The Enemy is Listening

But Congress isn't, apparently. Here's what was said in yesterday's hearing on the terrorist Survellience Program: Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales warned the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday about the sensitive nature of President Bush's warrantless surveillance program aimed at capturing communications between terrorist plotters. "Our enemy is listening," he said during testimony before the committee. "I cannot help but wonder if they aren't shaking their heads in amazement at the thought that anyone would imperil such a sensitive program by leaking its existence in the first place, and smiling at the prospect that we might now disclose even more or perhaps even unilaterally disarm ourselves of a key tool in the war on terror." Which fell on death ears: But even before the first question was asked, the hearings stalled for 10 minutes in partisan rancor over whether Mr. Gonzales would raise his right hand and promise to tell the truth during his testimony. Democrats, who said Mr. Gonzales wasn't truthful during his confirmation hearings last year because he didn't expose the classified program, argued that he should be sworn in... During his opening statement, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat and the committee's ranking member, invoked the history of past White House wrongdoing. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) "was enacted after decades of abuses by the executive, including the wiretapping of Dr. Martin Luther King and other political opponents," he said, referring to FBI surveillance of the civil rights leader authorized by the Kennedy administration in 1963... Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, rejected that argument, saying the program could actually undermine national security. He said courts might bar from trials the evidence gathered by the surveillance program, possibly leading them to throw out criminal cases against terror suspects... In another exchange, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., Delaware Democrat, asked Mr. Gonzales to "personally ... assure us that no one is being eavesdropped upon in the United States other than someone who has a communication that is emanating from foreign soil by a suspected terrorist." Mr. Gonzales said he "can't give you absolute assurance" that no abuses had occurred, although he added that "we have a number of safeguards in place" Read the rest of the sad exchange here: http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20060207-123209-5564r

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