Tap Dancing Around Wiretaps
During yesterday's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, the Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell tap danced around a critical question about tapping communications. When asked how many Americans were tapped he responded only by saying "there is confusion of what the word tap means," and then downshifted his discussion to "targets." Unfortunately, Chairman Conyers' followup question asked changed the term again, asking who was "overheard."More here.
If you listen closely, you'll hear a lot of semantic parsing in the Administration's testimony, careful word choices that obscure the truth. McConnell denies "spying on Americans," using an undefined term, but - when pressed - keeps his denial to warrantless surveillance "targeted" on Americans, and only after February of this year. "Overheard," "listening in," "spying," these are all words that missing the critical question - whether or not the feds have been collecting the communications of millions of ordinary Americans without a warrant as part of a massive domestic dragnet.
posted by Fergie @ 9/19/2007 01:20:00 PM
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