I REALLY don't like the fact that this type of activity took place in the fashion that it did, though I can perhaps understand what led the Oval Office towards this decision (made only weeks after 9/11, from the stories that I've read)...

Even though it sounds like the White House tightly policed themselves on how they used this, the SIC (Senate Intelligence Committee) was NOT informed about this activity (from what I've read), which bugs the Hell out of me. I don't care how you cut it, if the Executive branch is going to pull a wild-card out of it's sleeve and "cheat the system" a bit, no matter how good the cause or how warranted it may be, I want the SIC in the Legislative Branch to sign off on it, at a bloody minimum. What the CIA and other intelligence groups do overseas and through mediums that hold no legal controls over them is a different matter; what is done here within the US by ANY agency or group that is charged with protecting ALL clauses of the US Constitution is NOT.

What it boils down to is that the Executive Branch just authorized itself as the sole power to dictate uncontrolled and potentially unmonitored wiretaps inside the US on it's own citizens. While I would hazard a guess that most citizens have little to hide from the US government, the fact that the White House set themselves up as "judge, jury an executioner" on this is pretty damn-close to being a textbook definition of Fascist activity: too close for my comfort.

I'll go to bat for Bush over a LOT of his decisions that he's made since 9/11, but this one is pure BS. It's a gross over-extension and abuse of the powers vested to the Executive Branch and there better be a f**king investigation into it that has some teeth. I will not lambast him completely for this as this latest "news flash" is in it's infantcy, but there better be some damn-solid excuses coming from the White House on WHY they did not go to the SIC or some other authority for a co-signature on this...


JaTo e-Tough Guy Missouri City, TX 99 Contour SVT #143/2760 00 Corvette Coupe