President Obama’s most liberal supporters say they are dismayed and disgusted because this administration is invoking the “state secrets” privilege — just as former President George W. Bush did — to shield eavesdropping programs from public exposure.
“I wasn’t happy when George Bush asserted that he could do these things and I’m not happy that President Obama is now agreeing with George Bush,” said Jane Hamsher of Accountability Now.
“Other than being flat wrong, the Obama administration’s position is seriously disappointing to those Americans who listened to candidate Obama’s promises of a new era of government accountability and transparency, said Kevin Bankston, senior attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
EFF sued the government claiming that AT&T and perhaps other telecommunications companies cooperated with it to allow access to people’s phone and Internet records — a so-called dragnet in a search for terrorist communications.
Obama criticized the cooperation during the campaign, calling it an abuse of authority and arguing that the Bush administration “undermined the Constitution.”
Now, the Obama administration is trying to have that same lawsuit dismissed.
“For the Obama administration now to try to have our lawsuit dismissed based on the exact same state secrecy arguments is quite a turnaround and very disappointing,” Bankston said.
Top Obama officials, including Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, dispute the assertions claimed in the suit.
“Admiral Blair in two separate affidavits sworn under penalty of perjury has flatly said that the allegations of dragnet NSA surveillance are quote ‘false’ close quote,” said Bryan Cunningham, a former CIA and Justice Department attorney.
After a full review, Attorney General Eric Holder and the administration has asked the case be dismissed, arguing that hearing it would cause “extremely grave harm to national security. ”
“The Obama administration is making a very spirited, a very robust assertion of state secrets privilege just like the Bush administration did before it,” said former Justice Department attorney Dave Rivkin.
“You would think that if the critics were sincere in the past but had real problems with the Bush administration they might take some note of this but no they are really not interested. They are just as disinclined to trust the Obama administration’s officials when it comes to balancing individual liberty and public safety as they were with regard to …. officials of the Bush administration,” he said.
“This is the attorney general and the director of national intelligence that were strongly supported by the left wing of the Democratic Party and I don’t know what critics think happened,” Cunningham said. “I don’t know if they think Admiral Blair and Attorney General Holder got sent into the Dick Cheney mind meld machine or what.”
Instead of the mind meld, analysts say Obama’s eyes were opened as he learned more about the program and now realizes it is both lawful and necessary. But critics don’t accept that. They think they’ve been betrayed by the man they expected to reverse almost every policy of the Bush years, especially this one.
(Source: FOX News)
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6 Responses
The new President is slowly going to learn that the old ways are the better way to go. Not everything has to be public knowledge. That is why we elect a leader and hope he will do what is best based on the information he has. Hashem should help him do the right thing.
another broken promise by the almighty messiah obama.
“analysts say Obama’s eyes were opened as he learned more about the program and now realizes it is both lawful and necessary”
Good morning. Mr. Obama, and welcome to the real world.
So it turns out the Democrats are NOT going to destory the country and undermine the free world afterall (well, we survived, Clinton, and even Carter, so what’s the “hidush”).
While pundits need to find differences to stay in business (I don’t begrudge Rush, nor his left wing colleagues, their parnassah), the reality is that American politics are strongly centered, and even the most radical changes represent continuity rather than revolution. Our leaders tend to come from the same colleges and the same economic class (admit it, Obama is a middle class Ivy Leaguer from an old stock WASP family).
Now for real change, how about Dov Hikind or Jesse Jackson (the old one-not his son who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth).
Let the new president govern. We can do no worse than the previous president who I regretfully voted for. Again, Obama is not going to be what the libs or cons say. He is too independent to fit in any one pigeon hold. Judge him by what he does and not the spin put out about him.
I dont like everything about him, suchas showing social graces to arabs, but he is standing by his word and supporting Israel. A HUGE step is this joint missile mission that Bush/Cheney would never stick their neck out for Israel and agree to in front of the world. Bush’s war strategy was, in his mind, a “compassionate” war to the “evil doers” by putting us at risk with weak military procedures and harsh rules of engagement consequences for our soldiers.
2010 elections are coming quickly. Lets hope we are around & allowed to vote.