Obama administration throws out wiretap lawsuit

  Much was made of President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping for the last several years. As a candidate President Obama lampooned the Bush administration for its warrantless wiretapping only to continue the practice once he became president. This is just one of many Bush policies in the war on terror that Obama spoke out against as a candidate yet continued as president.

  Today Eric Holder threw out a lawsuit that was filed against warrantless wiretapping, proving once and for all that the Obama administration is perfectly willing to continue a Bush policy that he displayed so much disdain towards during the campaign.

Attorney General Eric Holder says a lawsuit in San Francisco over warrantless wiretapping threatens to expose ongoing intelligence work and must be thrown out.

  Even as he continues Bush’s warrantless wiretapping he looks to distance himself from the former president by claiming that he is continuing Bush’s policies using a different means.

In making the argument, the Obama administration agreed with the Bush administration’s position on the case but insists it came to the decision differently

    Suddenly it appears that state secrets have some validity, this is contrary to the position that Obama held during the campaign.

Holder said that in the current case, that review process convinced him “there is no way for this case to move forward without jeopardizing ongoing intelligence activities that we rely upon to protect the safety of the American people

  This is the same argument that the Bush administration had been making all along. This adminstration can try to paint this picture any way they like but the bottom line is that this administration is continuing the Bush administration’s policy of warrantless wiretaps and they are defending this position on the same grounds that President Bush defended it.

  Don’t get me wrong, I support this decision, I just find it strange that the Obama administration is continuing and defending a policy that candidate Obama so strongly opposed. This is an admission that the Bush administration was right on this issue all along.

  The only difference here is that the Obama adminstration supplied the judge with the specifics on why this lawsuit was a threat to national security while the Bush administration would not supply specifics; the result, however, is the same. The Obama administration is using warrantless wiretaps and defending their use.

The Obama administration has essentially adopted the position of the Bush administration in these cases, even though candidate Obama was incredibly critical of both the warrantless wiretapping program and the Bush administration’s abuse of the state secrets privilege

  That statement sums up the difference between candidate Obama and President Obama perfectly.