Georgia10 writes at Kos that on The Today Show this morning, Attorney General Alberto “torture is what I say it is” Gonzales told Katie Couric that the president was granted the power to authorize surveillance by the authorization for war.
President George W. Bush’s decision to eavesdrop on people within the United States was backed by the U.S. Congress’ authorization of military force after the September 11, 2001, attacks, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said on Monday.
“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 also believe that the authorization to use force which was passed by the Congress in the days following the attacks of September 11th constituted additional authorization for the president to engage in this kind of” electronic surveillance, he said.
Georgia10 shreds this claim nicely, so I don’t have to.
See also: Scott at Lawyers, Guns and Money and Michael Bérubé.
Update: See Ezra K. at TAPPED and Atrios. Short version: What is the White House hiding?
Update update: John Aravosis speculates that the NSA was spying on journalists.
I enjoyed the freudian slip he made when talking about listening in on Bin Laden and called him Saddam. Classic
None of this secret stuff is needed if the President would stop taking month long vacations and start paying attention to his PDB’s especially when the titles are about bin Laden attacking America. It’s all more cover for his incompetence and ineffectualness. And, wouldn’t all his apologists be surprised if they found their names on those lists of wiretaps.