Bush's Shadow Government ~ Lyin' & Spyin'

Ill: Micah Wright/Propaganda Remix

used with permission

http://homepage.mac.com/leperous/PhotoAlbum1.html

Just in case you aren't shocked & outraged yet over the CIA Torture Tapes mess (below), your Demon goes one better by presenting other recent news of a lawsuit the ACLU brought asking the super-duper secret FISA court, which at one time was supposed to monitor spying on U.S. citizens (until Bush decided it was too much trouble) to declassify Bushco orders pertaining to it.

The FISA court, decided (alas), after inviting Bushco to weigh in, that we Americans don't need to know about secret procedures & any limits on the spying. The court, according to the ACLU, refused to determine whether Bush's claims that the information is "classified" was proper. http://www.aclu.org/safefree/nsaspying/33134prs20071211.html

Background: http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003948.php

If that weren't ominous enough, seems Bush is determined to do a final end run around any semblance of a legal spying program (& the inconvenient limits Congress thought it could put on same) by taking it entirely out the FISA court's purview & placing spying authority solely in the hands of his new attorney general (whose views on such matters are astoundingly broad, perhaps unconstitutionally so) & the Director of National Intelligence. At least that's what I'm getting out of this report.

According to the same article, the Senate hasn't even had time to review FISA decisions Bush is apparently arguing make FISA, and the Congress that legislated under what circumstances & procedures spying (& on whom) is legal irrelevant. http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/only-few-saw-the-key-fisa-court-rulings-2007-12-11.html

Update: great op-ed from Jurist: is the spying program Bush thinks FISA & Congress can't handle the once-disavowed (& "newly" resurrected?) extra-legal Terrorist Surveillance Program? See how the information so far stacks up: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2007/01/white-house-retreat-on-nsa.php

If such a program is really necessary, how is it that the greatest democracy on earth can't accomodate it ~ that is, legally?

Here we go again. Will Congress cave & let Bush engage in completely extra-judicial spying? Only complete fools are betting "not."