(AG) Mukasey: Get government all terror-fighting tools

[sabra]

Source: AP

The Bush administration will do everything possible to ensure the government has the tools to fight terrorists before the next president takes office, while protecting people's privacy, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Wednesday.

...

The nation's top law enforcer told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he would safeguard privacy rights. But, he said, it also is "important that we do everything we can to give our national security professionals, who will be confronting the al-Qaida threat well after this administration is over, the tools they need to keep us safe."

Mukasey said he is considering changes so FBI agents have "clear and consistent rules for conducting investigations, while maintaining vital civil liberties protections."

...

The committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, said President Bush improperly has used the department to spy on people in the United States, has authorized the torture of suspected terrorists and has undercut environmental laws. "This administration makes the Watergate looks like child's play," said Leahy, D-Vt.

Added the committee's top Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania: "Since 9/11, I believe historians will look back at this period as the greatest expansion of executive authority that has gone unchecked by the Congress."

Read more: http://www.lawinfo.com/legal-news-story.html?msgID=FEDA3E53-67C0-46D9-8E37-E70D3CAC1327

[lyonn]

1. Ya, right, bush is going to protect our rights?!

Does he really expect us to believe this? Does Mukasey believe we will believe this? By the way, how is the FISA vote going?

[kirby]

2. It passed... 21 dems voted for it... n/t

[lyonn]

4. Not surprised but dissappointed......

I have not read or know exactly what the vote was on, but, a no vote seemed so simply - what did the Dems have to lose? Not good logic I know. We need rules and the hell with the telecoms. They will continue to be rich no matter the ruling. Until they were tried in court who knows the outcome. Our privacy is critical. Not mine or most of us here since our chatter/e-mails, are pretty basic babble, but, politicians and news investigators, etc. do matter a bunch. I remember the horror stories of Hoover's FBI and his BS files on people He didn't like. Never a good idea for this kind of wiretapping. Blackmail for instance.

[kirby]

5. The Dems are so scared...

All Bush does is say 'Hey, if there is another attack we are going to blame in on the Dem Congress' and the Dems bend over.

[lyonn]

6. That's the only excuse that makes any sense at this point. nt

[Lost4words]

3. We no longer have a representtive Government!

8643

[Solly Mack]

7. Fuck Mukasey and ANY and ALL who think like him

[Doctor_J]

8. We plan to - a Dem president, Senate, and House

That's all that's really needed.

[Supersedeas]

9. the People's Attorney is speaking like the WH Counsel