You all remember Specter's "compromise" bill, the one he says the White House reluctantly agreed to in negotations that would allegedly establish real oversight on the NSA programs? Well, Glen Greenwald has a post that analyzes the text of the bill in more detail and reveals that it's even worse than we initially thought. It actually gives the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence the right to end the discovery process without a judge agreeing. This bill is a complete cave in being sold as oversight. It needs to be stopped.
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I'm sure you've all watched the little tempest in a teapot the last few days between Arlen Specter and Dick Cheney over the NSA's wiretapping and information gathering programs. For a few minutes, it actually looked as though Specter was going to try and support the constitutional notion of checks…
The STACLU folks are up in arms about Bush allegedly "caving in" and agreeing to FISA court oversight of the NSA's domestic spying programs. Arlen Specter announced that the White House has agreed to submit those programs to the FISA court for review of their constitutionality. STACLU's trenchant…
The other day I posted about Arlen Specter's "compromise" with the administration on oversight of the NSA's various surveillance programs, the ones they refuse to submit to the FISA court. My post was based on the Washington Post's report on Specter's compromise legislation and included the fact…
As a follow up on Specter's new bill (see full text here), I suggest this post by Orin Kerr and this post by Jack Balkin. Both point out that not only does the bill not tighten the oversight on the administration's domestic spying efforts, it actually loosens it. Balkin calls it a sham and that's…
Looks like somebody stuck a pin in the sanctimonious blow fish and he is slowly starting to deflate.
Lately when I hear that Senator Specter has worked out a compromise with the White House, I can't help but picture him as Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back.
WHITE HOUSE: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.
Excellent analogy, Jeff.