Response to Obama's FISA Statement

no one — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:11:25 EDT

Obama's Statement on FISA http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/rospars/gGxsZF along with a response from constitutional law and civil rights litigator Glen Greenwald http://utdocuments.blogspot.com/2008/07/obamas-new-statement-on-fisa.html

Obama: "The exclusivity provision makes it clear to any president or telecommunications company that no law supersedes the authority of the FISA court."

Greenwald: "The exclusivity provision has been the backbone of FISA for 30 years. There is no reason to believe that saying it a second time would have any positive effect."

Obama: "In a dangerous world, government must have the authority to collect the intelligence we need to protect the American people."

Greenwald: "Right, which is why the present system was set up; under that system, the Bush administration admitted that there had never been a situation in which the present system did not allow for sufficient wiretapping authority. The guy making that statement should know; it was his job to ask the FISA court for warrants."

Obama: "As I've said many times, an independent monitor must watch the watchers to prevent abuses and to protect the civil liberties of the American people. This compromise law assures that the FISA court has that responsibility."

Greenwald: "No, that's what the present system does. The new bill says that the FISA court will only be allowed to determine whether the wiretapping program violates civil liberties, not whether particular wiretaps do."

Obama: "And in case anyone is worried that the current authority is insufficient for emergencies, I'd refer you first to the link from above, where the administration admitted that it was fine, and would also point out that FISA (as amended by the PATRIOT Act) allows for 72 hours of wiretapping before consulting the courts, which should be plenty of time in an emergency."

Greenwald: "The Inspectors General report also provides a real mechanism for accountability and should not be discounted. It will allow a close look at past misconduct without hurdles that would exist in federal court because of classification issues. The recent investigation (PDF) uncovering the illegal politicization of Justice Department hiring sets a strong example of the accountability that can come from a tough and thorough IG report."

Obama: "I don't know enough to comment on it; but 1) this sort of report could be obtained without immunity and the other bad provisions and 2) if the bill is passed, we'll lose the Constitution's most important mechanism for accountability, which is the courts."

Greenwald: "Even if the IG report eventually uncovered wrongdoing, Congress wouldn't act on it; if they were interested in acting on it, they would have by now (and they wouldn't be on the verge of passing this bill)."

Obama: "With regard to classification, we have mechanisms for that, and it hasn't been a significant hurdle for any of the three cases that have already been heard at the Federal level."

Greenwald: "I'm persuaded that it is necessary to keep the American people safe -- particularly since certain electronic surveillance orders will begin to expire later this summer."

Obama: "The orders that will expire are the ones he voted against, as he said at the start of his post. He should be glad they're expiring."

Greenwald: "The orders that will expire are the ones he voted against, as he said at the start of his post. He should be glad they're expiring."

'Change' (yeah right): voting for FISA makes you one of the bad guys

no one — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:52:00 EDT

Don't get me wrong I still respect Obama for taking the high road on a lot of things in his campaign, but voting for FISA and promising Change that gives us back our rights don't mix - it's either one or the other.

This makes me wonder: so what is Obama all about- making false promises you can't keep, like every other Washington insider (of course there are good exceptions like Kucinich, R Paul, Dodd, Wexler, and Feingold); or actually delivering on Hope?

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Response to Obama's FISA Statement

'Change' (yeah right): voting for FISA makes you one of the bad guys