Panel Rebuffed on Documents on U.S. Spying

[cal04]

The Bush administration is rebuffing requests from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for its classified legal opinions on President Bush's domestic spying program, setting up a confrontation in advance of a hearing scheduled for next week, administration and Congressional officials said Wednesday. The Justice Department is balking at the request so far, administration officials said, arguing that the legal opinions would add little to the public debate because the administration has already laid out its legal defense at length in several public settings.

But the legality of the program is known to have produced serious concerns within the Justice Department in 2004, at a time when one of the legal opinions was drafted. Democrats say they want to review the internal opinions to assess how legal thinking on the program evolved and whether lawyers in the department saw any concrete limits to the president's powers in fighting terrorism. With the committee scheduled to hold the first public hearing on the eavesdropping program on Monday, the Justice Department's stance could provoke another clash between Congress and the executive branch over access to classified internal documents. The administration has already drawn fire from Democrats in the last week for refusing to release internal documents on Hurricane Katrina as well as material related to the lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Several Democrats and at least one Republican have pressed the Justice Department in recent days to give them access, even in a closed setting, to the internal documents that formed the legal foundation of the surveillance program. But when asked whether the classified legal opinions would be made available to Congress, a senior Justice Department official said Wednesday, "I don't think they're coming out." The official said the administration's legal arguments had already been aired, most prominently in a 42-page "white paper" issued last month. "Everything that's in those memos was in the white paper," said the official, who, like other administration and Congressional officials, was granted anonymity because classified material was involved.

While the administration has spent much of the last two weeks defending the legality and necessity of the surveillance program, the Judiciary Committee session will be the first Congressional hearing on it. Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who leads the panel, said Wednesday that he had "a lot of questions" the administration had not yet adequately answered about the program's legal rationale. Mr. Specter would not address the committee's request for the classified legal opinions, except to say, "that's not a closed matter — we're still working on that."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/02/politics/02nsa.html?hp&ex=1138856400&en=ed13dde5148f21f0&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[acmavm]

1. Of course they are 'rebuffing' the demand for these records. Like they

'rebuffed' the demands for records of meetings of Cheney's energy panel, like they 'rebuff' the demands for the torture photos and video, like they 'rebuff' pretty damn much everything. This criminal administration is nothing if not consistant in its arrogance and its outright flaunting of the principals of governing this country that have worked (more of less) for over 200 years.

Anyone who supports these fools but would try to argue that there is something inherently bad/evil in organized crime would be an idiotic hypocrit.

[rodeodance]

2. k and r

[rodeodance]

3. and katrina doc were not released. Supenas are in order!

[bpilgrim]

4. first the oil companies & now the executives

peace

[KoKo]

5. And, Specter will give it up...just go with the Whitewash he has and

people will forget about it just like every other instance where Bush pulls his "Executive Privelege/National Security" line...and life will go on with a slap on his hand that he doesn't feel and we never get anything to stick against them.

WHEN WILL SOMEONE STAND UP TO THEM!!! I'm not signing one more damned petition about any of this every again. It never goes anywhere...:grr:

[54anickel]

6. If everything in the memos is in the white paper then why not release

them? If they have nothing to hide, if they've done nothing wrong, then there's nothing to worry about. Right?
Just cough 'em up already!

[Pirate Smile]

7. NYT: Senate Panel Rebuffed on Documents on U.S. Spying

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 — The Bush administration is rebuffing requests from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for its classified legal opinions on President Bush's domestic spying program, setting up a confrontation in advance of a hearing scheduled for next week, administration and Congressional officials said Wednesday.

The Justice Department is balking at the request so far, administration officials said, arguing that the legal opinions would add little to the public debate because the administration has already laid out its legal defense at length in several public settings.

But the legality of the program is known to have produced serious concerns within the Justice Department in 2004, at a time when one of the legal opinions was drafted. Democrats say they want to review the internal opinions to assess how legal thinking on the program evolved and whether lawyers in the department saw any concrete limits to the president's powers in fighting terrorism.

With the committee scheduled to hold the first public hearing on the eavesdropping program on Monday, the Justice Department's stance could provoke another clash between Congress and the executive branch over access to classified internal documents. The administration has already drawn fire from Democrats in the last week for refusing to release internal documents on Hurricane Katrina as well as material related to the lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/02/politics/02nsa.html?hp&ex=1138856400&en=ed13dde5148f21f0&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[bpilgrim]

8. first the oil companies & now the executives

:puke:

peace

[Pirate Smile]

13. Don't forget about the Administration mining official that walked out on

a Specter hearing also.

I sure hope Specter is getting good and sick of being dissed.

[bobthedrummer]

9. Domestic spying articles (from The Crisis Papers)

http://www.crisispapers.org/topics/spyscandal.htm

[debbierlus]

10. The Republicans have subpeona power

Just subpeona the damn documents.

Otherwise, spare us the pretense of 'hearings'.

[rodeodance]

12. Some Senator needs to step up and say STOP snoopy NOW!

[usregimechange]

11. What are they hidding this time?

[wordpix2]

14. * won't release docs related to NSA, Katrina, Jackoff while Plamegate

emails are lost from WH computers.

Does anyone see a pattern here? Obstruction of Justice and just ANOTHER IMPEACHABLE OFFENSE, IMO

[wishlist]

15. Yes, why isn't this obstruction of Congressional oversight impeachable?

I guess WH knows they can stonewall without repercussions from this Congress and if challenged in court, the Supreme Court is likely to back up their claims of executive privilege and need for secrecy.

[savemefromdumbya]

16. Why isn't Bush handing over the documents?

because he is guilty

[American liberal]

17. The article compelled me to write the following letter to my Senator,

who also happens to be on the Judiciary Committee, thank God. Please use any and all of it to write your representatives, demanding a full investigation of the domestic spying program.

February 2, 2006


Dear Sen. Durbin:

I have been closely following in the media the course of the domestic spying program. It concerns me greatly when an elected representative, in this case the President of the United States, begins to think himself to be above the law.

I read a New York Times article today that claims the Bush administration has not been forthcoming in providing legal documentation to justify its actions. This also concerns me greatly.

Please, Sen. Durbin, because you are my Senator and a member of the Judiciary Committee, I am writing to you directly to ask you to push for a special counsel to look into these very serious allegations. I am very concerned that the Bush administration has overstepped its bounds of authority again and again and again over the past five years and needs to be held accountable for its actions. I believe that the very future of the Constitution of the United States of America is at stake. Based on the actions of this administration during the past five years, I am concerned that a committee hearing is not going to be enough to get to the bottom of the domestic spying program—especially if elected officials are refusing to cooperate.

I have read the so-called Bush Doctrine drafted in the early 1990s by World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, which seemed to justify in their minds the preemptive strike against Iraq, and have read in more than one source that VP Cheney wants to restore to the executive branch the presidential authority that existed prior to Watergate. I have watched with growing disbelief as Congress has rubber-stamped program after program since 9/11 that erodes my civil liberties and sense of safety and well-being. I love my country and have been continually dismayed by the actions taken by my government in my beloved country’s name.

Sen. Durbin, I am grateful to know that people such as you and Sen. Obama are in Washington to take this administration to task for what may prove to be unconstitutional acts of preemptive military actions and domestic spying. I am an extremely concerned constituent who needs your assurance that you will continue to do everything you can to hold the President accountable and to reveal the truth to the American people. A special counsel to investigate the current domestic spying program would be a good start.

Gratefully and respectfully,

XXX XXXX
Chicago, IL USA