Fmr Bush Lawyer: "I Could Not Find Legal Support" For Parts Of Spying Program

Associated Press:

A former top lawyer for the Bush administration on Tuesday said that parts of the President Bush's much-criticized eavesdropping program were illegal.

There were aspects of the Terrorist Surveillance Program "that I could not find the legal support for," Jack Goldsmith, the former head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Read the whole story: Associated Press

Comments

[LastDaysCafe]

What US President now needs any "legal support" for aynthing? Clinton;Bush and the next one could and can do whatever they want based on the fact that the majority of Americans are too useless and cinfused to stand up for anything especially their democratic and constitutional rights!

Even in the event that some measure of the population gets upset over some new liberty that the White House is taking with their human rights,all the President has to say is that its a necessary action to "protect" Homeland Security and then everybody immediately,patriotically,shuts up and grabs for their ankles!

[leftLibertarian]

Der Fuhrer Bush will be very displeased!

[JackTheBearTexas]

Where are the US Marshals when you need them?????

[StillAmused]

... and Diogenes continues to search with his lantern for one honest man in this criminal administration.

... who stands up WHEN IT COUNTS.

[SensibleAmerican]

Frankly there is no legal support for this entire Presidency ...

[mari2JJ]

A hallmark of Bush's legacy will be Bush's spying and reduction of the protections the constitution gives each citizen. The administration's behavior smacks of Gestapo-ism and it gets worse each time I hear of their continued, accelerated infractions. It will take us years to undo the mess he has made of things if it is even possible to make changes to fix his mess.

[kfdan]

One really has to chide Congress and the courts for allowing this kind of behavior to exist and for that matter to continue!

[Ping]

Yet they pine about democracy, freedom and liberty. It just makes me sick. His SCOTUS appointments suck too. Alito and Roberts.

[LIR]

Nice he says it now...
Shoulda woulda coulda...

[ConcernAmerican]

IT IS ILLEGAL!!!!!!!!! UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!!

[TJTelecaster]

That's because it's all Fucking illegal..!

[ammitusen]

what i find disturbing is that impeachment was "off the table" BEFORE any real investigations had been done implying that regardless of any crimes discovered later Bush and Cheny get a free pass.

i guess the Dems and their cronies want the same kind of free passes for criminal activity and abuse of power for themselves that they grant Bush and Cheny.

[LIR]

What I think really happened is that they were fed more lies about intelligence reports of possible attacks and were scared into voting...that's the kind interpretation.

[syllepsis]

Too kind. It was obvious the Director of National Intelligence was lying, even before he admitted it.
But then every single Admin official who has gone before Congress has lied. It would be far too kind to believe that members of Congress are extraordinarily gullible.

[spicegal]

Sounds like serious grounds for impeachment to me. Bush knew darn good and well what they were doing was unlawful.

[frost]

.

the lesson to take from the republican failure of the last 7 years..

that the democrats are too big a chickenshit cowards to do anything about it..

or maybe they're whores too..
.

[villastrangiato]

Yup, definitely whores. Apparently, they figure its best to keep Bush around to rub him in our faces and remind us why we need to elect democrats in 2008. Well, if that's the case - I'm voting for Romney and all repiglican congressmen.

[LIR]

Boy, is that bizarre logic...I think I will vote for whores over complicit thugs.

[frost]

.

yes.. Bush did break the law.. knowingly.. intentionally..

but remember.

Nancy Pelosi said Bush would not be impeached..

yes, folks.. doesn't matter what these crooked lying whore republicans do..

because these cowardly whore democrats won't be doing a thing about it..

whats worse.. a crook or the enabler..

i'd say it's the enabler..
.

[don]

The fact that you are aware of any of this is due to the diligence of the Democrats and some Republicans in Congress who are in the process of reinstating oversight that was devoid during the Republican reign. Attacking their progress as inadequate or not to your satisfaction strikes me as an expression of ingratitude and lack of appeciation of the complexity of the issues at hand. Every fact that emerges should be savored as another step in the reversal of the unitary executive and a return to a balance of power. The electorate has to take this effort to it's final conclusion.

[Conservativeslayer]

Yeah the dems are doing "oversight" and that's why we know some of what's been happening. However there has been no accountability. Name one person in the admin. that's gone to jail for breaking the law? Scooter Libby is the only one that comes to mind, and that was because of a special prosecutor. The dems in congress had nothing to do with it. Rove and Miers refuse a congressional subpeona and the dems do nothing. Cheney refuses to hand over subpeonad documents and the dems do nothing. See a pattern here. What good is oversight if there is no accountability?

[Rehbock]

The new citizenship test asks how the Constitution protects against any single branch of government becoming too powerful. Ironic now that the correct answers "checks and balances" and "seperation of powers" are no longer true.

[Earl]

Next time I get a speeding ticket, I am going to tell the judge that I have a secret set of laws that allow me to speed.

[villastrangiato]

Yeah, judge my speed at the time of the citation was a classified national security matter, therefore it cannot be revealed and thus this citation is bupkis........LOL

Now doesn't that sound like something the uber creep Cheney would say?

[BeamMeUpScotty]

Bush and Company have tried to find out just how far they can push without getting pushed back. Obviously, pretty far. As the last 6+ years attest, they've desecrated the Constitution by permitting themselves to spy on ANY of us without warrants, and declaring ANY of us "enemies of the State" or "national security risks", sticking us in jail without due process where we may never see the light of day again. All this is happening while the Congress and the Supreme Court stands by with their fingers up their noses.

All three branches of government are worthless sellouts and suckups.

[villastrangiato]

You sure their fingers aren't up each others asses? I mean come on - Larry Craig is still there....