"Listening to Compromise (Mort Halperin--in support of FISA compromise)

[geek tragedy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/opinion/08halperin.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

TWO years ago, I stated my belief that the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program and disregard for domestic and international law poses a direct challenge to our constitutional order, and “constitutes a far greater threat than the lawlessness of Richard Nixon.”

That was not a casual comparison. When I was on the staff of the National Security Council, my home phone was tapped by the Nixon administration — without a warrant — beginning in 1969. The wiretap stayed on for 21 months. The reason? My boss, Henry Kissinger, and the director of the F.B.I., J. Edgar Hoover, believed that I might have leaked information to this newspaper. Even after I left government, and went to work on Edmund Muskie’s presidential campaign, the F.B.I. continued to listen in and made periodic reports to the president.

The fact is that the alternative to Congress passing this bill is Congress enacting far worse legislation that the Senate had already passed by a filibuster-proof margin, and which a majority of House members were on record as supporting.

What’s more, this bill provides important safeguards for civil liberties. It includes effective mechanisms for oversight of the new surveillance authorities by the FISA court, the House and Senate Intelligence Committees and now the Judiciary Committees. It mandates reports by inspectors general of the Justice Department, the Pentagon and intelligence agencies that will provide the committees with the information they need to conduct this oversight. (The reports by the inspectors general will also provide accountability for the potential unlawful misconduct that occurred during the Bush administration.) Finally, the bill for the first time requires FISA court warrants for surveillance of Americans overseas.

As someone whose civil liberties were violated by the government, I understand this legislation isn’t perfect. But I also believe — and here I am speaking only for myself — that it represents our best chance to protect both our national security and our civil liberties. For that reason, it has my personal support.

[kenny blankenship]

1. Excuse me Mort, but the way you compromise on fundamental liberties protected by the Constitution

is to AMEND the Constitution, not pretend it doesn't exist. Anything which bypasses the well known path of Constitutional amendment in a rush to shear away the citizen's Constitutional freedom from constant police prying is simply an act of tyranny.

[Doctor_J]

2. All the newspapers have become GOP organs

this is worse than Germany in the 30's.