Neither of which will ever get a chance to hear or decide the question, if nobody in the know ever lets anything leak.
Or is that supposed to be the point? :dubious:
Congress can appoint a special prosecuter to investigate and bring up charges, if appropriate. Which is exactly how the courts will get involved in the situation now, after the leak. There was nothing revealed about specific people who were wiretapped, so no one affected will be able to press charges (they won’t know who they are).
I see. And how would that happen without a leak?
See post 74.
And that’s not illegal?
The senior members of both paries on those committees have security clearence.
Nope. The “investigation” is to be performed by the Justice Department itself, not Congress. Can’t you smell the whitewash from there? For another, there is no longer a special prosecutor law, as a cirect result of its recent spectacular abuse.
You know that, huh? How?
How you figure that? The suspect agencies here are NSA and CIA, not DOJ.
Nitpick: The independent counsel (appointed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit) expired in 1999. The statute providing for a special counsel (appointed by the DOJ or by Congress) is still in effect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_prosecutor
Of course, a better solution still would be: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=264462
I said IF this gets to the courts (which it probably won’t), it’ll be because Congress appoints a special prosecutor.
Cite? I think you’re talking about the independent council. What do you think the guy investigating the Plame case is (Fitzgeral)? Special Prosecutor!
I don’t know this, but it hasn’t been published. If you have some info that we know any names, let’s see it. If the guy who leaked this actually named names, he’d be in a hell of a lot of hot water-- much more than he is now. I hope he didn’t.
Since this has never been tried IRL, we have no idea if it would be better or worse.
And who do they report to?
Ah, yes, thanks.
And this is where political reality enters into it, in the form of single-party control. Agreed, the case probably won’t get to the courts, but you’re shying away from saying that’s because of lack of merit rather than a political butt-covering act.
Then don’t state it as a fact.
Well, all three agencies ultimately . . . Ah. I see. 
Perhaps if one or two states were to try it out first . . . That’s one of the advantages of federalism, isn’t it? “Little laboratories!” 
No, I’m not shying away from that. I think this is a classic power struggle between the exective and legislative branches, and that they will work it out betwween themselves.
Meh. AFAWK, this is true. I suspect that if the NYT had names, they’d at least say they did, even if they wouldn’t publish the actual names.
Sure is. I’d love ot have a bunch of little laboratories so we could try out (and discredit ) your theories.
No, actually my argument is that your assertion that someone died as a result of the Plame leak seems to be nothing but a fantasy.
“Any questioning”? No. Your allegations? Yes.
This is the kind of “grassy knoll” reasoning that leads to Oliver Stone movies. Unless you are willing to believe that Clinton really did have all those people killed.
Regards,
Shodan
You said it was “too easy” to refute the assertion that the Plame leak had caused damage. You haven’t begun to do so. Are you ever going to, or will you just keep on hoping it will go away somehow while you try to personally demean anyone who tries to pull your blinkers off?
Yes, you’re shying away from the political realities here. Both branches are controlled by the same party, which is controlled by the same ideology, whose ideologues see themselves more as partners in reshaping the country to serve their purposes against a domestic opposition they see as enemies rather than fellow citizens. The “power struggle” is patently not between the Executive and Legislative, that’s just org chart stuff; it’s between the Republican Right and those who instead “hate America”.
Wouldn’t it be against the law for the senior members on those comittees spilled the beans then? What if it was one of those senior members that was the source of the leak. What then?
I don’t have to refute it; you have to prove it. So far, you haven’t. All we seem to see is the bare allegation that leaks about ongoing operations in the global war on terror cannot possibly have damaged the US. Whereas confirmation of what seems to have been cocktail party gossip for the last several years, for a person who is not undercover nor at any kind of risk, definitely has. And your proof is that a star appeared over Langley. What are you, Caspar, Belthazzar, or Melchior?
And you might have noticed that I am not the one personally demeaning anyone.
Regards,
Shodan
I just got back from an “Emergency Meeting” held in Lexington, by Congressman Ed Markey. I went because I was a little fuzzy on the specifics of the NSA case. After hearing from Congressman Markey and speakers from the ACLU and EPIC, I left none the wiser, because about all that has come to light is that the NSA has been conducting intelligence-gathering activities on US citizens without congressional or judicial oversight, operating outside the boundaries set forth by FISA. That’s all the Congressman knows, that’s all the ACLU knows, and, unless they’ve been hiring Jack Abramoff, that’s all that Al Qaida knows, too. So let’s put the whole “Damage to America” and “Aiding the Enemy” thing to bed, shall we? (Unless you fear that we’ve now tipped off America’s Enemies[sup]tm[/sup] to the fact that the US government might conceivably be listening to their phone calls and reading their e-mail).
So, to the OP, I have changed my view, and am in total agreement that we should have full Senate and House hearings on the matter. And while we’re at it, let’s also find out:
-The text of the Presidential finding which established the program.
-What specific oversight, and checks are in place.
-How much it costs.
-What it does, exactly.
-Why federal laws do not apply to the executive branch.
-The nature of the Quaker/Al-Quada “axis”
Ready when you are.