Originally published February 13 2006
Selected Congress members knew about domestic spy program
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Bush now claims he briefed selected members of Congress on his domestic spying program. At least seven Democrats in the House were told about the spy program up to four years ago.
President Bush deserves plenty of blame for secretly authorizing domestic spying by the National Security Agency.
But some of the president's fiercest critics in Congress gave him the political cover to do so.
The question why they did so says much about the nation's brittle democracy and how Democrats have covertly joined with Republicans to restore the imperial presidency and effectively remove any checks on the executive branch of the U.S. government.
The domestic spy scandal first looked like another unilateral move by a president bent on doing secretly what he refused to admit publicly.
After 9/11, President Bush ordered the National Security Agency to surveil phone calls and emails of Americans in the U.S. In an amazing confession last month, Bush admitted disregarding the law in authorizing the spy program in 2002, opening himself to impeachment charges and NSA officials to criminal indictment.
The congressional report is another blow to Bush's flimsy argument that his spying order is legal.
But it is now clear that Bush has a second defense that is more difficult to dismiss: the claim that by briefing selected members of Congress on the program, he essentially sought and gained legislative approval for domestic spying.
Indeed, at least seven Democrats in the House were briefed by the Bush administration on the spy program as far back as four years ago.
Last week, Pelosi released a previously classified letter documenting some of her concerns about NSA spying.
They didn't go public with their concerns because they were bound by rules governing classified briefings of congressional members.
Members of these committees received classified briefings on secret operations conducted by the U.S. government.
If she blows the whistle on the spy program, she ran the risk of being stripped of her security clearance -- and sanctioned by the Republican-controlled House.
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