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 News from Around the Americas | December 2005 
Another (Bad) 48 Hours for President Bush
 Josh Earnest - Democratic National Committee
Washington - Two days ago, President Bush took to the podium for a nationally televised news conference to explain why he approved a secret program to allow America's surveillance apparatus to spy on American citizens. Because he failed to give candid answers about the program, leaving so many unanswered questions, the president's explanation has been met with a parade of bad news in the last 48 hours.
"President Bush's own words, members of his own Party, and even a FISA judge contradict and reject the president's explanation of his decision to spy on American citizens," said Democratic National Committee Press Secretary Josh Earnest. "The fact that President Bush told the American people that all wiretaps require a court order two full years after ordering warrantless wiretaps calls into question his already sinking credibility."
"Even members of the president's own party have joined Democrats in demanding that we fight and win the war on terror in a way that protects our fundamental freedoms and liberties. It is time for the president to end the Nixonian secrecy and tell the American people the truth about his domestic spying program."
48 Hours of Bad News for President Bush
• Media Reports Bush Previously Promised "Court Orders" For Wiretaps
Media organizations yesterday aired video of a 2004 speech in which President Bush assured a Buffalo audience that whenever the U.S. government seeks wiretaps, it gets FISA approval. President Bush's campaign rhetoric directly contradicts his actions as president. His comments were made more than two years after he authorized a secret program to allow the government to spy on Americans without court approval. (Los Angeles Times, 12/21/05)
• FISA Judge Resigns in Protest on Bush Domestic Spying Program
The Washington Post reported today that U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of 11 members of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, resigned in protest of President Bush's decision to circumvent the FISA court. According to associates, Judge Robertson resigned after privately telling colleagues that the domestic spying program was "legally questionable and may have tainted the FISA court's work." Other judges have expressed concern that President Bush made the FISA courts into a "Potemkin court." (Washington Post, 12/21/05)
• FBI Acknowledges Spying on American Citizens and Domestic Organizations
The New York Times yesterday revealed that the Bush Administration has been abusing its authority to spy on domestic organizations. According to the New York Times, among the groups being monitored by FBI agents were a Catholic Workers group that promotes antipoverty efforts and social causes, a meeting of Quakers, and PETA. A top FBI official reportedly justified spying on these groups by saying that environmental and animal rights groups, not Al Qaida, "posed the biggest terrorist threats in the United States." (New York Times, 12/20/05)
• Republican Senators Demand Hearings into Legality of Domestic Spy Program
Republican Senators Chuck Hagel, Olympia J. Snowe yesterday joined Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter in calling for hearings into whether President Bush's domestic spying program broke the law. Specter, Hagel and Snowe joined Democratic Senators Dianne Feinstein, Carl M. Levin and Ron Wyden in calling for a joint investigation by the Senate judiciary and intelligence panels into the classified program. (Washington Post, 12/21/05)
• Republican Senators Continue Blocking Patriot Act Over Civil Liberties Concerns
Expressing concerns about President Bush's commitment to America's most fundamental civil liberties, four Republican senators joined Democrats in calling for a temporary extension of the Patriot Act to give Congress time to consider whether new safeguards of civil liberties are needed. With 16 Patriot Act provisions set to expire at the end of the year, Republican Senators Larry E. Craig, Chuck Hagel, John Sununu and Lisa Murkowski joined Democrats in filibustering a full renewal of the Act and arguing instead for the temporary extension. (Washington Post, 12/21/05)
• Editorial Pages Question the President's Commitment to Civil Liberties
In the two days since President Bush's news conference, newspaper editorial pages across America have weighed in, resoundingly rejecting President Bush's rationale for spying on American citizens. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution called it an "extraordinary grab at power" (12/20/05); The San Francisco Chronicle called it "reckless and arrogant" 1/212/19/05); the Philadelphia Inquirer said his decision to "sidestep the Constitution" is "morally repugnant" (12/20/05); and the Chicago Tribune said the president "overreached badly" (12/20/05). |
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