Today the Washington Post is running and expose on Cheney's role in the warrant less wiretaps. It is an interesting and incredible read. It is nothing that is really shocking, other than Cheney kept the program secret from almost everyone. I mean top adviser's seemingly didn't know that this program existed. Here is a little taste:
It was an awkward question. Potenza, the NSA's acting general counsel, and Brenner, its inspector general, were supposed to be the ones who kept their agency on the straight and narrow. That's what Cheney and their boss, Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, told doubters among the very few people who knew what was going on. Cheney, who chaired briefings for select members of Congress, said repeatedly that the NSA's top law and ethics officers -- career public servants -- approved and supervised the surveillance program.
That was not exactly true, not without one of those silent asterisks that secretly flip a sentence on its tail. Every 45 days, after Justice Department review, Bush renewed his military order for warrantless eavesdropping. Brenner and Potenza told Hayden that the agency was entitled to rely on those orders [4]. The United States was at war with al-Qaeda, intelligence-gathering is inherent in war, and the Constitution appoints the president commander in chief. Read Article Here.
My lone question is why would we, as a nation, want to continue practices like this?
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