Specter: 'President Bush To Consider Pretend Oversight On Spying'!!! :D

Actual compromise... or more masturbatory nonsense from Arlen Specter?

All logic would indicate the latter.
(NOTE: Updates added at the bottom)

AP: Surveillance oversight plan gets a boost

The White House has conditionally agreed to a court review of its controversial eavesdropping program, Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter said Thursday.

Specter said President Bush has agreed to sign legislation that would authorize the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to review the constitutionality of the National Security Agency's most high-profile monitoring operations...

This is what Arlen is celebrating- the President, 5 years after secretly authorizing an illegal and widespread wiretapping program that is known to have targeted innocent Americans with no actual success, agreed to (maybe) let Congress and the courts kind of do their job?

Pathetic.

Some revealing passages from the AP article...

First-

Specter said the court would make a one-time review of the program rather than performing ongoing oversight of it.

So basically the program will continue endlessly (warrantless wiretapping of thousands of Americans- and all that that entails)... and there will still be no actual oversight of the program at all. Just a one-time rubberstamp from the FISA court. What a fucking joke.

Furthermore, the bill isn't even binding-

An administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the bill's language gives the president the option of submitting the program to the intelligence court, rather than making the review a requirement.

The official said that Bush will submit to the court review as long the bill is not changed, adding that the legislation preserves the right of future presidents to skip the court review.

Once again, that ol' GOP Congress is giving President Bush the option of obeying the law and the Constitution. No biggee, though. And future Presidents will also have the option to refuse oversight on this indefinite spying justified by our indefinite war.

Conservatives, think you'll be bothered by this when the next Democrat is elected?

And furthermore-

Specter told the committee that the bill, among other things, would:

...Expand the time for emergency warrants secured under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act from three to seven days.

A pointless move. The time for warrants was never the issue, as they could be issued retroactively. The issue was that the President believes that he is above the law. This is a problem that is the root cause of numerous other issues- Guantanamo, torture, etc. Until that problem is resolved, this is all just a farce.

And an early reaction-

The Center for National Security Studies and other civil liberties advocates have consistently faulted Specter's proposals. "They would set up a system of sham judicial review," said the center's director Kate Martin.

Bingo.

Why do Republicans have such a low opinion of our democracy?

Finally, some humor-

Specter said the legislation, which has not yet been made public, was the result of "tortuous" negotiations with the White House since June.

Yes, I imagine Arlen waterboarded Gonzales for hours before he would agree.

A final question... does Sen. Specter still intend to grant amnesty for those who authorized illegal wiretaps?

Fourth Amendment, rest in peace. You will be missed.

[See also previous entry:
Spy Lies

UPDATE: An excellent analysis from Glenn Greenwald- here and here.

UPDATE #2: Josh Marshall looks at an interesting nugget in the Knight-Ridder report.

UPDATE #3: Marty Lederman sums up this constitutional travesty- "So what does Specter do in the wake of the momentous Hamdan decision, which put all the cards in Congress's hands? He introduces a bill, with Administration blessing, that gives the Administration everything it ever wanted, and much, much more. Indeed, come to think of it, the Specter bill is basically the sort of legislation one would expect if the Supreme Court had just held that Congress is powerless to enact legislation constraining the President's 'inherent' war powers -- something that not a single Justice in Hamdan so much as suggested." As I noted above, this really is pathetic. And because the media is labeling all of this as a 'compromise' (!), the public outrage will not be forthcoming.

UPDATE #4: Washington Post editorial- Wiretap Surrender]