Here's a scary thought - Most of you Fibs voted for him!

[fossten]

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2006 1:43 a.m. EST
GOP Hits Back at Al Gore on Wiretapping

Former Vice President Al Gore's assertion that President Bush "repeatedly and persistently" broke the law by eavesdropping on Americans without a court warrant did not fall on deaf ears in Washington, D.C.

In fact, the Republican National Committee swiftly reacted to the loser of the 2000 presidential election, with RNC press secretary Tracey Schmitt stating:

"Al Gore's incessant need to insert himself in the headline of the day is almost as glaring as his lack of understanding of the threats facing America. While the president works to protect Americans from terrorists, Democrats deliver no solutions of their own, only diatribes laden with inaccuracies and anger."

The RNC then showed why Gore's comments are hard to swallow, providing these insightful reminders:


Once Upon A Time, Gore Talked Tough About Cracking Down On Terrorists:
In 1999, Vice President Gore Declared: "Hear Me Well - We Will Fight The Reckless Violence Of Terrorism And We Will Never Yield To Terrorism, Ever." (Joe Carroll, "Clinton Exhorts Parties to Surmount Last Hurdle," The Irish Times, 3/18/99)

At A 1996 Counter-Terrorism Event Gore Said: "The Bottom Line Is That President Clinton And I And The Members Of This Commission Have Pledged To The Families Of The Victims Of Terrorism That We're Going To Take The Strongest Measures Possible To Reduce The Risk Of Another Tragedy In The Future." (Al Gore, White House Briefing, 9/5/96)


Clinton/Gore Administration Used Warrantless Searches:
Clinton Administration Deputy Attorney General Jamie S. Gorelick: "(T)he Department Of Justice Believes, And The Case Law Supports, That The President Has Inherent Authority To Conduct Warrantless Physical Searches For Foreign Intelligence Purposes And That The President May, As Has Been Done, Delegate This Authority To The Attorney General." (Deputy Attorney General Jamie S. Gorelick, Permanent Select Committee On Intelligence, U.S. House Of Representatives, Testimony, 7/14/94)

In 1994, President Clinton Expanded The Use Of Warrantless Searches To Entirely Domestic Situations With No Foreign Intelligence Value Whatsoever. In A Radio Address Promoting A Crime- Fighting Bill, Mr. Clinton Discussed A New Policy To Conduct Warrantless Searches In Highly Violent Public Housing Projects." (Charles Hurt, "'Warrantless' Searches Not Unprecedented," The Washington Times, 12/22/05)

"One Of The Most Famous Examples Of Warrantless Searches In Recent Years Was The Investigation Of CIA Official Aldrich H. Ames, Who Ultimately Pleaded Guilty To Spying For The Former Soviet Union. That Case Was Largely Built Upon Secret Searches Of Ames' Home And Office In 1993, Conducted Without Federal Warrants." (Charles Hurt, "'Warrantless' Searches Not Unprecedented," The Washington Times, 12/22/05)

President Bill Clinton: "(T)he Attorney General Is Authorized To Approve Physical Searches, Without A Court Order, To Acquire Foreign Intelligence Information For Periods Of Up To One Year ..." (President Bill Clinton, Executive Order 12949, "Foreign Intelligence Physical Searches," 2/9/95)


Meanwhile, Polling Shows Americans Support President Bush's Decision On Wire Tapping:
"(A Rasmussen Reports Survey Found) Sixty-Four Percent (64 percent) Of Americans Believe The National Security Agency (NSA) Should Be Allowed To Intercept Telephone Conversations Between Terrorism Suspects In Other Countries And People Living In The United States … Just 23 percent Disagree." (Rasmussen Reports' Web site, http://www.rasmussenreports.com, Accessed 1/6/06)

Eighty-One Percent (81 percent) Of Republicans Believe The NSA Should Be Allowed To Listen In On Conversations Between Terror Suspects And People Living In The United States. That View Is Shared By 51 percent Of Democrats ..." (Rasmussen Reports' Web site, http://www.rasmussenreports.com, Accessed 1/6/06)


The FISA Court Does Not Provide Flexibility Needed To Fight The War On Terrorism:
President Bush: "(T)he (9/11) Commission Criticized Our Nation's Inability To Uncover Links Between Terrorists Here At Home And Terrorists Abroad. Two Of The Terrorist Hijackers Who Flew A Jet Into The Pentagon, Nawaf Al Hamzi And Khalid Al Mihdhar, Communicated While They Were In The United States To Other Members Of Al Qaeda Who Were Overseas." (President Bush, Radio Address, Washington, D.C., 12/17/05)

