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Title: Impeachment hearings: The White House prepares for the worst
Source:
insightmag.com
URL Source: http://www.insightmag.com/Media/MediaManager/impeachment.htm
Published: Jan 23, 2006
Author: insightmag.com
Post Date: 2006-01-23 23:56:53 by robin
Keywords: Impeachment, hearings:, prepares
Views: 148
Comments: 22
Impeachment hearings: The White House prepares for the worst President Bush waved to the press on Jan. 22 after returning to the White House from Camp David. (Susan Walsh/Associated Press) The Bush administration is bracing for impeachment hearings in Congress. "A coalition in Congress is being formed to support impeachment," an administration source said. Sources said a prelude to the impeachment process could begin with hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee in February. They said the hearings would focus on the secret electronic surveillance program and whether Mr. Bush violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Administration sources said the charges are expected to include false reports to Congress as well as Mr. Bush's authorization of the National Security Agency to engage in electronic surveillance inside the United States without a court warrant. This included the monitoring of overseas telephone calls and e-mail traffic to and from people living in the United States without requisite permission from a secret court. Sources said the probe to determine whether the president violated the law will include Republicans, but that they may not be aware they could be helping to lay the groundwork for a Democratic impeachment campaign against Mr. Bush. "Our arithmetic shows that a majority of the committee could vote against the president," the source said. "If we work hard, there could be a tie." The law limits the government surveillance to no more than 72 hours without a court warrant. The president, citing his constitutional war powers, has pledged to continue wiretaps without a warrant. The hearings would be accompanied by several lawsuits against the administration connected to the surveillance program. At the same time, the Electronic Privacy Information Center has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that demands information about the NSA spying. Sen. Arlen Specter, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman and Pennsylvania Republican, has acknowledged that the hearings could conclude with a vote of whether Mr. Bush violated the law. Mr. Specter, a critic of the administration’s surveillance program, stressed that, although he would not seek it, impeachment is a possible outcome. "Impeachment is a remedy," Mr. Specter said on Jan. 15. "After impeachment, you could have a criminal prosecution. But the principal remedy under our society is to pay a political price." Mr. Specter and other senior members of the committee have been told by legal constitutional experts that Mr. Bush did not have the authority to authorize unlimited secret electronic surveillance. Another leading Republican who has rejected the administration's argument is Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas. On Jan. 16, former Vice President Al Gore set the tone for impeachment hearings against Mr. Bush by accusing the president of lying to the American people. Mr. Gore, who lost the 2000 election to Mr. Bush, accused the president of "indifference" to the Constitution and urged a serious congressional investigation. He said the administration decided to break the law after Congress refused to change the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. "A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government," Mr. Gore said. "I call upon members of Congress in both parties to uphold your oath of office and defend the Constitution,” he said. “Stop going along to get along. Start acting like the independent and co-equal branch of American government that you are supposed to be under the constitution of our country." Impeachment proponents in Congress have been bolstered by a memorandum by the Congressional Research Service on Jan. 6. CRS, which is the research arm of Congress, asserted in a report by national security specialist Alfred Cumming that the amended 1947 law requires the president to keep all members of the House and Senate intelligence committees "fully and currently informed" of a domestic surveillance effort. It was the second CRS report in less than a month that questioned the administration's domestic surveillance program. The latest CRS report said Mr. Bush should have briefed the intelligence committees in the House and Senate. The report said covert programs must be reported to House and Senate leaders as well as the chairs of the intelligence panels, termed the "Gang of Eight." Administration sources said Mr. Bush would wage a vigorous defense of electronic surveillance and other controversial measures enacted after 9/11. They said the president would begin with pressure on Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Mr. Bush would then point to security measures taken by the former administration of President Bill Clinton. "The argument is that the American people will never forgive any public official who knowingly hurts national security," an administration source said. "We will tell the American people that while we have done everything we can to protect them, our policies are being endangered by a hypocritical Congress."
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 7.
#1. To: All (#0)
Bush Defends 'Terrorist Surveillance'
Doesn't this fit the situation well?
I stumbled on that quote at Wikipedia, when directed there by aristeides about the domestic spying Göring was in charge of: He was also Commander-in-Chief of Forschungsamt ("FA"), the German Nazi underground monitoring services for telephone and radio comunications. This was connected to SS, SD and Abwehr intelligence services. There are so many parallels, it's like watching a re-run or a bad sequel.
Don't think for a second that the Nazi machine hasn't bee re-designed and foisted on the world. Between "Mein Kampf" and the Nuremberg Trials, you can discover the entirety of the Bush Administration. The bad news is that Bush is the Israeli puppet, following exactly in Clinton's footsteps.
So why were the Nazis so much better at it, despite the advantages of modern technology?
#10. To: robin, All (#7)
Hitler's Nazism didn't have to fight a pre-disposed attitude - it was a new system, which didn't have a unified opponent. Might made right. Until Hitler went off on his War Crime spree, Nazism was the best thing that happened to Germany. If Hitler had avoided the death camps and the invasions, he could have sucked Europe into his machine. As it was, that monster nearly won, anyway. A little known part of history is that Hitler had a massive Nazi Party in the USA. Nazism used technology to the max. The Nazis were the first to broadcast TV signals. The Goebbbels propaganda machine depended on technology. This Next-Generation Nazism has been incrementally imposed - one step at a time, over fifty years. Incremental small changes equate to major changes, given enough time. It's damned clever; I'll give the bastards credit, there. The "Chosen People" are winning, in place of the "Aryan Race." All in plain sight! Nobody notices! David's legacy was in killing Goliath with his own sword. (Most think only to the sling-shot.) Damned clever!
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#2. To: robin (#1)
"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger." ~Hermann Wilhelm Göring
#3. To: wakeup (#2)
#6. To: robin, All (#3)
#7. To: SKYDRIFTER (#6)
Between "Mein Kampf" and the Nuremberg Trials, you can discover the entirety of the Bush Administration.
Replies to Comment # 7. So why were the Nazis so much better at it, despite the advantages of modern technology?
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