Russ Feingold Quotes

Senator Church was the chairman of the committee. It’s reports (14 in all) are the most extensive documentation of U. S. intelligence ever compiled.

President George W. Bush had ignored a federal law and tapped the phones of Americans without probable cause and a warrant issued by a court. The President’s defenders argued that the President, as Commander in Chief, has the Constitutional responsibility to lead the military and protect the nation. Intelligence gathering is part of military activity. Therefore the intelligence gathering is a Constitutional duty and the Congress, under the separation of powers doctrine, may not interfere with the President’s Constitutional Duty to conduct intelligence. Under this doctrine, the President need not obey laws that he believes impinge on his management of the war effort and the defense of the nation. Most legal scholars believe that this argument is nonsense, but the George W. Bush administration has stated the doctrine and it was the subject of much litigation.

He was explaining his reasons for resigning in 2005 from the number two position in the Justice Department. The George W. Bush administration had implemented a program of secret wiretapping and surveillance of American citizens in America which required the authorization of the Justice Department which had determined that the program as it was being implemented violated the law. The Attorney General was ill in the hospital but had told Comey that he would not sign the authorization. The White House then pressured Comey to sign and he refused, and in a similar replay of the Watergate “Saturday Night Massacre”, the number three man at Justice would have been ordered to sign. His resignation convinced President Bush to alter the program to take account of the Justice Department objections.

President George W. Bush, to justify the invasion of Iraq had told the public that the Iraqi regime was developing nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and had participated in the September 11 attack on the United States by assisting Al Qaeda. It turned out that these statements were false. The administration claimed that their error was well intentioned and the result of faulty intelligence. Opponents claimed that the administration officials knew that they were exaggerating and had pressured the intelligence agencies to create intelligence conclusions that supported their story.

President George W. Bush, to justify the invasion of Iraq had told the public that the Iraqi regime was developing nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and had participated in the September 11 attack on the United States by assisting Al Qaeda. It turned out that these statements were false. The administration claimed that their error was well intentioned and the result of faulty intelligence. Opponents claimed that the administration officials knew that they were exaggerating and had pressured the intelligence agencies to create intelligence conclusions that supported their story.

This quotation has much more meaning that similar statements of dozens of other people who claimed Bush should be impeached. The reason is that Fine was a strong conservative wanting to impeach a conservative President and he was the person who drafted the articles of impeachment against President William Clinton which passed the House but Clinton was acquitted by the Senate. So Fine was generally seen as a partisan for Republican Conservatives like Bush and a man who acted strongly against Clinton, and yet he observed in this quotation that Bush’s crimes were more serious. See {583797} for a concurring view on impeachment of Bush.

There had not been an audit in over 200 years, and many of the records are missing.

Senator Church was the chairman of the committee. It’s reports (14 in all) are the most extensive documentation of U. S. intelligence ever compiled.

Ashmun introduced this anti-war resolution during the Mexican War. This resolution failed, but Abraham Lincoln, then a Freshman Congressman voted for it

George W. Bush had told the country that the reason for the Iraq War was that Iraq had developed weapons of mass destruction. After the invasion it was determined that there were no such weapons that had justified the war. Debate since has concentrated in whether the Bush administration had pressured the intelligence experts to provide the information they wanted to justify the war or whether the administration was misled by their intelligence agencies.

President George W. Bush, to justify the invasion of Iraq had told the public that the Iraqi regime was developing nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and had participated in the September 11 attack on the United States by assisting Al Qaeda. It turned out that these statements were false. The administration claimed that their error was well intentioned and the result of faulty intelligence. Opponents claimed that the administration officials knew that they were exaggerating and had pressured the intelligence agencies to create intelligence conclusions that supported their story.

He was referring to the George W. Bush and his behavior on the Iraq War.

See {618460} for the kinds of statements that stimulated this type of political attack.

Bush had stated when he was running for President that he was opposed to placing America’s nuclear waste in the Nevada mountain which was very unpopular with Nevada voters, but once in the Presidency he changed his position. The reason might have been that there was no backup plan to Yucca Mountain that Bush could select. It was wither Nevada or back to the drawing board with radioactive waste piling up each day.

There are many who do not agree with Hayden’s thesis that there was a national consensus about the degree of compromise with Constitutional rights. It is the case that the 3 Presidents maintained a continuity, but there was no great outcry of public opinion for roundups and arrests of Muslims after 9-11. The government never at the time revealed the data on what they were doing. When that became public, it was clear that there was no consensus as was the case with torture. The military authorities who interned American Citizens of Japanese Origin argued that there was little public opposition but many citizens did not even know it was happening, and the ones who did, for the most part, thought that it was only the suspected saboteurs and spies who were interned, not American citizens who were suspected of nothing; not little children; not 90 year old men and women. When the facts were known Americans did form a national consensus—that it was one of the worst practices in which the United States ever engaged.