9/11 Commission Report: "On January 15, (2000) Hazmi And Mihdhar Arrived In Los Angeles. ... After The Pair Cleared Immigration And Customs At Los Angeles International Airport, We Do Not Know Where They Went. ... We Do Not Pick Up Their Trail Until February 1, 2000 ..." ("Final Report Of The National Commission On Terrorist Attacks Upon The United States," The 9/11 Commission Report, 7/22/04)

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: "The Operators Out At NSA Tell Me That We Don't Have The Speed And The Agility That We Need, In All Circumstances, To Deal With This New Kind Of Enemy. You Have To Remember That FISA Was Passed By The Congress In 1978. There Have Been Tremendous Advances In Technology ... Since Then." (Attorney General Gonzales, Press Conference, 12/19/05)

The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol: "Remember Moussaoui? Remember August 2001? The FBI Wanted To Go To The FISA Court To Get Surveillance Capabilities Based On What They Found On His Computer, And The Justice Department Decided No. Now, The Patriot Act Did Not Change That Standard Of FISA ..." (Fox News' "Fox News Sunday," 12/18/05)

Kristol: "I Wish Bill Clinton Had Done This. I Wish We Had Tapped The Phones Of The People Of Mohammed Atta Here Into The United States If We Discovered Phone Calls From Afghanistan To Him. That Was Why 9/11 Happened. That's What Connecting The Dots Is." (Fox News' "Fox News Sunday," 12/18/05)

9/11 Commission Report: "The Agents In Minnesota Were Concerned That The U.S. Attorney's Office In Minneapolis Would Find Insufficient Probable Cause Of A Crime To Obtain A Criminal Warrant To Search Moussaoui's Laptop Computer. Agents At FBI Headquarters Believed There Was Insufficient Probable Cause. Minneapolis Therefore Sought A Special Warrant Under The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act To Conduct The Search ... FBI Headquarters Did Not Believe This Was Good Enough, And Its National Security Law Unit Declined To Submit A FISA Application." ("Final Report Of The National Commission On Terrorist Attacks Upon The United States," The 9/11 Commission Report, 7/22/04)


Bush Administration's Wiretapping Authorization Has Been Successful:
"Officials Have Privately Credited The Eavesdropping With The Apprehension Of Lyman Faris, A Truck Driver Who Pleaded Guilty In 2003 To Planning To Blow Up The Brooklyn Bridge." (Peter Baker, "President Says He Ordered NSA Domestic Spying," The Washington Post, 12/18/05)

 

[fossten]

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2006 10:43 a.m. EST
White House: Al Gore is a Hypocrite


The White House accused former Vice President Al Gore of hypocrisy Tuesday for his assertion that President Bush broke the law by eavesdropping on Americans without court approval.

"If Al Gore is going to be the voice of the Democrats on national security matters, we welcome it," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said in a swipe at the Democrat, who lost the 2000 election to Bush only after the Supreme Court intervened.

Gore, in a speech Monday, called for an independent investigation of the administration program that he says broke the law by listening in - without warrants - on Americans suspected of talking with terrorists abroad.

Gore called the program, authorized by President Bush, "a threat to the very structure of our government" and charged that the administration acted without congressional authority and made a "direct assault" on a federal court set up to authorize requests to eavesdrop on Americans.

Meanwhile, two civil liberties groups - the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights - filed federal lawsuits Tuesday seeking to block the eavesdropping program, which they called unconstitutional electronic surveillance of American citizens.

McClellan said the Clinton-Gore administration had engaged in warrantless physical searches, and he cited an FBI search of the home of CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames without permission from a judge. He said Clinton's deputy attorney general, Jamie Gorelick, had testified before Congress that the president had the inherent authority to engage in physical searches without warrants.

"I think his hypocrisy knows no bounds," McClellan said of Gore.

Gore said Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should name a special counsel to investigate the program, saying Gonzales had an "obvious conflict of interest" as a member of the Bush Cabinet as well as the nation's top law enforcement officer.

Gonzales, who has agreed to testify publicly at a Senate hearing on the program, defended the surveillance on cable news talk shows Monday night.

"This program has been reviewed carefully by lawyers at the Department of Justice and other agencies," Gonzales said on Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes." "We firmly believe that this program is perfectly lawful. The president has the legal authority to authorize these kinds of programs."

