What’s at Stake Today in The Senate’s FISA Filibuster Vote
by Glenn Greenwald
from Salon.com
Last August, the Democratic Congress amended FISA when it passed the Protect America Act because the Bush administration and Mike McConnell shrilly warned — literally — that the country would be attacked by The Terrorists if they didn’t do so immediately. The administration insisted that without the vast new warrantless eavesdropping powers which that law provided, the entire country would be under grave threat of an imminent attack from Al Qaeda. As The Washington Post’s Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus reported back then:
McConnell won the fight, extracting a key concession despite the misgivings of Democratic negotiators. Shortly after that exchange, the Bush administration leveraged Democratic acquiescence into a broader victory: congressional approval of a Republican bill that would expand surveillance powers far beyond what Democratic leaders had initially been willing to accept.0128 02 Congressional, administration and intelligence officials last week described the events leading up to the approval of this surveillance, including a remarkable series of confrontations that ended with McConnell and the White House outmaneuvering the Democratic-controlled Congress, partly by capitalizing on fresh reports of a growing terrorism threat.
“We had a forcing function,” a senior administration official said, referring to the intelligence community’s public report last month that said al-Qaeda poses a growing threat to the United States and to lawmakers’ desire to leave town in August. “The situation was key to making it work,” the official said, adding that the report’s conclusions were “fortuitous” rather than engineered.
A critical moment for the Democrats came on July 24, when McConnell met in a closed session with senators from both parties to ask for urgent approval of a slimmed-down version of his bill. Armed with new details about terrorist activity and an alarming decline in U.S. eavesdropping capabilities, he argued that Congress had days, not weeks, to act.
“Everybody who heard him speak recognized the absolute, compelling necessity to move,” Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), vice chairman of the intelligence panel, said later of the closed session.
Democrats agreed. “At that time, the discussion changed to ‘What can we do to close the gap during the August recess?’” said a senior Democratic aide who declined to be identified because the meetings were classified. As delivered by McConnell, the warnings were seen as fully credible. “He’s pushing this because he thinks we’re in a high-threat environment,” the senior aide said.
(Continued here.)
from Salon.com
Last August, the Democratic Congress amended FISA when it passed the Protect America Act because the Bush administration and Mike McConnell shrilly warned — literally — that the country would be attacked by The Terrorists if they didn’t do so immediately. The administration insisted that without the vast new warrantless eavesdropping powers which that law provided, the entire country would be under grave threat of an imminent attack from Al Qaeda. As The Washington Post’s Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus reported back then:
McConnell won the fight, extracting a key concession despite the misgivings of Democratic negotiators. Shortly after that exchange, the Bush administration leveraged Democratic acquiescence into a broader victory: congressional approval of a Republican bill that would expand surveillance powers far beyond what Democratic leaders had initially been willing to accept.0128 02 Congressional, administration and intelligence officials last week described the events leading up to the approval of this surveillance, including a remarkable series of confrontations that ended with McConnell and the White House outmaneuvering the Democratic-controlled Congress, partly by capitalizing on fresh reports of a growing terrorism threat.
“We had a forcing function,” a senior administration official said, referring to the intelligence community’s public report last month that said al-Qaeda poses a growing threat to the United States and to lawmakers’ desire to leave town in August. “The situation was key to making it work,” the official said, adding that the report’s conclusions were “fortuitous” rather than engineered.
A critical moment for the Democrats came on July 24, when McConnell met in a closed session with senators from both parties to ask for urgent approval of a slimmed-down version of his bill. Armed with new details about terrorist activity and an alarming decline in U.S. eavesdropping capabilities, he argued that Congress had days, not weeks, to act.
“Everybody who heard him speak recognized the absolute, compelling necessity to move,” Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), vice chairman of the intelligence panel, said later of the closed session.
Democrats agreed. “At that time, the discussion changed to ‘What can we do to close the gap during the August recess?’” said a senior Democratic aide who declined to be identified because the meetings were classified. As delivered by McConnell, the warnings were seen as fully credible. “He’s pushing this because he thinks we’re in a high-threat environment,” the senior aide said.
(Continued here.)
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