Post Mo Mo: Sam Adams: Warrantless Wiretaps Haven't Changed Since 2005

Post Mo Mo: Sam Adams: Warrantless Wiretaps Haven’t Changed Since 2005

December 2, 2010

Sam Adams says things have changed so much that he’s willing to discuss jumping back into the JTTF. The only thing that has changed is politics because the law hasn’t. Read more:

Read Bruce McCain’s most excellent piece (here) on the other attendant issues on JTTF in Portland and by Dave Lister in the Zero yesterday (here), but I wanted to tell you what noted terrorist prosecutor, Andy McCarthy, says about warrantless wiretaps on the show Tuesday: Nothing much has changed.

The left stormed and huffed and puffed –and lied–about this issue during the Bush administration simply out of hatred for the President. Even the Portland City Council couldn’t resist the temptation to stick it to President Bush by passing its “I hate the Iraq war” resolution based on questionable (and laughable) talking points provided by the far left blogosphere.

But Mayor Adams says everything’s changed now:

“…we have a new administration, and an administration at the federal level and new leadership at the local in the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office that I have a lot more trust in than the prior administration. That’s one reason to take a look at our status of membership in the JTTF.”

Sam Adams also called attention to his concern about warrants and searches. Fair enough. But as Bruce has noted in his great piece, his information –willingly or unwittingly–is flawed.

Adams has, in short, admitted that your safety is at the whim of his political feelings. His indulgence in ego and pique, like Tom Potter before him, leaves Portlanders less safe. Safety is the number one job of government. But for Sam Adams politics is.

Andy McCarthy says the biggest change in the warrantless wiretap law is that it has been taken, lock, stock and barrel and thrown into the portfolio of the FISA court. He says the courts and FISA court haven’t changed one word of the law. The chief executive–that’s the President for you Kos readers– still has control over who, how and when a person’s phone or email is tapped.You can still get a wiretap without a warrant initially and, under the law that was in place in 2005 and now, you eventually (within two days I believe) get a warrant. Exigency standards are in place then as now.

The fourth amendment reads,

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.

Please note the word “unreasonable.” It is not unreasonable to search the home or tap the phones of a person contacting a terrorist. Really.
Sam Adams says he will confer with the ACLU to determine if he’ll go back to the JTTF. As Bruce McCain pointed out on the program yesterday, the City Attorney hasn’t even been invited to that meeting! So the ACLU takes its place as the chief legal consultant to the city.
As Andy McCarthy puts in his piece (here) in the National Review,

Referring to the feckless cease-and-desist letter the State Department’s Harold Koh sent to Wikileaker Julian Assange, Jonah aptly says[2] in his column today, “When lawyers run your foreign policy, this is what passes for a blistering counterattack.” We have seen this again and again over the years, and it is probably the central theme of my Willful Blindness.[3] I contended there that putting attorneys in charge of national security perfectly suits a government that is too paralyzed to do anything meaningful but knows, politically, that it must appear to do something.

Sam doesn’t know what to do so he’s leaving it up to the lawyers.

Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com

Post Mo Mo: Sam Adams: Warrantless Wiretaps Haven’t Changed Since 2005

December 2, 2010

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