Keith Olbermann had breaking news on Countdown tonight: US News & World Report is reporting that the White House may have authorized warrantless physical searches of homes of United States residents in the months after the 9/11 attacks.
The Fourth Amendment says:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Update: Crooks & Liars has video of the Countdown segment here.
Update 2: Here is the transcript:
Olbermann: (reading from a U.S. News & World Report press release) “Soon after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, lawyers in the White House and the Justice Department argued that the same legal authority that the same legal authority that allowed warrentless electronic surveillance inside the US, could also be used to justify physical searches of terror suspects homes & businesses without court approval.”
Olbermann: Doesn’t that send chills down your spine?
Turley: Well it does. It’s horrific, because what that would constitute is to effectively remove the 4th Amendment from the U.S. Constitution and the fact that it was so quick as a suggestion shows the inclinations, unfortunately, of this administration. It treats the Constitution as some legal technicality instead of the thing were trying to fight to protect. Notably, the U.S. News & World Report story says the FBI officals, or some of them apparently, objected… [W]e’re seeing a lot of people in the administration with the courage to say “Hold it, this is not what we’re supposed to be about. If we’re fighting a war, it’s a war of self definition and if we start to take whole amendments out of the Constitution in the name of the war on terror-we have to wonder what’s left at the end, except victory.”
Olbermann: (reading from the press release) “According to 2 two current and former government officals . . . the Bush administration lawyers presented the arguments to senior FBI officals who expressed strong reservations about their proposal. . . . It could not be determined whether any warrentless physical searches had been carried out under the legal authority cited by the administration, but at least one defense attorney representing a terrorism suspect has alleged that his law office and home may have been searched without a court warrant.”
Olbermann: The attorneys office and home not the suspect’s office and home. Is there away to overstate this? When you start to talk about the 4th amendment and protections of constitution verses the needs to try to track down terrorist, you can move very quickly into tin-foil hat zone. When you sound totally Paranoid-like they’re spying on us through our walls, but is this…is this not the first thing you would see if you did some sort of… prequel to the book 1984, wouldn’t this be somewhere in the 1st chapter?
Turley: I’m afraid it would. This is something to be very concerned about. These are not trival matters. We’ve seen a sort of broad-based assault on basic Constitutional rights in our country since 9/11. We have a President who ordered electronic surveillance by the NSA without warrants in something that constitutes a federal crime. Congress isn’t even holding serious hearings on that. So we have a system that has checks & balances but none of them seem to be working. At the same time, as we noted earlier, we have an attack on the Judiciary itself, all of this should present a picture of concern for any American.
- Topic: News & Comment
But as it so often seems, nothing will happen. The Democrats will make a little noise, we’ll have some outrage from a few liberal pundits, Sean Hannity will defend the president’s actions, and life will go on.
I think it should be obvious that it does not matter how low W’s
ratings slip, he’s going to go on behaving exactly the way he’s behaving, like a trust fund brat who breaks things, walks away and waits for someone else to pick up the tab. It’s also pretty clear to me that Bush really has no interest in how his own party does in the midterm elections. He has his own sick agenda and no one else is invited.
IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH
out rageous. please keep me up to date on new and more outrageous actions by our government. Iwant to be informed doris lefley
Wow, this is really the end. Another shining example of why this bastard shoule IMMEDIATELY be impeached
Do you think this administration might have collablorated with Berlusconi’s boys (Italy) to create the Niger forgeries? Sound too evil? Maybe the Senate Select Intelligence Committee will find out – as it pledged it would by tne end of 2004!
Don’t put anthing past these guys. Wouldn’t you love to know what Steven Hadley was doing meeting with Nicolo Pollari (chief of the Italian military intelligence – SISMI)the month prior to those (forged) documents having been “discovered.”
Has the FBI even questioned Rocco Martino -originator of the forged documents – Col. Nucera (SISMI) or Michael Ledeen and CIA operatives Duane Clarridge and noe deceased, Alan Wolfe about what they might have done?
Can you imagine – if BushCo was involved in creating these forgeries – what such a revelation might have on the American public?
To Bill Chickering,
Sean Hannity isn’t the one who will be defending Bush.
Sean didn’t put himself in front of the microphone.
ABC/Disney did.
It is ABC/Disney who will defend Bush by putting Sean in front of the mike.
All the talk show mouths are put in position by management and are answerable to management.
To the extent that they manipulate the public with distortions and lies, it is the fault of Management.
Surprise, surprise!
Speaking of things left undone, where the hell is the Anthrax Killer?
Funny, once it became obvious where the particular strain came from (Ft. Detrick) the FBI lost interest fast.
The Antrax Attacks were an inside job.