On CNN's "Larry King Live," Gonzales said Gore's comments were inconsistent with Clinton administration policy.

"It's my understanding that during the Clinton administration there was activity regarding physical searches without warrants," Gonzales said. "I can also say it's my understanding that the deputy attorney general testified before Congress that the president does have the inherent authority under the Constitution to engage in physical searches without a warrant. And so, those would certainly seem to be inconsistent with what the former vice president was saying today."

Gore said there is still much to learn about the domestic surveillance program, but that he already has drawn a conclusion about its legality.

"What we do know about this pervasive wiretapping virtually compels the conclusion that the president of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and insistently," he said.

Bush has pointed to a congressional resolution passed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that authorized him to use force in the fight against terrorism as allowing him to order the program.

Gore, however, contended that Bush failed to convince Congress to support a domestic spying program, so he "secretly assumed that power anyway, as if congressional authorization was a useless bother."

He said the spying program must be considered along with other administration actions as a constitutional power grab by the president. Gore cited imprisoning American citizens without charges in terrorism cases, mistreatment of prisoners - including torture - and seizure of individuals in foreign countries and delivering them to autocratic regimes "infamous for the cruelty of their techniques."

 

[fossten]

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

Al Gore Led Effort to Tap Every Phone in America
Charles R. Smith
Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2006
Big Brother Al


There are times when Al Gore should sit down and shut up. Former Vice President Al Gore called for an independent investigation into President Bush's domestic spying program, insisting that the president "repeatedly and insistently" broke the law by eavesdropping on Americans without court approval.

What Al Gore forgot to tell his audience was that he not only supported eavesdropping on Americans without court approval – he also chaired a project designed to execute just that in total secrecy. In short, Al Gore wanted to bug every phone, computer and fax in America.

In 1993 Al Gore was charged by then President Bill Clinton to run the "Clipper" project. Clipper was a special chip designed by the National Security Agency (NSA) to be built into all phones, computers and fax machines. Not only would Clipper provide scrambled security, it also contained a special "exploitable feature" enabling the NSA to monitor all phone calls without a court order.

In 1993, VP Al Gore went to work with a top secret group of Clinton advisers, called the IWG or Interagency Working Group, and delivered a report on the Clipper project.


"Simply stated, the nexus of the long term problem is how can the government sustain its technical ability to accomplish electronic surveillance in an advanced telecommunications environment," states the TOP SECRET report prepared by Gore's Interagency Working Group.

"The solution to the access problem for future telecommunications requires that the vendor/manufacturing community translate the government's requirements into a fundamental system design criteria," noted the Gore report.

"The basic issue for resolution is a choice between accomplishing this objective by mandatory (i.e., statutory/regulatory) or voluntary means."

The documented truth is that America was to be given no choice but to be monitored by Big Brother Al. This awful conclusion is backed by several other documents. One such document released by the Justice Department is a March 1993 memo from Stephen Colgate, Assistant Attorney General for Administration.

According to the Colgate memo, Vice President Al Gore chaired a meeting with Hillary Clinton crony Webster Hubbell, Janet Reno, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and Leon Panetta in March 1993. The topic of the meeting was the "AT&T Telephone Security Device."

According to Colgate, AT&T had developed secure telephones the U.S. government could not tap. The Clinton-Gore administration secretly contracted with AT&T to keep the phones off the market. Colgate's memo noted that the administration was determined to prevent the American public from having private phone conversations.


"AT&T has developed a Data Encryption Standard (DES) product for use on telephones to provide security for sensitive conversations," wrote Colgate.

"The FBI, NSA and NSC want to purchase the first production run of these devices to prevent their proliferation. They are difficult to decipher and are a deterrent to wiretaps."

Buried in the Colgate memo is the first reference to government-developed monitoring devices that would be required for all Americans.

According to the March 1993 Colgate memo to Hubbell, "FBI, NSA and NSC want to push legislation which would require all government agencies and eventually everyone in the U.S. to use a new public-key based cryptography method."

Gore Lied


Al Gore quickly embraced the Clipper chip and the concept of monitoring America at all costs. In 1994, Gore wrote a glowing letter supporting the Clipper chip and the government-approved wiretap design.

"As we have done with the Clipper Chip, future key escrow schemes must contain safeguards to provide for key disclosures only under legal authorization and should have audit procedures to ensure the integrity of the system. We also want to assure users of key escrow encryption products that they will not be subject to unauthorized electronic surveillance," wrote Gore in his July 20, 1994 letter to Representative Maria Cantwell.

