VP Dick Cheney, on the NewsHour tonight, discusses the Administration's warrantless NSA electronic surveillance program. He sees no need to revise the law:

In an interview to air on Tuesday night on PBS' "Newshour," Cheney was asked whether President George W. Bush was willing to work with Congress to settle some of the legal questions about the spy program.

"We believe... that we have all the legal authority we need," Cheney said.

Senator Russ Feingold will be delivering this statement in about five minutes on the floor of the Senate concerning Bush's warrantless NSA electronic surveillance program. Audio will be available later today here.

The Conservative publication Insight on the News reoprts that Karl Rove has threatened to blacklist Judiciary Committee Senators if they oppose Bush on the NSA warrantless surveillance issue:

The White House has been twisting arms to ensure that no Republican member votes against President Bush in the Senate Judiciary Committee's investigation of the administration's unauthorized wiretapping. Congressional sources said Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove has threatened to blacklist any Republican who votes against the president. The sources said the blacklist would mean a halt in any White House political or financial support of senators running for re-election in November. "It's hardball all the way," a senior GOP congressional aide said.

Transcripts from today's hearing are here (html). Arianna tells the Democrats to stand strong because this is a winning issue. That's good advice.

There were many questions Gonzales would not answer at today's hearing citing national security:

Democrats repeatedly pressed Mr. Gonzales, without success, to state whether the administration's legal stance would permit the government to open Americans' mail without warrant or, in the words of Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., to conduct "black bag jobs."

He offered few details of the secret program, whose existence was revealed in December by The New York Times. Though he described the program as "narrowly" targeted, Mr. Gonzales said he could not provide an "absolute assurance" that Americans without ties to terrorists are not being spied upon.

That's the crux of the problem. Bush and Gonzales want us to believe the surveillance program is directed at al Qaeda and other terrorists. But the reality is it is directed at the communications of suspected al Qaeda members overseas with people within this country. (For polling differences that depend upon whether the question is phrased as one or the other, see this article in tomorrow's Wall St. Journal (free link.)

Update: You can listen live here. Afternoon news update is here.

Bump and Update: Reddhedd at Firedoglake live-blogged the morning session.

News recap of the morning is here.

by Last Night in Little Rock

In a remarkable story for Newsweek hitting the stands today, a DoJ official told a closed door Senate Intelligence Committee that the President has the legal authority to order killings inside the United States. Exclusive: Can the President Order a Killing on U.S. Soil? This is the Administration's logical extension of the argument that it can violate the Fourth Amendment during national security investigations.

The response came in response to a hypothetical question from Sen. Feinstein.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) appeared on Face the Nation this morning. In a discussion about the President's spying powers he made this comment:

"When you authorize our military to use force, they can kill the enemy without a Miranda warning."

Crooks and Liars has the video clip.

An astute reader writes in:

Is Sessions saying that if you can spy on Americans during a time of war then you can also kill them without due process?

Aren't there normally some other small steps between the Miranda warning and the death penalty? Silly things like trials and appeals...

NYU law professor Noah Feldman has an easy to understand op-ed in Sunday's New York Times Magazine on the likely focus of Monday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Bush's warrantless NSA electronic surveillance program and the possible outcomes.

Prof. Feldman writes that the starting point for the Senators is likely to be Justice Jackson's concurring opinion in a 1952 case named Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company v. Sawyer. You can read all of the opinions in the case (in html) here.

The Washington Post Sunday puts the lie to Bush's warrantless electronic surveillance program. Bush claims he doesn't spy on Americans. Cheney claims the program saved "thousands of lives."

The truth, as the Washington Post reports, is that the program has rarely uncovered information about terrorists or terrorists acts; the NSA has eavesdropped on many thousands of Americans without probable cause; and that probable cause or even reasonable suspicion will never exist because of the washout rate and number of false positives.

Georgetown Law Professor David Cole, writing for The Nation, exposes the true myths of Bush's warrantless NSA electronic surveillance program, in response to those claimed by the Adminstration. His article is also a valuable primer for the upcoming hearings. Cole lists the myths, and debunks each one. Here are the key ones:

• Myth 1: Following existing law would require the NSA to turn off a wiretap of an Al Qaeda member calling in to the United States.

• Myth 2: Congress approved the NSA spying program when it authorized military force against Al Qaeda.

Bump and Update: Time Magazine outlines how Gonzales plans to defend Bush's warrantless NSA electronic surveillance program Monday. Time has received a copy of Adminstration documents outlining his defense:

According to the documents, Gonzales plans to assert in his opening statement that seeking approval for the wiretaps from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court could result in delays that "may make the difference between success and failure in preventing the next attack." He will compare the program to telegraph wiretapping during the Civil War. In accompanying testimony, the Attorney General plans to leave open the possibility that President Bush will ask the court to give blanket approval to the program, a step that some lawmakers and even some Administration officials contend would put it on more solid legal footing.

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Original Post:

Senate Judiciary Committee hearings begin Monday on Bush's warrantless NSA domestic electronic surveillance programs. The star witness is Alberto Gonzales. Here's some background and topics you can expect him to be grilled on:

by Last Night in Little Rock

Late Thursday night, the Senate concurred in a House bill to extend the Patriot Act until March 10. The previous extension was to have ended Friday.

This was a mere skirmish and retreat in the war on civil liberies, which is continued to be waged with greater vigor than the War in Iraq.