i've been quite busy all day today, but it looks like i have a moment before i run off to arabic class.
it has been very entertaining to watch the utter collapse of general michael hayden's defense of the bush administration's warrantless surveillance policy this week.
this week the bush administration began a major pushback to counter allegations that it acted illegally when it authorized warrantless surveillance of people in the u.s. general hayden, former director of the NSA, was trotted out monday morning to lead the charge and explain the necessity and legality of the program.
almost immediately hayden's defense started falling apart. first, hayden seemed to have a shaky grip on what the fourth amendment says. he denied that the amendment itself contained the words "probable cause" when, in fact, it does.
but that was just the start. the next morning glenn greenwald showed that hayden's defense was "factually false." greenwald further noted that in 2002 the bush administration took the position that surveillance without probable cause was probably unconstitutional, even though the warrantless surveillance program was already in effect at that time. knight-ridder picked up on greenwald's points, as did the washington post and the LA Times.
in the wapo article bush administration officials tried to explain away the discrepancy between what hayden said on monday and its position in 2002. but in a follow-up post greenwald demolished the white house's explanation.
but that's not all! it turns out that general hayden's speech on monday establishes that he lied to congress in 2002. on october 17, 2002, hayden, then the director of the NSA, testified before congress that surveillance of persons in the U.S. could only be done pursuant to FISA. (do an in-text search in the transcript for "becomes a U.S. person under the definition provided by the FISA act.") at the time he testified before congress, hayden now admits that he knew about the program to circumvent FISA. so it looks like hayden not only gave a factually false defense of the administration's policies, but also committed a crime by giving false or misleading statements to congress.
as i mentioned above, the bush administration is dedicating this whole week to defend its warrantless surveillance program. i can't wait to see what new goodies tomorrow might bring!