However, Gore lied. In 1994, federal officials were keenly aware that the Clipper chip design did not have safeguards against unauthorized surveillance. In fact, NASA turned down the Clipper project because the space agency knew of the flawed design.

In 1993, Benita A. Cooper, NASA Associate Administrator for Management Systems and Facilities, wrote: "There is no way to prevent the NSA from routinely monitoring all [Clipper] encrypted traffic. Moreover, compromise of the NSA keys, such as in the Walker case, could compromise the entire [Clipper] system."

Ms. Cooper referred to Soviet spy John Walker, who is serving life in prison for disclosing U.S. Navy secret codes. In 1993 Ms. Cooper did not know of Clinton Chinagate scandals, the Lippo Group, John Huang or Webster Hubbell, but her prophetic prediction was not so remarkable in retrospect.

Yet, Al Gore pressed ahead, continuing to support a flawed design despite warnings that the design could "compromise" every computer in the U.S.

A 1996 secret memo on a secret meeting of CIA Directer John Deutch, FBI Director Louis Freeh and Attorney General Janet Reno states, "Last summer, the Vice President agreed to explore public acceptance of a key escrow policy but did not rule out other approaches, although none seem viable at this point."

According to the 1996 report to V.P. Gore by then CIA Director Deutch, Reno proposed an all-out federal takeover of the computer security industry. The Justice Department proposed "legislation that would ... ban the import and domestic manufacture, sale or distribution of encryption that does not have key recovery. Janet Reno and Louis Freeh are deeply concerned about the spread of encryption. Pervasive use of encryption destroys the effectiveness of wiretapping, which supplies much of the evidence used by FBI and Justice. They support tight controls, for domestic use."

Share With China, Syria and Pakistan

Declassified documents from the CIA and the U.S. State Department also show that the Clinton-Gore administration considered sharing Clipper code "keys" with foreign powers including China, Syria and Pakistan.

"Are Clipper devices likely to be permitted for importation and use in the host country?" asked a secret 1993 CIA cable addressed to the U.S. embassies in Beijing, Damascus and Islamabad.

"Would the host country demand joint key holding or exclusive rights to Clipper keys for law enforcement or intelligence purposes?"

The secret 1993 CIA cable is one of 69 documents released by the U.S. State Department on the secret Clipper chip project. The documents were forced from the State Department through the Freedom of Information Act.

In addition, the State Department refused to release 12 documents as classified "in the interest of national defense or foreign relations." The documents show that the Clinton-Gore administration considered sharing secret Clipper surveillance keys with China and other hostile powers in order to monitor worldwide communications for "law enforcement" purposes.

Al Gore called the Bush anti-terrorism program "a threat to the very structure of our government." The former vice president's memory of his own threat to American privacy is flawed and filled with lies. I only hope that Gore elects to come clean with documented history. Until then he can fade into the oblivion of a lying, second-rate ex-presidential candidate

 

[bufordtpisser]

He invented the internet......

He remembers inventing the internet, but ever so conveniently forgets about all of the projects that he was involved in that were to do the exact sam thing tha he wants to chastise GWB about. Talk about your proverbial sore loser. Come on Albert, fess up. You are an idiot and a moron and we all know it. SHut up and go away. We didn't want you for president, and well, I guess that we do not want you at all. Too bad suicide is a crime. You are a perfect candidate for the pro suicide poster boy.

 

[fossten]

Hmm...where's Phil (97silverlsc), the resident conspiracy theorist of this forum? I figured he'd have to comment on this. Not so easy to be glib when your side is the wacko, huh?

 

[TheDude]

I watched part of Larry King w/ Roberto Gonzalez, he said basically the same thing; Gore shouldn't be throwing stones at Bush for something he's guilty of being part of when he was V.P. My question to you (Repubs), does that make it legal for Bush to break the law just because the previous admin did?

 

[fossten]

I watched part of Larry King w/ Roberto Gonzalez, he said basically the same thing; Gore shouldn't be throwing stones at Bush for something he's guilty of being part of when he was V.P. My question to you (Repubs), does that make it legal for Bush to break the law just because the previous admin did?

I don't accept your premise that Bush broke the law. This has been examined carefully and under the Constitution it can easily be argued that Bush has plenty of leeway to do what he did.

It's unlikely that, with a majority of Americans in favor of Bush doing whatever it takes to protect us, anything negative will happen to Bush for this. It may take the US Supreme Court to decide this, though.

