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Thank you Iowa & America
Editorial by: Roger Wm. Hughes
Thanks to action by those who e-mailed the Des Moines Register, Washington
columnist Jane Norman in her Potomac Fever column wrote about Sen. Tom
Harkin’s troubles with Jack Abramoff. However, the Register -- ever the
Harkin apologist -- never mentioned that he was part of the corruption
investigation by the Justice Department, as reported in an Associated Press
article on December 2nd.
The Register article did mention the fact that the drafting of the Harkin
letters was helped by Michael D. Smith -- a member of the Abramoff lobbying
firm. It even mentioned that Harkin received $17,000 at the time he sent the
letters and $4,000 after the Meskwaki Casino reopened.
Don’t bother going to the
Register’s website to find the article. As of noon on December 19th you
could not find the article. The Register's website says that no Potomac
Fever column has been written in the last seven days -- despite the fact
that Norman's column ran in the Sunday, Dec. 18th print version of the
newspaper.
Reid lied
"Don't lump me in with Jack Abramoff. This is a Republican scandal," Senate
Minority Leader Harry Reid told Fox News on Sunday, saying he never received
any money from Abramoff.
But Sen. Reid in fact did receive campaign contributions from Abramoff
clients.
Reid has long tried to make the Abramoff scandal an exclusive Republican
scandal -- despite the fact that the Justice Department recently
announcement that Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) is under investigation for
corruption involved in the Abramoff scandal.
Detection & monitoring
President George Bush has admitted that he has authorized the National
Security Agency to spy on up to 1,000 American citizens who have ties to al
Qaeda. In the President's press conference, he sought to make a distinction
between monitoring domestic communications and detecting foreign
communications between Americans and al Qaeda operatives abroad.
The President was not willing to elaborate further because of concerns about
relaying information to the enemy.
Much of the questioning on the subject was based on what legal authority
President had to act in the manner that he did. The other questions
pertained to the President's the ability to seek court approval under the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). It was in response to these
questions that the President said that when his administration monitored
Americans on a long-term basis that they used FISA. This implied that
detection probably happens in a different manner.
"As president of the United States and commander in chief I have the
constitutional responsibility and the constitutional authority to protect
our country," President Bush said at a year-end White House news conference.
"The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act provides that you must get a
court order to engage in electronic surveillance of the type that the
president talked about on Saturday, except as otherwise authorized by
Congress," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales briefed news agencies regarding
the Presidents authority.
"There were many people, many lawyers, within the administration who advised
the president that he had inherent authority as commander in chief under the
Constitution to engage in this kind of signals intelligence of our enemy,"
Gonzales said in an interview with CNN.
"We all know that since Sept. 11 we have new challenges with enemies that
exist within the United States of America - so the equation has changed,"
Sen. John McCain said before the press conference in regarding to the
Presidents ability to intercept phone calls.
Clinton’s illegal spying
NewsMax is reporting on the Clinton administration’s illegal use of National
Security Agency to monitor millions of personal phone calls, private emails
and even ATM transactions inside the U.S. - all without a court order. Now,
NewsMax reports on the well-known incident that caused an international
stir. The incident involved Clinton’s spying on European businesses as
reported in
NewsMax:
During the 1990s, President Bill Clinton ordered the National Security
Agency to use its super-secret Echelon surveillance program to monitor the
personal telephone calls and private email of employees who worked for
foreign companies in a bid to boost U.S. trade, NewsMax.com has learned.
In 2000, former Clinton CIA director James Woolsey set off a firestorm of
protest in Europe when he told the French newspaper Le Figaro that he was
ordered by Clinton in 1993 to transform Echelon into a tool for gathering
economic intelligence.
"We have a triple and limited objective," the former intelligence chief told
the French paper. "To look out for companies which are breaking US or UN
sanctions; to trace 'dual' technologies, i.e., for civil and military use,
and to track corruption in international business."
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