Hayden nomination hearing
Levin highlights administration lies
Thank goodness for Michigan Senator Carl Levin who, in the Hayden hearing, is standing in for Jay Rockefeller, the committee's ranking Democratic member. Levin just essentially called the nation's attention to the lies the administration -- Hayden included -- has promulgated about the National Security Agency's widespread spying on Americans.
While the administration has responded to last week's USA Today article on the massive database that, at the direction of Hayden, the NSA has created on the telephone traffic of virtually every American by saying, well, that's different from eavesdropping -- which the administration contends it is not doing on Jane and Joe Average.
Not accepting the administration's framing of the issue, Levin argued not the merits of whether or not the American people mind their phone traffic being documented, but whether or not the American people have any reason to believe that that's all the administration is up to.
Making his case, Levin reminded the committee that Bush, Cheney and Hayden himself had all assured the American people last December that the NSA was surveilling only phone traffic between foreign targets and U.S. phone users.
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