Dems go into attack mode on National Security

Via Glenn Greenwald, Kennedy reveals his strategy (Emphasis and commentary via Georgia10 at Dkos):

So as I suggested on Friday - Kennedy is going to take an interesting, unexpected approach in Monday's wiretapping hearings.

First of all, again as we discussed - all Dems on the panel are going to emphasize that they take a back seat to no one when it comes to national security, and they arent going to fall into Karl Rove's trap that asking questions about a questionably illegal program is similar to handing the terrorists our playbook.

But Kennedy will take that further by questioning Gonzales about the effectiveness of the program from the national security standpoint, (YES! This is exactly what I've been stressing!) believing that this rogue program is harmful because by ignoring around FISA it 1) our national security is actually weakened when the country is divided - and we aren't protecting those intelligence officials who are working to protect us (if the President's legal analysis is wrong - these people could go to jail for breaking the law) and 2) raises the risk that terrorist go free - given that the evidence is tainted because it isnt sanctioned by law. (exactly!!!)

In addition, Kennedy will underscore how willing Congress was/is to give the President the tools he needed, and question Gonzales why they parted with history in deciding to circumvent the time honored (and Constitutionally required) system of checks and balances. He will strongly contend that Congress is willing to work with this administration.

There are documents from the Ford Library detailing Kennedy's unique role, as the principle author of FISA - including 1) Kennedy's statement how well the Administration was working with them, including Antonin Scalia who was Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel from 1974-1973 2) how Attorney General Levi supported the law and 3) how important it was for the Adminstration to have Kennedy's backing. In contrast to this Administration's lack of trust in Congress - the Republican Administration under Ford actually came to Kennedy and asked him to take the lead on introducing FISA.

Also, as you saw today on MTP, Specter said that nothing in the AUMF mentions electronic surveillance - exactly what resolution offered by Kennedy and Leahy says, S. Res. 350....

I hope you can get people to see that working outside of the system in fact harms our national security. Let me know what you think. And again, thanks for coming over on Friday.

This approach is essentially the same thing that I've been saying, like Georgia, for quite some time. The primary problem with bypassing the law and doing a "black bag" operation in the way the President has, is that you can never bring it out into the daylight without the entire house of cards falling about. Any potential foreign or domestic terrorist captured via these techniques can not be tried in a U.S. Court of law because none of the evidence used against them would be admissable under the fruits of the poison tree rule.

The only way that Administration can "protect" us from these terrorists using this strategy is not to arrest them and bring them to trial, they would have to enter the nation they're located in, secretly kidnap them, fly them in a private plane to one of several secret detention centers, hold them indefinately without judicial review and possibly torture them.

Or they could skip the entire rigamarole and just assasinate them outright.

Even if they happen to already be within the U.S. Even if they happen to be U.S. Citizens.

Feeling safer yet?

Vyan