No Regrets, Even About Genocide

"The court's refusal to hear the case is a victory for the White House and the president's bold use of his powers as commander in chief. Though not a ruling on the legality of Bush's wiretapping policy, it all but forecloses a successful legal attack on it before the president leaves office early next year. In the meantime, Congress and the White House are negotiating new rules for electronic eavesdropping. . . .

"Bush's lawyers successfully invoked two legal doctrines making it difficult to challenge the government's anti-terrorism policies.

"First, they said, challengers must show that they had their phone calls or e-mails intercepted. Otherwise, they have no 'standing' to sue because they have no injury to complain of. Second, the government said, the entire program was secret, and under the 'state secrets privilege,' plaintiffs cannot obtain information on whether they were targeted for surveillance. When combined, the two doctrines make it almost impossible for most challengers to win a hearing in court.

"'They say you need certain information to proceed. And that is exactly the information the government won't give you,' said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's National Security Program. 'If you accept these doctrines, this program is entirely immune from judicial review. It's hard to be optimistic today.'"

Bob Egelko writes in the San Francisco Chronicle: "The U.S. Supreme Court's refusal Tuesday to hear a lawsuit challenging President Bush's electronic surveillance program left a critical balance-of-powers question - whether judges can decide the legality of the secretive program - in the hands of two federal courts in San Francisco. . . .

"One case, now before the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is a suit by AT&T customers who accuse the telecommunications company of illegally giving the government access to their messages and records without a warrant. A former AT&T employee has said in a court filing that the company maintained a room in a San Francisco office where e-mails were copied and shared with federal agents.

"Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker has refused to dismiss the suit, saying the program and AT&T's role have been publicly acknowledged by the Bush administration and company officials. Congress could short-circuit the suit, however, if it grants the president's request to shield AT&T and other companies from liability for any past cooperation with the surveillance program. The Senate has approved such legislation, but a comparable bill cleared the House without the immunity provision."

Via the Crooks and Liars blog, here is Jonathan Turley talking to MSNBC's Keith Olbermann about the Supreme Court's decision: "[W]e know there's an NSA program; we know that it's illegal. There's been no showing nor is no showing possible that the President had the authority to order what he did. This is a crime, defined under federal law. So there's no mystery to the program, there's not a particular debate to its illegality. The only issue is standing: the ability of someone to come in and say, 'I can show I was individually harmed." And they can't do that because the Courts won't give them the information they need and Congress will do nothing to force out into the public the information needed to get this type of relief. And as you noted, the Congress is going further in the opposite direction; they're trying to extinguish suits against telecom companies that have been successful.

Glenn Greenwald blogs for Salon: "In a minimally functioning Republic, when our political leaders are accused of concealing wrongdoing, Congress investigates, uncovers what happens, and informs the American people. When political leaders are accused of breaking the law, courts decide whether that occurred. None of the branches of government do that any longer. They do the opposite: they not only fail to perform those functions, but they affirmatively act to block investigations, help the conduct remain concealed, and ensure that there is no adjudication. When it comes to ensuring that the NSA spying scandal specifically remains forever uninvestigated, secret, and unexamined, telecom amnesty will be the final nail in this coffin, but it is merely illustrative of how our political culture now functions."

Star Wars Watch

Marc Kaufman and Walter Pincus write in The Washington Post: "The Bush administration's attempt to shoot down an out-of-control spy satellite as early as this evening will help the military advance its anti-missile and anti-satellite planning and technology, according to space weapons experts and analysts. Both fields are of high interest to the military and of high concern for many other nations. . . .

"To accomplish this week's task, for example, the Navy has modified its Aegis anti-missile radar system for satellite tracking, making clear that a system designed for missile defense can be transformed into an anti-satellite system in a short time. . . .

"The attempt will further provide an unscripted opportunity to see whether ship-based missiles can blow up the satellite just as it reenters Earth's atmosphere -- a key moment in any attempt to intercept an intercontinental missile that might someday be launched against the United States. . . .

"The Pentagon now spends more than $12 billion annually to develop weapons capable of shooting down missiles entering or leaving space, but it has no dedicated U.S. anti-satellite weapons program in its latest unclassified budget. The military has also worked on a laser project in New Mexico that could have anti-satellite capabilities, and has launched two small satellites that independent experts speculate could be modified to attack, or defend, larger spacecraft. . . .

"David Wright, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said 'there's a real concern among people here and in other nations that the U.S. is trying to develop space weapons in the guise of other systems.' The plan to shoot down the satellite, he says, 'fuels the flames for those who think we want to build anti-satellite capabilities.' Both China and Russia have criticized the planned satellite intercept."

Bush's Magic Trick

Tom Engelhardt writes for Tomdispatch.com: "Think of the top officials of the Bush administration as magicians when it comes to Iraq." His point: they've made Iraq "almost entirely disappear from view in the U.S.

"Of course, what they needed to be effective was that classic adjunct to any magician's act, the perfect assistant. This has been a role long held, and still played with mysterious willingness, by the mainstream media. There are certainly many reporters in Iraq doing their jobs as best they can in difficult circumstances. When it comes to those who make the media decisions at home, however, they have practically clamored for the Bush administration to put them in a coffin-like box and saw it in half. Thanks to their news choices, Iraq has for months been whisked deep inside most papers and into the softest sections of network and cable news programs. Only one Iraq subject has gotten significant front-page attention: How much 'success' has the President's surge strategy had?"

And what else has vanished? "[S]omewhere between 57% and 64% of Americans, according to Rasmussen Reports, want all U.S. troops out of Iraq within a year," Engelhardt writes.

"Americans may not have noticed, but the policy that a large majority of them want is no longer part of polite discussion in Washington or on the campaign trail. The spectrum of opinion in the capital, among presidential candidates, and in the mainstream media ranges from Senator McCain's claim that even setting a date for withdrawal would be a sure recipe for 'genocide' -- and that's the responsible right -- to those who want to depart, but not completely and not very quickly either."

Impeachment (Non) Watch

Lauren R. Dorgan writes in the Concord (N.H.) Monitor: "Activists from as far away as Michigan and as close as Warner clutched their pocket-sized U.S. Constitutions and crowded into a State House hearing yesterday on a proposed resolution that would request Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush and Vice President Cheney. . . .

"The resolution was proposed by Rep. Betty Hall, a Brookline Democrat. It lays out a case that Bush and Cheney violated treaties 'by invading Iraq without just cause or provocation' and misled American lawmakers to make their case. It claims that the federal government's warrantless wiretapping, detentions of 'enemy combatants' at Guantanamo and use of torture on terrorism suspects are due cause to impeach Bush. . . .

"About 100 people crammed into a State House hearing yesterday, many of them gray-headed, most of them appearing in favor in the bill. There were a few opponents. Rep. David Hess, a Hooksett Republican, said he spoke for his party's leadership in opposition to the bill.

"'I have never seen a document more vitriolic and more inflammatory,' Hess said."

Say Buh-Bye

Farewell Mr. President is a new Web site where anyone can upload their own farewell message to Bush. Greg Olliver, the founder, explains.

Initial signs are that the sarcasm will be heavy. Here, for instance, are some messages from Times Square. "Thanks for messing up our country," one young man says. "Thanks for sending our troops to Iraq for no reason."

Cartoon Watch

Joel Pett on Bush's Africa trip; Nick Anderson on Bush's Musharraf problem; Ann Telnaes on how the war profiteers.