Top Items:
Joshua Roberts / Newsweek:
Bush's Snoopgate — The president was so desperate to kill The New York Times' eavesdropping story, he summoned the paper's editor and publisher to the Oval Office. But it wasn't just out of concern about national security. — Bush says he had 'legal authority' to permit …
Discussion:
The RCP Blog, The Carpetbagger Report, The Poor Man, Right Wing Nut House, The Peking Duck, The Mahablog, IntoxiNation-News …, The Strata-Sphere, Let Freedom Ring, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Prairie Weather, The Washington Monthly, Macsmind, firedoglake, Donklephant, Booman Tribune ~ Boo!, Taegan Goddard's …, Daily Kos, AMERICAblog, Hullabaloo, Running Scared and Mia Culpa
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James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:
Critics Question Timing of Surveillance Story — The New York Times, which knew about the secret wiretaps for more than a year, published because of a reporter's new book, sources say. — The New York Times first debated publishing a story about secret eavesdropping on Americans as early as last fall …
Will / Attytood:
"All the news that's fit to print" — except when it's about us — The New York Times has been scooped (again) tonight — on a big national story with sweeping significance. But now, it's not on CIA black prisons (that was the Washington Post) or the Pentagon's paid propaganda in Iraq (broken by the L.A. Times).
Eric Lichtblau / New York Times:
F.B.I. Watched Activist Groups, New Files Show — WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 - Counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment …
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Spencer S. Hsu / Washington Post:
FBI Papers Show Terror Inquiries Into PETA; Other Groups Tracked — FBI counterterrorism investigators are monitoring domestic U.S. advocacy groups engaged in antiwar, environmental, civil rights and other causes, the American Civil Liberties Union charged yesterday as it released new FBI records …
Kevin Drum / The Washington Monthly:
WHAT IS THE NSA UP TO?....So what's the nature of the secret NSA bugging program? Why did the Bush administration feel like they couldn't continue to seek warrants via the usual FISA procedures? Take a look at the following quotes and you can see a single thread that starts to emerge:
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Orin Kerr / The Volokh Conspiracy:
LEGAL ANALYSIS OF THE NSA DOMESTIC SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM: Was the secret NSA surveillance program legal? Was it constitutional? Did it violate federal statutory law? It turns out these are hard questions, but I wanted to try my best to answer them. My answer is pretty tentative …
Daniel J. Solove / Concurring Opinions:Beyond His Power: Bush's Authorization of Warrantless NSA Surveillance
Discussion:
Balkinization, NewsHog, SwireBlog, Prometheus 6, Confederate Yankee, Instapundit.com and Stop the Bleating!
Marty Lederman / Balkinization:Definition of "Audacity" — Noun: Bold or insolent heedlessness …
Discussion:
Obsidian Wings, Concurring Opinions, White House, Daily Kos, Hullabaloo, Eschaton, The Washington Monthly and Stop the Bleating!
New York Times:
Administration Cites War Vote in Spying Case — WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 - President Bush and two of his most senior aides argued Monday that the highly classified program to spy on suspected members of terrorist groups in the United States grew out of the president's constitutional authority …
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George F. Will / Washington Post:
Why Didn't He Ask Congress? — The president's authorization of domestic surveillance by the National Security Agency contravened a statute's clear language. Assuming that urgent facts convinced him that he should proceed anyway and on his own, what argument convinced him that he lawfully could?
Discussion:
AMERICAblog
Washington Post:
Vital Presidential Power — A U.S. president has just received word that American counterterrorist operatives have captured a senior al Qaeda operative in Pakistan. Among his possessions are a couple of cell phones — phones that contain several American phone numbers.
Washington Post:
President's Approval Rating Rebounds — President Bush's approval rating has surged in recent weeks, reversing what had been an extended period of decline, with Americans now expressing renewed optimism about the future of democracy in Iraq, the campaign against terrorism and the U.S. economy …
Discussion:
Decision '08, Power Line, Mystery Pollster, Wonkette, AMERICAN FUTURE, In the Bullpen, The Claremont Institute and The Next Hurrah
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Mark Blumenthal / Mystery Pollster:NOT SUCH AN OUTLIER AFTER ALL? … Advantage, Mr. Todd.
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …
Washington Post:
Senator Sounded Alarm in '03 — Rockefeller Wrote Cheney to Voice Concerns on Spying — John D. Rockefeller IV, a wealthy man representing a poor state, had been the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee for six months when he sat down to a secret briefing on July 17, 2003.
Discussion:
firedoglake
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rawstory.com:
Senator says she's asked for opinions on Bush impeachment — RAW STORY — Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has become the first in the Senate to raise consideration of impeachment of President George W. Bush for authorizing spying on Americans without warrants, RAW STORY has learned.
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New York Times:
Millions Are Left to Make It to Work Any Way They Can — Workers walked to their offices in bitter cold, long lines formed for taxis and the police inspected cars at tunnels and bridges as transit workers started a strike this morning, shutting down New York City's subway and bus system …
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Opinion Journal:
Our Friends the Pakistanis — Support for the U.S. is surging in some parts of the Muslim world. — So much for the popularly peddled view that anti-Americanism in the Muslim world is so pervasive and deep-rooted it might take generations to alter. A new poll from Pakistan …
Hindrocket / Power Line:
A REALLY OBVIOUS POINT — I haven't had time yet to study the legal arguments surrounding the NSA intercepts of international communications; Hugh Hewitt, for one, has addressed some of the technical issues. But there are a couple of fundamental points that, while obvious, haven't been made often enough.
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Walid Phares / The Counterterrorism Blog:
Catch them, but do not watch them!.. — "Use their systems, passports, citizenship, laws, traditions, books and media, create internal divisions among them, and inflict defeat on the kuffars [infidels], for in the current balance of power, all we need to do is to use their weaknesses as our strength."
RELATED ITEM:
CNN:
Bush: Secret wiretaps won't stop — President accuses senators of 'playing politics with Patriot Act' — WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush defended using government wiretaps without court authorization to monitor terrorism suspects and urged the Senate to renew the USA Patriot Act during his year-end news conference Monday.