Why isn’t anyone talking about it, because Junior sure as hell doesn’t want to? Anyone else notice that, while 9/11 flies out of his mouth 70 times a speech, Antrax is never mentioned; ever!
Come on, people, lets start demanding some answers; like who tried to assassinate the Democratic leadershhip in Congress?????
“We have met the true enemy of the people of the United States: it is THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, headed by GEORGE W. BUSH, aided and abetted by the “belt way democrats” led by Senator Lieberman and Kerry, supported by the mega churches of Falwell, Buchanan,,Dodson, Robertson to name but a few, and of course, dependent upon the unquestioningly loyal of the NASCAR SOUTH!
The QUESTION now is: “ARE YOU READY FOR SOME RAPTURE?” The old, “Are you ready for some football?”, is really wimpy by comparison, don’t you think?
WLEKOMEN AM BUSHVELDT!
IMPRISON HIM IMPRISON HIM IMPRISON HIM IMPRISON HIM IMPRISON HIM IMPRISON HIM IMPRISON HIM IMPRISON HIM IMPRISON HIM IMPRISON HIM IMPRISON HIM IMPRISON HIM IMPRISON HIM IMPRISON HIM IMPRISON HIM IMPRISON HIM
To Jay Diamond:
First of all, Sean Hannity is with FOX. Don’t believe they’re affiliated with Disney. Rupert Murdochis the criminal there. But I agree with you. Hannity is just a water boy for those who run things. And so is Bush. Bush isn’t involved in the day to day running of this government at all. He’s too busy running around giving bad speeches and staying out of town while the big boys run the operations back in Washington.
And to the other responder who howls impeach him. That’s nice. All the folks who run Bush will do is go out and find another who will do their bidding. Right now it looks as though Bill Frist is their boy.
Anyway Jay, thanks for setting the record straight.
If you’d out a covert agent dealing with WMD and terrorism (to “several” reporters), can’t imagine you’d blink at creating the Niger forgery. But the public has pretty much yawned at the outing of Plame–even though it’s possible many related agents lost their cover and were maybe tortured or killed for it, even though WMDs may have been lost that will eventually kill many more. It was all done “to keep us safe,” you see, and that’s where the public’s mind shuts down.
Now the anthrax mailings–those could not be said to have been to keep us safe. All they did was enhance the climate of fear, especially in Congress. Innocent Americans died on our soil as a result. If that is ever proven, it could start the great unraveling, all the way back to the beginning.
When is the media goning to report the news fairly? and when you watch talk shows they let the Reps talk and talk and interrupt the Dems or let the Reps interupt them they sure show there party assoiations.Lets get the Dems in line with Fiengold .
Imperial King George and the sycophantic, rubber-stamping, bootlicking, cowardly, political hacks of his Republican Guard are now openly declared to be above the law with plenary, totally unchecked power.
Our piss-ant democrats should either swear fealty to the king and join the Republicans in licking the King’ boots or grow some balls and show the world what made this country great: the refusal to be bootlicking cowards afraid of His Majesty the King, and willing to fight for our beliefs.
So far very few Americans have stepped up to join Russ Feingold in his condemnation of the King, which is a sad, sad commentary on the “courage” of our “leaders”. Pusillanimous pussyfooters, all.
This is scary from a terrorism point of view. It makes anything found in the illegal search unusable in a court of law. This could allow a terrorst to go free among us.
Will someone PLEASE tell me the exact definition of HIGH CRIMES?
What are we waiting for..? Clinton would hve been
crucified on the White House lawn…
This is without reason…of course, the reason?
The rightwingnuts rule the entire country!!!
If the polls are correct the 35% of so who still support Bush are the ones making all the noise. That they have a disproportionate podium to spout nonsense does affect those who are not paying attention enough. Until they find government agents illegally searching their homes, they’ll think it doesn’t apply to them.
But… with each round of outrageous actions by BushCo, more people wake up.
Duke Cunningham’s briber, Mitchell Wade (MZM), got contracts to run Total Information Awareness (TIA) projects. As did so many other Bush cronies — Carlyle, Halliburton, etc. So why does anyone think the Bush Admin was NOT spying on law-abiding Americans for partisan/policy purposes (and not for national security reasons)?
I don’t get it.
The Bush Admin lied us into a war, lied about the costs of the war (not estimated at $1 trillion), broke America’s glory through explicit policies of torture, violated the US Constitution, spent us into the largest budget deficit in US history, engaged in wanton corruption and influence-peddling, etc.
And you’re surprised about a little illegal search-and-seizure in violation of the 4th Amendment?
Animouse: It doesn’t surprise me that they’re doing it. The only surprise will be if they get caught and nailed for it.