New AG threatens veto of Leahy surveillance plan

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attorney General Michael Mukasey jumped into the political fray in his first week on the job, telling a key Democratic senator he opposed his electronic surveillance plan and would recommend the president veto it if it is passed.

In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, on the eve of crucial committee votes to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Mukasey was adamant in opposing Leahy's plan for changing the law. Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell co-signed the letter released Wednesday night by the Justice Department.

"We strongly oppose the proposed substitute amendment. If the substitute is part of a bill that is presented to the president, we and the president's other senior advisers will recommend that he veto the bill," they said.

Leahy last week introduced his substitute to a FISA modernization bill already approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

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Leahy, who opposed Mukasey's confirmation last week, is adamantly opposed to the immunity provision.


Mukasey and McConnell listed almost a dozen other provisions or omissions in the Leahy plan that they said "would not provide the intelligence community with the tools it needs effectively to collect foreign intelligence information vital for the security of the nation."


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http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/14/mukasey.fisa/

for Schumer's and Feinstein's reactions.

immunity for telecoms and is undoubtedly opposed to other provisions safeguarding civil liberties in Leahy's bill. She's already committed to stabbing us in the back, and to voting against the Leahy bill. Schumer, I suspect, will vote with Leahy and the others.

God knows she's been pulling the same sort of DLC crap ever since she was lucky enough to have a wingnut councilman get wired on Twinkies and shoot the mayor who was her superior. Even before that, she was a mouthpiece for big business and "developers" in SF, and she spent little time washing Moscone's blood out of the office carpet before making it clear that there was a new sheriff in town, and that their agenda was her agenda. Getting kicked upstairs merely allowed her to combine her loyalty to business interests with an equally-fervid zeal for neo-con "security" matters from unlimited government snooping to pre-emptive war against any place filled with a) Muslims and b) oil.

It amazes me that so many consider her a "leading liberal." I guess they figure that, if you're a woman and a Democrat, that automatically makes you a progressive. If it was David Feinstein, do you think people would have been more ready to recognize "his" DINO leanings?

they sold us to the wolves. they have absolutely nothing to say, except to hang their heads in shame, that is, if ever they did care about democracy!

was a top advisor to the president.

.... the shit Mukasey said he wouldn't do.

Surprise, surprise, surprise.

Thanks Chuck and Diane, thank a whole fucking lot. I hope you get retired soon, you deserve it.