Post by Moses on Feb 6, 2006 13:39:12 GMT -5
to a fascist dicatorship:
Conservative split
Some conservatives defend the legality of the surveillance program. Among the most prominent has been David Rivkin, a former associate White House counsel in the administration of George H.W. Bush, who has recently found himself debating a series of conservatives who used to be his allies.
Rivkin said his fellow conservatives who call the surveillance program illegal are mostly libertarians and other believers in small government. The critics, he said, do not believe that the war on terrorism is a real war and that the nature of terrorism requires treating the home front like a battlefield.
''Most of the critics don't really agree that this is war, or if they do, they haven't thought through the implications," Rivkin said. ''The rules in war are harsh rules, because the stakes are so high."
Rivkin also rejected Fein's contention that if Bush's legal theory is correct, a president also could authorize internment camps. He said the president can do things that are normal parts of war, including conducting military surveillance. But it would still be illegal to detain citizens who aren't enemy combatants, he said.
But Robert Levy of the libertarian Cato Institute said conducting surveillance on US soil without a warrant is one of the things that Bush cannot do, even in wartime, because Congress passed a law making it a criminal offense to wiretap Americans without a warrant, even in national security circumstances.
''If we had silence by Congress on warrants, then the administration's position would be more powerful," Levy said. ''But the president is acting contrary to the expressed will of Congress. That is what renders this program most legally suspect."
Richard Epstein, a prominent conservative law professor at the University of Chicago, said Rivkin and the other defenders of the president's legal theory are misreading the Constitution. The president has broad powers to take immediate steps to counter an invasion, he said, but has little authority to defy the will of Congress after an initial emergency has receded.
Bob Barr, a onetime Republican representative from Georgia and a former prosecutor, said the issue is whether the president can violate a law, not whether this particular program makes sense from a policy perspective in the war on terrorism.
Said Barr, ''If the American people see the conservative movement rolling over and playing dead and buying into these specious arguments by the administration -- that it's OK to violate the law as long as you do it for the right reasons and because we might have a president that we like -- then the credibility of the conservative movement on other issues will suffer greatly."
Conservative split
Some conservatives defend the legality of the surveillance program. Among the most prominent has been David Rivkin, a former associate White House counsel in the administration of George H.W. Bush, who has recently found himself debating a series of conservatives who used to be his allies.
Rivkin said his fellow conservatives who call the surveillance program illegal are mostly libertarians and other believers in small government. The critics, he said, do not believe that the war on terrorism is a real war and that the nature of terrorism requires treating the home front like a battlefield.
''Most of the critics don't really agree that this is war, or if they do, they haven't thought through the implications," Rivkin said. ''The rules in war are harsh rules, because the stakes are so high."
Rivkin also rejected Fein's contention that if Bush's legal theory is correct, a president also could authorize internment camps. He said the president can do things that are normal parts of war, including conducting military surveillance. But it would still be illegal to detain citizens who aren't enemy combatants, he said.
But Robert Levy of the libertarian Cato Institute said conducting surveillance on US soil without a warrant is one of the things that Bush cannot do, even in wartime, because Congress passed a law making it a criminal offense to wiretap Americans without a warrant, even in national security circumstances.
''If we had silence by Congress on warrants, then the administration's position would be more powerful," Levy said. ''But the president is acting contrary to the expressed will of Congress. That is what renders this program most legally suspect."
Richard Epstein, a prominent conservative law professor at the University of Chicago, said Rivkin and the other defenders of the president's legal theory are misreading the Constitution. The president has broad powers to take immediate steps to counter an invasion, he said, but has little authority to defy the will of Congress after an initial emergency has receded.
Bob Barr, a onetime Republican representative from Georgia and a former prosecutor, said the issue is whether the president can violate a law, not whether this particular program makes sense from a policy perspective in the war on terrorism.
Said Barr, ''If the American people see the conservative movement rolling over and playing dead and buying into these specious arguments by the administration -- that it's OK to violate the law as long as you do it for the right reasons and because we might have a president that we like -- then the credibility of the conservative movement on other issues will suffer greatly."