Bush at the National Security Agency, with Vice President Dick Cheney and Homeland Security Adviser Fran Townsend to the left. White House photo by David Bohrer.
by David Nitkin
President Bush urged Congress not to backtrack on recent changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act during a visit to the National Security Agency at Fort Meade in Maryland today.
With tight security befitting a visit of the president to the clandenstine campus where cryptographers and computers decifer messages from foreign governments and terrorists, Bush toured the round-the-clock nerve center of NSA with Vice President Dick Cheney, national intelligence chief Mike McConnell and other administration officials.
Reporters and photographers were briefly allowed in tothe high-tech National Threat Operations Center, where Bush chatted with employees manning semicircular rows of computers. The large high-resolution display screens along the walls provided most of the light in the room, and a sign noted that the equipment was in "unclassified mode."
In brief comments outside the center, Bush expressed confidence that NSA staff was working hard as a debate rages around them about whether federal law should allow warrantless data collection of U.S. citizens who are in cotact with people overseas.
"You don't have to worry about the motivation of the people out here," Bush said, speaking of the 20,000 or so NSA employees who work in Anne Arundel County. "What we do have to worry about is to make sure that they have all the tools they need to do their jobs."
Under pressure from the Bush administration, Congress adopted revisions to the 1970s-era surveillance law in August, with Democratic leaders immediately expressing concerns that the changes went too far and encroached on civil liberties. Because of those concerns, the changes are scheduled to expire in February. The president said today that Congress should make them permanent.
"The problem is the law expires on February 1st -- that's 135 days from today," Bush said. "The threat from al Qaeda is not going to expire in 135 days."
The surveillance law and the administration's data-collection program have been under intense security since the revelation of programs that were collecting vast amounts of telephone records from U.S. residents without a court order.
Congress this week resumed hearings on the surveillance law, with Democrats promising changes to offer greater protections for U.S. citizens who could be subject to eavesdropping or communications intercepts from spies gathering information from people overseas. The concern is that if email or mobile telephone communications from overseas to the U.S. are being monitered, U.S. residents could be subjects of surveillance without their knowledge -- and without a court warrant.
Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a Texas Democrat who heads the House intelligence committee, said this week that he wanted a revised measure completed by next month, and accused the White House of pushing measures that encroached on civil liberties.
Rep. Peter Hoekstra, a Republican from Michigan, said lawmakers were fully briefed on how the Bush administration was collecting information on terrorists.
"This is not the Bush terrorist surveillance program," Hoekstra said. "This is the Bush-congressional terrorist surveillance program, because congressional leadership was involved in this process from the beginning."
Bush today also asked Congress to adopt liability protections for telecommunications companies that cooperated with the government's warrantless surveillance program.
David Nitkin covers the White House for the Baltimore Sun, a Tribune Co. newspaper.
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Comments
"LIABILITY PROTECTION FOR AT&tT AND VERIZON WIRELESS AND UNNAMED COCONSPIRATORS"
YEA, RIGHT, ADMIT TO BREAKING THE LAW, ADMIT TO LAWS AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, ADMIT TO BREAKING FISA LAWS, AND THEN TURN AROUND AND DEMAND, YES, DEMAND THAT HE BE GIVEN A Judicial Stay to all crimes committed (RETRO)TO PRIOR TO THE IRAQ OCCUPATION, INVASION OR CONGRESS WILL TO USE "FORCE."
There are many of criminals who after the fact would like an APPEAL based on "FEAR" for what they did or did not do, may have this or may have that consequence.
BUSH EXTENDED HIS OWN VERSION OF A ATTESTATION TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. DICK CHENEY DID THE SAME, CONDOLEZA RICE DID THE SAME, ALBERTO GONZALES DID THE SAME, HARRIET MEIRS DID THE SAME, KARL ROVE, DID THE SAME, FRED FIELDING DID THE SAME.
They should be encarcerated after being found guilty of THEIR ADMISSION TO COMMITTING A CRIME, A FELONY AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION.
THEY SHOULD GO TO JAIL like the rest of their constituents whom fallen under the same trap as you and me. We just can't go to jail for being complacent and stupid for allowing them to get away with it.
AGAIN, AGAIN, AGAIN, AGAIN, AND AGAIN.
if our National Security AGencies are all that, then why can't someone tell me what time was SEE SPOT RUN, SEE AMERICA RUN ON sEPTEMBER THE 11TH WAS WRITTEN.
7AM, 7:15, 7:30, 7:45, 8:AM, 8:15, 8:45, 9:AM ...WHAT SEPTEMBER THE 6TH."
Posted by: Roger Morris | September 19, 2007 4:16 PM
Looks like Mdme Tussaud's wax museum.
Posted by: Kenny Bunkport | September 19, 2007 4:21 PM
To grant retroactive immunity to telocommunications companies which may have helped the government conduct surveillance prior to Jan. 2007 w/o a court order does nothing to protect America. I hope congress knows how to weed things out. Another new FISA can be debated. Once voted for, it can give the national security professionals the tools they need to protect us. Any past unlawful surveillance needs to be dealt with as a seperate issue. Putting the issues together seems to give equal weight to something that could save lives and to something that would only give corporations and/or individuals a legal pass. Did the telcos ever risk losing their licenses if they did not cave to the government?
Posted by: Vivian | September 19, 2007 5:17 PM
"Looks like Mdme Tussaud's wax museum."
That's a mean insult - those wax dummies are much smarter than any of the Republican dummies in the photo!
Posted by: BC | September 19, 2007 5:19 PM
To grant retroactive immunity to telocommunications companies which may have helped the government conduct surveillance prior to Jan. 2007 w/o a court order does nothing to protect America. I hope congress knows how to weed things out. Another new FISA can be debated. Once voted for, it can give the national security professionals the tools they need to protect us. Any past unlawful surveillance needs to be dealt with as a seperate issue. Putting the issues together seems to give equal weight to something that could save lives and to something that would only give corporations and/or individuals a legal pass. Did the telcos ever risk losing their licenses if they did not cave to the government?
Posted by: Vivian | September 19, 2007 6:00 PM
"The threat from al Qaeda is not going to expire in 135 days."
And the threat to our liberty will not expire until the Bush administration is history.
Posted by: athena | September 19, 2007 9:49 PM
Kenny,
Or like the entrance to The War Room in Dr. Strangelove.
Your tax dollars at work people; a pretty facade indeed.
Posted by: C.Morris | September 19, 2007 10:13 PM
Come on,November 2008!
Posted by: repete | September 19, 2007 10:48 PM
"What we do have to worry about is to make sure that they have all the tools they need to do their jobs."
Kind of like the un-armored Humvees that earboy and donny sent the troops fighting in the illegal occupation of Iraq.
Posted by: snitramc | September 19, 2007 10:56 PM
Back to basics: President Bush took an oath to protect and defend the constitution. Now he has done more to destroy that document then any president in history. Do we really need to give him unlimited power?
Posted by: glenn w stettenbauer | September 20, 2007 1:59 AM