if Congress found out the FBI had 10 guys checking to see if Britney Spears wasn’t a future suicide bomber or seeing if the Transformers movie was Al Qaeda propaganda. I think heads would start to roll and Congress would have been vindicated in seeing what was going on.
This is typical McCain, speaks sometime right out is A##. Can’t he shut up long enough to get elected. I doubt he ever read the Constitution.
oT I just read on Fox that Trinity church has received at least 15 million dollrs in government grants over the last 15 years. Taxpayer money. Guess who paid for the 10 million house the church so graciciously gave Wright.
is the President above the law ? if the law says that he can not do things does he have the legal authority to do whatever he wishes ? would the next President be able to force you into a national health program if there were “national security” implications such as a biological threat from terrorists or a rogue state ?
john,
Familiar with Article II?
Familiar with the FISA ruling which said that the President has the authority in question?