 

[97silverlsc]

Hmm...where's Phil (97silverlsc), the resident conspiracy theorist of this forum? I figured he'd have to comment on this. Not so easy to be glib when your side is the wacko, huh?

Phil was at work. I agree with what Gore said in his speech. I also agree with his response to the RWW white house response.
Statement by Former Vice President Al Gore
t r u t h o u t | Statement

Tuesday 17 January 2006

The Administration's response to my speech illustrates perfectly the need for a special counsel to review the legality of the NSA wiretapping program. The Attorney General is making a political defense of the President without even addressing the substantive legal questions that have so troubled millions of Americans in both political parties.

There are two problems with the Attorney General's effort to focus attention on the past instead of the present Administration's behavior. First, as others have thoroughly documented, his charges are factually wrong. Both before and after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was amended in 1995, the Clinton/Gore Administration complied fully and completely with the terms of the law.

Second, the Attorney General's attempt to cite a previous administration's activity as precedent for theirs - even though factually wrong - ironically demonstrates another reason why we must be so vigilant about their brazen disregard for the law. If unchecked, their behavior would serve as a precedent to encourage future presidents to claim these same powers, which many legal experts in both parties believe are clearly illegal.

The issue, simply put, is that for more than four years, the executive branch has been wiretapping many thousands of American citizens without warrants in direct contradiction of American law. It is clearly wrong and disrespectful to the American people to allow a close political associate of the president to be in charge of reviewing serious charges against him.

The country needs a full and independent investigation into the facts and legality of the present Administration's program.

:F

 

[97silverlsc]

and:
White House Lobs Accusations at Gore
By NEDRA PICKLER , 01.17.2006, 05:37 PM

Former Vice President Al Gore and the White House traded accusations over national security Tuesday in a dispute that also pulled in President Bush's other presidential election rival, John Kerry.

At issue was Bush's secret domestic eavesdropping program, which Gore denounced in a speech Monday as illegal and a threat to the U.S. system of government.

Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan shot back at Gore in a style reminiscent of campaigns past, calling the Democrat who lost to Bush in 2000 a hypocrite and accusing him of grandstanding for media coverage.

"If Al Gore is going to be the voice of the Democrats on national security matters, we welcome it," McClellan said. He suggested Gore does not understand the threat facing America from terrorists overseas.

Gore charged that Bush broke the law by allowing the National Security Agency to monitor e-mails and phone calls to and from the United States without approval from a special federal court that authorizes requests to eavesdrop on Americans.

Two civil liberties groups - the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights - filed federal lawsuits Tuesday seeking to block the eavesdropping program, which they called unconstitutional surveillance of American citizens.

McClellan said the Clinton-Gore administration had engaged in warrantless physical searches, and he cited an FBI search of the home of CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames without permission from a judge. He said Clinton's deputy attorney general, Jamie Gorelick, had testified before Congress that the president had the inherent authority to engage in physical searches without warrants.

"I think his hypocrisy knows no bounds," McClellan said of Gore.

But at the time of the Ames search in 1993 and when Gorelick testified a year later, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act required warrants for electronic surveillance for intelligence purposes, but did not cover physical searches. The law was changed to cover physical searches in 1995 under legislation that Clinton supported and signed.

Bush's attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, made the same arguments as McClellan during interviews Monday on CNN's "Larry King Live" and Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes."

Gore said Gonzales made a "political defense" of the president, showing why the attorney general should not be in charge of reviewing charges against Bush and should instead name a special counsel.

"His charges are factually wrong," Gore said in a written statement Tuesday. "Both before and after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was amended in 1995, the Clinton-Gore administration complied fully and completely with the terms of the law."

Kerry said Tuesday that he agrees with Gore and that Bush has "definitely" broken the law. He said it's difficult to get recourse with the Republican-controlled Congress.

"I hope the administration will, of its own admission and its own steps, reverse course, admit the mistake, and try to guarantee that the protections put in place are adhered to," the Massachusetts senator said on CNN's "The Situation Room.":N

 

[JohnnyBz00LS]

WOW, three posts in a row from Newsmax.com. You KNOW that someone's back must be against the wall when they have to resort to posting snippets from that right-wingged clearinghouse of propaganda.

 

[fossten]

WOW, three posts in a row from Newsmax.com. You KNOW that someone's back must be against the wall when they have to resort to posting snippets from that right-wingged clearinghouse of propaganda.

You've never been to newsmax.com, have you? Because if you had, you'd notice that they have editorials from libs as well.

Can't refute my argument, so you try to discredit my source.