Originally published February 23 2006
John W. Dean compares Bush and Nixon
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Dean says that both claimed the president is allowed to violate Congress's laws to protect national security, and that both used illegal surveillance. Also compared are their similar views of the powers held as commander-in-chief.
On Friday, December 16, the New York Times published a major scoop by James Risen and Eric Lichtblau: They reported that Bush authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on Americans without warrants, ignoring the procedures of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Initially, Bush and the White House stonewalled, neither confirming nor denying the president had ignored the law.
There can be no serious question that warrantless wiretapping, in violation of the law, is impeachable.
After all, Nixon was charged in Article II of his bill of impeachment with illegal wiretapping for what he, too, claimed were national security reasons.
First reports indicated that NSA was only monitoring foreign calls, originating either in the USA or abroad, and that no more than 500 calls were being covered at any given time.
But the use of the information from the wiretaps went far beyond that justification: A few juicy tidbits were used for political purposes.
Accordingly, Congress believed the wiretapping, combined with the misuse of the information it had gathered, to be an impeachable offense.
Polling shows that a large majority of Americans are willing to give up their civil liberties to prevent another terror attack.
No president before Bush has taken as aggressive a posture - the position that his powers as commander-in-chief, under Article II of the Constitution, license any action he may take in the name of national security - although Richard Nixon, my former boss, took a similar position.
Bush has given one legal explanation for his actions which borders on the laughable: He claims that implicit in Congress' authorization of his use of force against the Taliban in Afghanistan, following the 9/11 attack, was an exemption from FISA.
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