Helen Thomas - On the Case!

[DudeAsInCool]

At yesterday's White House Press Conference:

Q There are allegations that we send people to Syria to be tortured.

MR. McCLELLAN: To Syria?

Q Yes. You've never heard of any allegation like that?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I've never heard that one. That's a new one.

Q To Syria? You haven't heard that?

MR. McCLELLAN: That's a new one.

Q Well, I can assure you it's been well-publicized.

MR. McCLELLAN: By bloggers?

Q My questions is, in the first place -- I gather you can go on to the next question. Will the President abide by the ban on torture of prisoners of war that is very specified in the military spending bill? I mean, his signing statement does not seem to go along with that.

MR. McCLELLAN: Actually, I think you ought to look at the op-ed that was issued by Robert McCallum over at the Department of Justice yesterday -- it was in USA Today -- and he walked through this. I mean, the signing statement is consistent --

Q Will the President abide by -- that's all you've got to say, yes or no.

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, he is fully committed to following the law. It's also been our policy, but the President has made it very clear that we are a nation that abides by our laws and our values, and that we do not torture.

Q We haven't --

MR. McCLELLAN: If people have, then they've been held to account, Helen. And that's the difference between us and others.

Q Do you think everybody is a free-lancer who has been torturing?

MR. McCLELLAN: Helen, I reject that wholeheartedly -- the President made it clear that we do not torture. If people engage in that kind of activity, they are held to account --

Q It's been proved otherwise.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- and we have held people to account for engaging in the mistreatment of detainees. And the world has seen that we are someone that takes the treatment of prisoners very seriously --

Q What did we see in the Abu Ghraib pictures, photographs? Should we not believe our own eyes?

MR. McCLELLAN: And look at what has happened. People that were engaged in that kind of activity are being brought to justice. They've been held to account; there have been steps taken to prevent something like that from happening again. Our military goes out of the way to treat detainees humanely. That stands in stark contrast to the terrorists who target innocent civilians and --

Q That's not the question. The question is that this happened and the higher-ups knew about it.

[Meehowski]

Ya know.........I'm so sick of the rhetoric!!

Great post......B.T.W.!!

[DudeAsInCool]

She's not attributed, but who else could it be

At today's White House Press Conference

Q I have two questions that can be dismissed with a yes or no. One, is the President going to seek any legal -- more legal permission from Congress to spy on Americans without a warrant? And two, does he think, does he believe that his new designation of the spy program, terrorist surveillance, will tarnish people who are spied on and are guilty or not guilty?

MR. McCLELLAN: Let me take the first part of your question, and I think it's important to give a clearer picture of where things are with the American people, and so I want to make a few comments about it.

Q I want to know where you stand --

MR. McCLELLAN: And I'm going to do that. I've already previously answered this question with reporters and stated our view; the Attorney General stated it earlier today in some interviews. This is an important tool that helps to save lives by preventing attacks. It is a limited, targeted program aimed at al Qaeda communications, as the President pointed out yesterday. This program is focused only on communications in which one person is reasonably suspected of links to al Qaeda or affiliated terrorist organizations. And it involves international communications.

I reject your characterization to suggest it's domestic spying. That's like saying someone making a phone call from inside the United States to another country is a domestic call. It is billed the international rate and it is labeled --

Q The law says he has to seek a court warrant.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- it is labeled an international call --

Q Why doesn't he seek a warrant? What's the big problem?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, actually, we've walked through this repeatedly over the last few days. It's important for the American people to understand what the facts are. There is a lot of misinformation about --

Q Why can't you seek a warrant?

MR. McCLELLAN: -- this program. And we do use the FISA tool, as well. That's an important tool, as well. But we have briefed members of Congress more than a dozen times on this. We continue to brief members of Congress in an appropriate manner. This is a highly classified program and it is a vital program to our nation's security. The 9/11 Commission criticized us for not connecting the dots --

Q Is it vital to go through legal steps?

MR. McCLELLAN: This is helping us to connect the dots in a very targeted and focused way.

Q Why can't he seek a warrant?

MR. McCLELLAN: It is about detecting and preventing attacks. FISA was created for a different time period. General Hayden walked through that yesterday; the Attorney General talked about it more. This is about moving with speed and agility, not some long-term period of time. It's about detecting --

Q You can get one retroactively.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- it's about detecting and preventing attacks. And we are a nation at war, and the courts have upheld the President's authority to engage in surveillance. Surveillance is critical to prevailing in the war on terrorism.

Q He doesn't have a blank check.

MR. McCLELLAN: And we talked with members of Congress about whether or not there needed to be legislation that reflects what the President's authority already is, and the congressional leaders felt that by doing so it could compromise this program. This is a vital program and it's important that we don't show the enemy our play book. And talking about it --

Q Getting warrants doesn't show the enemy a play book.

MR. McCLELLAN: Okay. Next question.

[DudeAsInCool]

BUSH SNUBS HELEN THOMAS [AGAIN]

Thu Jan 26 2006 15:42:32 2006

President Bush today again avoided taking a question from White House doyenne Helen Thomas during his 45-minute press conference, even though he took questions from every reporter around her front-row, center seat.

"He's a coward," Thomas said afterward. "He's supposed to be this macho guy. He'll take on Osama bin Laden, but he won't take me on."

Thomas, who worked as the UPI White House reporter for 57 years and is now a columnist, raised her hand every time the president was concluding an answer to a reporter's question, but he never called on her.

Thomas, who worked as the UPI White House reporter for 57 years and is now a columnist, raised her hand every time the president was concluding an answer to a reporter's question, but he never called on her.

She had a few questions in mind, though. "I wanted to ask about Iraq: 'You said you didn't go in for oil or for Israel or for WMDs. so why did you go in?' "

She also had another question at the ready, just in case, this one about the president's contention that a 28-year-old wiretapping law known as FISA is out of date, which prompted him to order the National Security Agency to conduct a secret electronic surveillance program that Democrats contend is illegal.

"You keep saying it's a 1978 law, but the Constitution 200 years old. Is that out of date, too?"

Afterward, Thomas sat sullenly in her chair in the White House press work area, huddled in her leopard-print winter coat.

But as she left, she made a prediction: "He came on to my turf. I'll bet the next press conference will be in Room 450 of the EEOB," a theater-style room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where she would not be in the front row.

Developing...

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