Looking For Answers, Not Neo-Con Talking Points
September 15th, 2006 | by Ken Grandlund |Lawmakers seeking guidance on what they could publicly relate to their constituents regarding the ongoing NSA domestic wiretapping program without violating secrecy laws were given a list of Presidential talking points instead.
In an effort to ascertain the veracity of the president’s assertions that his illegal wiretapping program has (1) actually identified or averted any terror attacks and (2) the precise number of attacks it has thwarted, the Senate Intelligence Committee was instead given a short list of approved comments that are little more than political rhetoric. Consider the following ‘approved’ messages the NSA advised the committee to respond with:
-”I have personally met the dedicated men and women of the NSA. The country owes them an enormous debt of gratitude for their superb efforts to keep us all secure.”
-”I can say that the program must continue. It has detected plots that could have resulted in death or injury to Americans both at home and abroad.”
-”It is being run in a highly disciplined way that takes great pains to protect U.S. privacy rights. There is strict oversight in place, both at the NSA and outside, now including the full congressional intelligence committees.”
Yet despite assurances from the White House since May that promised the committee full access to the program specifics, no documentation or other evidence has been presented to back up those claims. So how can anyone honestly utter those statements and not be considered just another tool of the Neo-Con agenda?
The fact remains that the committee has been given no evidence to support or refute those statements. And until they do, no Senator in their right mind would go around asserting something which they have no evidence to verify. Oh wait…it seems that only the Democrat Senators on the committee declined to repeat these obvious political talking points. I guess the Republican members of the committee don’t have a problem being shills for the administration no matter how stupid it makes them look.
It says something to me when the executive branch of government willfully declines to provide evidence to back up its claims, especially when that evidence is only being requested to verify its own assertions. It says that the executive branch of government is full of shit and scared that the evidence (or lack of it) will make that even more clear to the voters of this country. And it also says that they not only know that what they have done and are continuing to do would never pass the muster of legal scrutiny, and would also refute the claims they’ve been making for the last five years.
