Sunday, January 01, 2006
It's not paranoia, it's a well-grounded fear
If all it takes is one evasive answer by Gen. Hayden for Kristol to brand Democrats/liberals as paranoid, we should be taking a hard look at what is going on. This is just part of the same ol' dismissive response to a growing list of our worst fears confirmed; questions about their WMD analysis, planning for Iraq and generally just their ability to be honest with the American people. All of which have proved to have been in serious need of examination.
It certainly isn't that Kristol weaves a very tight argument for his position: Hayden's non-responsive answer to questions about the wide spread snooping should have waved off any sane, patriotic American. Here's Hayden telling Congress that the NSA can do its job within the oversight required by Congress (and the Constitution). While this statement was made prior to 9-11, it certainly was within the time frame of our monitoring al-Qaida.
I would counter that Kristol suffers from doublespeak delusions. There appears to be a glaring contradiction contained within the article that slips right past his notice. Let's take a look:
It certainly isn't that Kristol weaves a very tight argument for his position: Hayden's non-responsive answer to questions about the wide spread snooping should have waved off any sane, patriotic American. Here's Hayden telling Congress that the NSA can do its job within the oversight required by Congress (and the Constitution). While this statement was made prior to 9-11, it certainly was within the time frame of our monitoring al-Qaida.
I would counter that Kristol suffers from doublespeak delusions. There appears to be a glaring contradiction contained within the article that slips right past his notice. Let's take a look:
"Was the president to ignore the obvious incapacity of any court, operating under any intelligible legal standard, to judge surveillance decisions involving the sweeping of massive numbers of cell phones and emails by high--speed computers in order even to know where to focus resources?"
Next page:
"Yup. First the Bush administration will listen in to international communications of a few hundred people in America who seem to have been in touch with terrorists abroad . . . "
We're talking about two different types of operations. Or they're trying to soft sell just what Kristol says in the first quote. That makes more sense because the massive scale referenced in that quote is also the kind of thing that couldn't even make it through the very compliant FISA court.
Yeah, I got swamp fever. But I'm up to my ass in alligator shit.
¶ 1/01/2006 10:51:00 AM
