We’ve waited six years for even this much information about domestic spying to come out. We’ve waited this long, we’ve waited until there was a Democratic majority in both the House and the Senate before anyone in Congress that was capable decided to nail someone to the floor long enough to get answers. It took six years to get oversight of what now appears to be a grossly over-grown domestic surveillance program that doubtless has violated our human rights and our rights as Americans.

So, explain this: why are we taking the lead of Republican Senator Arlen Specter? How does the recently-deposed chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee deserve to take the lead on the investigation he had six years to start and never did?

NSA Spying Part of Broader Effort - washingtonpost.com

McConnell’s letter was aimed at defending Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales from allegations by Democrats that he may have committed perjury by telling Congress that no legal objections were raised about the TSP. Gonzales said a legal fight in early 2004 was focused on “other intelligence activities” than those confirmed by Bush, but he never connected those to Bush’s executive order.But in doing so, McConnell’s letter also underscored that the full scope of the NSA’s surveillance program under Bush’s order has not been revealed. The TSP described by Bush and his aides allowed the interception of communication between the United States and other countries where one party is believed to be tied to al-Qaeda, so other types of communication or data are presumably being collected under the parts of the wider NSA program that remain hidden.

Technorati Tags: NSA, Alberto Gonzales, Michael McConnell, George Bush, Spying, Surveillance, TSP, Constitution, Privacy

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