John Dingell And The Mystery Of Bush’s Spying
Those politicians who try to justify the complete abandonment of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution that comes with the passage of the FISA Amendments Act say that it’s okay, because they have received assurances from George W. Bush has promised not to abuse the unrestrained spy powers the FISA Amendments Act grants. What measures there are in the FISA Amendments Act do not truly restrict the power of the White House to engage in politically-motivated spying – they only provide window dressing for that spying.
The apologies for this clearly unconstitutional law are hollow and thin. George W. Bush’s promises have been false too many times in the past to believe. Besides that, President Bush still has not come clean and provided Congress with full information about how far he has actually gone already in spying against the American people.
That’s the main idea that came from Congressman John Dingell when he rose to speak on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in opposition to the FISA Amendments Act on Friday:
“…it contains a provision that will grant immunity to the telecommunications companies that assisted the President with his illegal and unauthorized warrantless wiretapping program. I have consistently said that it is not appropriate for Congress to grant these companies immunity for their actions without having an understanding of what it is that they did. This is not only because it will hold the telecommunications companies accountable for their actions, but because it is the only way of finding out just how extensive the President’s illegal wiretapping program really was. In other words, this provision will enable the Bush administration to continue suppressing facts and information about the Government’s own misbehavior and wrongdoing.”
Congress still doesn’t know how far President Bush went in violating the law to spy against American citizens. Why then, is Congress granting Bush permission to keep on spying against Americans? Where is the oversight that Congress is supposed to pursue?
Hear more about it in our third That’s My Congress podcast.
