Bush's Unreasonable Argument

The new White House campaign to defend Bush's NSA spy program kicked off today with a speech by former National Security Agency Director Air Force General Michael Hayden. In his prepared remarks Hayden introduced the term "reasonable belief" to describe the criteria by which the White House and NSA used to operate their domestic spy program. The NY Times explains:

The standard laid out by General Hayden - a "reasonable basis to believe" - is lower than "probably cause," the standard used by the special court created by Congress to handle surveillance involving foreign intelligence.

Mr. Hayden said that warrantless searches were conducted when one of a "handful" of senior officers at the security agency determined that there was a "reasonable belief" that one party to a call between someone in America and someone overseas had a link to Al Qaeda.

This is obviously an attempt to shoehorn warrantless spying amongst the text of the 4th Amendment - which guarantees the rights of citizens against "unreasonable search and seizure".
I think this is an obvious admission that what was really going on violated the Constitution and Bush and advisors new it. Talk about what "the definition of is is".

The Times continues:

General Hayden defended the program's constitutionality. He said the lower, "reasonable belief" standard conformed to the wording of the Fourth Amendment, pointing out that it does not mention probable cause, but instead forbids "unreasonable" searches and seizures.

"The constitutional standard is reasonable," he said. "I'm convinced that what we're doing is lawful, because what it is we're doing is reasonable," he said.

That's two reasonables and one unreasonable in two sentences. Way to go General!

Here is Hayden's most outrageous quote and the one that I "reasonably" predict will come back to haunt him.

"It's the same tactics and procedures used to tell American forces 'You can go ahead and put a 500-pound bomb on that target,' " he said. "It's the same art and science."

Not a great analogy General. Are you suggesting that the US military drops 500-pound bombs based on a hunch that there might be "evil doers" down there? Or, are you suggesting that you are so confident in the process that we can bomb the houses of anyone in the U.S. that has been wiretapped under this program? Either way it is a ridiculous statement.

In the end all I can say is - if there was "reasonable" evidence the FISA court would have issued warrants and if the FISA process is not relevant to the dangers we face post 9/11, President Bush has had 5 fricken years to get his Republican controlled Congress to change the law.

Update - This just in.

Here is the text of the 4th amendment to the Constitution. It seems General Hayden was - how shall I put it - Lying through his teeth!

Amendment IV - Search and seizure. Ratified 12/15/1791.

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.