Hayden had doubts on wiretap legality

[sabra]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0605190137may19,1,1916602.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Hayden had doubts on wiretap legality
White House officials helped ease qualms


WASHINGTON -- Gen. Michael Hayden, nominated to be the next director of the CIA, told a Senate committee Thursday that he initially resisted Bush administration suggestions to expand domestic wiretaps on U.S. citizens after the Sept. 11 attacks, but that White House officials then convinced him the program was lawful.

Hayden headed the National Security Agency, which conducts electronic eavesdropping, when the controversial program was proposed to monitor international calls between suspected Al Qaeda operatives and people in the United States. A furor erupted when its existence was revealed in December, with some Democrats and a few Republicans saying it was illegal.

Hayden told the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is considering his CIA nomination, he at first told then-CIA Director George Tenet that the NSA was doing all that the law allowed on surveillance.

"Director Tenet came back to me and said, `Is there anything more you can do?'" Hayden said. "And I said, `Not within my current authorities.' And he invited me to come down and talk to the administration about what more could be done."

[goclark]

1. And then he DID what the Administration wanted him to do~

Why else would they name him for the position?

[nostalgicaboutmyfutr]

2. So change the law then....

[gratuitous]

3. Hmmm . . . advance career or sell out country?

That must have been an agonized eight or nine nanoseconds for Mr. Hayden.

[Supersedeas]

18. sounds like more than a few govt attorneys made the same decision

[bkcc]

4. Yet he bravely pushed on despite those doubts!

Bravo!
This is just the man we need to run the CIA!
What moral conviction!

:eyes:

[stepnw1f]

5. But Now That He's Being Confirmed

he has changed his mind? Oh God... how transparent.

[cain_7777]

6. Convinced him or bribed him?

Hey we'll make you head of the CIA if you go along with our illegal and corrupt policies.

Only if you throw in a few hookers too.

[lyonn]

7. Proves he is bought and paid for

Or, as usualy with this admin., says what needs to be said to the sheep.

[Roland99]

8. Convinced him with some bamboo shoots and water boarding?

[Martin Eden]

9. Expressing "doubts" a calculated ploy ...

... to make everyone think he is a straight-shooter with respect for the law rather than an apparatchik of the neo-fascists in power.

[EVDebs]

10. Bush used the Milgram experiment on Hayden. Electroshock treatment

to the body politic. They keep increasing the voltage...and no one can just say "NO !"

[Justice Is Comin]

11. Yes step into our private room

here. Now---see, laws are for idiots Haydie.....

[fshrink]

12. Perhaps he also had doubts on torture legality?

And on all the other violations of what was until now considered as universal human rights and basic constitutional rights. These rights were written down because there was no doubt about them, and they are not that hard to understand.

[mhatrw]

13. Nice to know that he will break the law whenever his superiors suggest it.

Right?

[struggle4progress]

14. Media ignore Hayden's misleading 2002 congressional testimony

Media ignore Hayden's misleading 2002 congressional testimony, contradictory responses on NSA program

Summary: In the wake of reports that Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden would be nominated to replace outgoing CIA director Porter Goss, numerous news outlets cited as a source of likely controversy Hayden's role in developing and overseeing the Bush administration's warrantless domestic surveillance program. But none of these outlets mentioned Hayden's misleading testimony before Congress in 2002, in which he said that the National Security Agency complies with the requirements of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in conducting surveillance on citizens or legal residents of the United States. Nor did they mention his shifting and contradictory defenses of the domestic surveillance program or his failure to answer questions regarding whether the program has been used to spy on U.S. residents with no ties to terrorism.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200605080011

[struggle4progress]

15. Wiretapping preoccupied Hayden at NSA (Balt Sun 14 May 06)

... After Sept. 11, Hayden took a no-excuses attitude, said one former NSA official, and came up with a solution for the legal problem: President Bush could sign a secret authorization.

Hayden presented the plan for a warrantless program to a meeting of his senior managers in October 2001. Everyone in the room seemed to agree that, amid concerns about future attacks, it would be irresponsible not to employ technology that might help hunt down al-Qaida operatives.

According to former officials familiar with the meeting, legal concerns dominated the discussion, but Hayden was confident that with Bush's authorization under the president's wartime powers, the program would be legal. Such presidential "findings," as the documents are called, are often used for covert activity ...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.hayden14may14,0,7602442.story


Hayden's another lyin mofo for BushCo

[stepnw1f]

16. I Knew It (nt)

[museumofthebourgeois]

17. Unfit for Command

Officers receiving a commission in the armed forces of the United States must swear an oath.

"I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that <em><strong>I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same</strong></em>; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God." (Title 10, US Code; Act of 5 May 1960 replacing the wording first adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 October 1962).

Note that “true faith and allegiance” to the Constitution of the United States takes absolute precedence over obedience to orders of the President of the United States. Thus must it ever be in a government of laws, not persons. The opposite is the Third Reich, in which officers swore an oath to Adolf Hitler the person, not to the German Constitution.

General Michael Hayden, Director-designate of the Central Intelligence Agency, swore this oath.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 provides for two avenues to legally secure electronic surveillance of suspect persons. One: application to the FISA court for a warrant before surveillance begins. Second: application to the FISA court for a warrant within 72 hours after surveillance begins.

Nearly a half-decade ago, George W. Bush ordered the National Security Agency, through its director, General Hayden, to commence warrantless surveillance of suspect persons’ electronic communications. This was a patently criminal act, since the Constitution nowhere grants to the President the power to suspend any law as he sees fit. (This is, of course, a high crime and misdemeanor, and thus an impeachable act.)

By carrying out the order, by failing to refuse the order and resign, General Hayden betrayed “true faith and allegiance” to the Constitution, betrayed his sworn oath, and dishonoured himself.

An officer who betrays the Constitution is unfit to be an officer, let alone director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

All senators who vote to approve Hayden’s appointment as director of the CIA likewise violate their oath to obey the Constitution; they betray the Constitution; they are unfit to be citizens, let alone senators.

Enough of high treason against the Constitution! Reject Hayden! Impeach the president who betrayed the Constitution and his country!

Imprison Hayden and Bush for their crimes!

<strong>Jail to the Chief!</strong>

CC: G.W. Bush, United States Senate, NSA, FBI, Department of Justice