Jane Harman (D-CA): Republicans Falsely Hyped Terror Threat Against U.S. Capitol To Pass FISA Expansion
by Geoff Staples on Mon 24 Sep 2007 08:13 PM CDT
Is anyone surprised that the Bush Administration would cook-up terrorist threats to intimidate Congress and get them to do what Bush wants? I’m not. — Geoff Staples
On August 2, Roll Call issued a breaking news report, warning of a suspected terror threat against the U.S. Capitol:
Capitol Police officials have stepped up the department’s security presence on Capitol Hill in response to intelligence indicating the increased possibility of an al-Qaida terrorist attack on Congress sometime between now and Sept. 11.
Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) ratcheted up the rhetoric, “ominously” advising that “Congress needed to pass changes to terrorist surveillance laws before leaving for the August recess and warned that otherwise ‘the disaster could be on our doorstep.’”
Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), speaking at a FISA event yesterday organized by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, stated that the terror claims were “part of a well-orchestrated campaign” by the administration to politicize the FISA debate. She referred to the efforts as part of the “Rovian strategy of using terrorism as a wedge political issue.” Harman asserted that the intelligence agencies “knew” the terror claims propagated by conservative lawmakers were false:
That specific intelligence claim, it turned out, was bogus; the intelligence agencies knew that –apparently had communicated to Congress or to relevant people that it was bogus, the source was unreliable. But that communication wasn’t in any published form until the day that the Senate passed the amendments to FISA.
It’s still unclear exactly how much the vote was influenced by these events, but at a minimum it demonstrates that the politicization of terror and safety has sunk to a new low on the decency scale.
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So.....Representative Harmon. These are pretty serious charges. You say that Bush manipulated Congress into giving him what he wanted by using a false threat of terrorism? What are you going to do about it?
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?!
What am I going to do about it?
If the Bush Gang is willing to blackmail Congress like this, does anyone think that they would hesitate to use the same tactics on the people at large to scare them into submission?
And why would Bush stop going to this well, over and over and over? It's worked every time. Why wouldn't it continue to work, especially when the Democrats have this incredible ability to trust in what Bush has to say?
It's a decent thing to do to give people the benefit of the doubt. Bush and his "administration" no longer deserve it.
Tell me again why we should not impeach this cancerous growth some call George W. Bush?
I have to wonder WHAT I would do, if I were in Congress under the present circumstances...and the Bush Gang comes trotting out some bogus bullshit to bully me...
