As you’d probably expect, there were more than a few questions about the NSA’s warrantless-spying program at the president’s press conference this morning. If there was even one substantive response to fairly specific questions, it was hiding well.
For example, one reporter asked Bush why he “skip[ped] the basic safeguards of asking courts for permission for the intercepts.”
“[R]ight after September the 11th, I knew we were fighting a different kind of war. And so I asked people in my administration to analyze how best for me and our government to do the job people expect us to do, which is to detect and prevent a possible attack. That’s what the American people want. We looked at the possible scenarios. And the people responsible for helping us protect and defend came forth with the current program, because it enables us to move faster and quicker. And that’s important. We’ve got to be fast on our feet, quick to detect and prevent.”
None of this makes a lick of sense. First, the response explains why he signed off on the NSA program, not why he sidestepped the courts and FISA. Second, speed is irrelevant — the law goes so far as to let the administration tap a phone first and go back to get permission days later. We’re already “fast on our feet “; this doesn’t make clearer why the White House circumvented the legal process.
But taking Bush’s comments at face value, another reporter asked why, if speed is so important and existing law is inadequate, the administration hasn’t “sought to get changes in the law instead of bypassing it.” Bush’s response:
“[A]n open debate about law would say to the enemy, ‘Here is what we’re going to do.’ And this is an enemy which adjusts.”
This doesn’t work either. FISA law is already on the books — and can be read by anyone — and measures such as the Patriot Act are part of a relatively “open” debate already. If Bush feels constrained by existing law, he can ask Congress to change the law. He seems to find it easier to just go around lawmakers and judges. (Or are we talking about “secret laws“?)
Reporters soldiered on. One, whom Bush fondly calls “Stretch,” noted that FISA courts approve nearly every request, they operate in secret, and search warrants can be given retroactively. So why sidetrack the process?
“We used the process to monitor. But also, this is a different — a different era, a different war, Stretch. So what we’re — people are changing phone numbers and phone calls, and they’re moving quick. And we’ve got to be able to detect and prevent. I keep saying that, but this is a — it requires quick action.”
On and on it went. It’s not that the president has crafted an unpersuasive spin; it’s that this isn’t even spin at all. There’s no substance, no explanation, no reasoning.
Bush holds fewer press conferences than any president of the television era, but at this point, he might as well not bother. It’s frustrating for us, embarrassing for him, and a waste of everyone’s time.