Carter Appointee Gives Special Rights to Americans She Kills

If there was ever any doubt in the mind of a moderate or a conservative that the extreme left has totally taken over the mainstream press in this country, that doubt should have been completely erased by listening to a tape run by Rush Limbaugh on his radio program Friday. The tape contained several clips of left-wing TV and radio talking heads (including Bob Schieffer of CBS) making comments about the Michigan District Court judge’s incredible decision regarding the NSA program of eavesdropping on the conversations of foreign Al Qaeda with accomplices in the USA. Each of these commenters said things like, “a defeat for President Bush”, “shows President Bush committed an illegal impeachable act”, “a defeat for President Bush’s war on terror”. What nonsense.

I would point out that Presidents Carter and Clinton issued similar executive orders during their presidencies, and they were not even wartime presidents. I would point out that the latest terror plot to blowup in flight several jets bound for America was uncovered partly through the use of these NSA intercepts. I would point out that Judge Anna Diggs Taylor is giving special rights to Americans that would be dead if it were not for this program. I would point out that there has not been another 9/11 in this country in five years because of programs that she would dismantle. I would point out that even the liberal Washington Post has labeled her decision, “poorly reasoned”.

Excerpts:

Judge Rules Against Wiretaps
NSA Program Called Unconstitutional
By Dan Eggen and Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, August 18, 2006; A01

A federal judge in Detroit ruled yesterday that the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program is unconstitutional, delivering the first decision that the Bush administration's effort to monitor communications without court oversight runs afoul of the Bill of Rights and federal law.

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ordered a halt to the wiretap program, secretly authorized by President Bush in 2001, but both sides in the lawsuit agreed to delay that action until a Sept. 7 hearing. Legal scholars said Taylor's decision is likely to receive heavy scrutiny from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit when the Justice Department appeals, and some criticized her ruling as poorly reasoned.

Ruling in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups in the Eastern District of Michigan, Taylor said that the NSA wiretapping program, aimed at communications by potential terrorists, violates privacy and free speech rights and the constitutional separation of powers among the three branches of government. She also found that the wiretaps violate the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the 1978 law instituted to provide judicial oversight of clandestine surveillance within the United States….

The NSA declined to discuss Taylor's ruling or whether it had suspended any surveillance activities. The office of John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, also declined to comment….

Several dozen lawsuits have been filed around the country challenging the program's legality, but yesterday's ruling marked the first time that a judge had declared it unconstitutional. Experts in national security law argued, however, that Taylor offered meager support for her findings on separation of powers and other key issues.
"Regardless of what your position is on the merits of the issue, there's no question that it's a poorly reasoned decision," said Bobby Chesney, a national security law specialist at Wake Forest University who takes a moderate stance on the legal debate over the NSA program. "The opinion kind of reads like an outline of possible grounds to strike down the program, without analysis to fill it in."…

ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero called the decision "another nail in the coffin" of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism strategies. "The judge very clearly points out that this, at its core, is about presidential powers," he said.
Washington Post

This case was brought by the ACLU and by CAIR, and the ACLU attorneys are reported to be Muslims, one of whom has previously admitted to contributing to the Hezbollah. Thus we can add more reasons to oppose these evil organizations, and put an end to this madness. If you want a complete background on these attorneys and the litigants, go here.