Radio America “Battle Line” -- February 13, 2006
Statement by Robert Weiner re NSA spying, on Radio America “Battle Line” 2/13/06:
Broad overreach, when the specifics of a bill that has been legislated and passed are violated, has often been shot down by the Supreme Court. The warrantless wiretaps of the past to which proponents of the spying program regularly refer have been for specific people, and the current NSA batch is a fishing expedition, exactly what the FISA law blocks. Because of that, and with Republican intelligence and Judiciary leaders as well as Democrats and many FISA judges protesting that the Congressionally-passed law has been violated, I bet you only Clarence Thomas votes with the Administration and the Court goes 8-1 that the FISA law has been violated. Remember Nixon lost 8-0 on his tapes case with his own appointees rebelling, so national security/executive privilege/separation of powers-type arguments are NOT enough of an excuse when the law is clear on prohibiting an activity and only some broad authority is the countervailing argument. Everyone wants to uncover true al Qaeda links in the U.S. but the law is designed for such instances, and there are untold thousands of innocent individuals whose rights are being violated. As someone whose phone records were sought for no legitimate reason in secret by the special prosecutor during the Clinton impeachment, and who found out because the phone company refused to play along and told me, I can tell you it is not fun to have the government breathing down your neck for no justifiable reason and claim it had a reason.
Statement by Robert Weiner re Cheney hunting on Radio America “Battle Line” 2/13/06:
Cheney’s intelligence is as good at hunting quail as weapons of mass destruction. Now everyone knows he’s literally a loose cannon. From his secret energy meetings where now we have record oil profits to pushing prison torture, everyone knows he’s way off the mark. And the day-wait until the White House responded, and only because of the press outing the incident, was a pure and simple coverup and an attempt at stalling to develop damage control. By the way, why has he not yet apologized? Now it will be too little too late.