Text 17053, 63 rader
Skriven 2006-01-07 08:03:02 av BOB SAKOWSKI (1:123/140)
Ärende: Fascist State
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Report Rebuts Bush on Spying
Domestic Action's Legality Challenged

By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 7, 2006; A01

A report by Congress's research arm concluded yesterday that the
administration's justification for the warrantless eavesdropping authorized
by President Bush conflicts with existing law and hinges on weak legal
arguments.

The Congressional Research Service's report rebuts the central assertions
made recently by Bush and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales about the
president's authority to order secret intercepts of telephone and e-mail
exchanges between people inside the United States and their contacts
abroad.

The findings, the first nonpartisan assessment of the program's legality to
date, prompted Democratic lawmakers and civil liberties advocates to repeat
calls yesterday for Congress to conduct hearings on the monitoring program
and attempt to halt it.

The 44-page report said that Bush probably cannot claim the broad
presidential powers he has relied upon as authority to order the secret
monitoring of calls made by U.S. citizens since the fall of 2001. Congress
expressly intended for the government to seek warrants from a special
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before engaging in such
surveillance when it passed legislation creating the court in 1978, the CRS
report said.

The report also concluded that Bush's assertion that Congress authorized
such eavesdropping to detect and fight terrorists does not appear to be
supported by the special resolution that Congress approved after the Sept.
11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which focused on authorizing the president to
use military force.

"It appears unlikely that a court would hold that Congress has expressly or
impliedly authorized the NSA electronic surveillance operations here," the
authors of the CRS report wrote. The administration's legal justification
"does not seem to be . . . well-grounded," they said.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has
pledged to hold hearings on the program, which was first revealed in news
accounts last month, and the judges of the FISA court have demanded a
classified briefing about the program, which is scheduled for Monday.

"This report contradicts the president's claim that his spying on Americans
was legal," said Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), one of the lawmakers who
asked the CRS to research the issue. "It looks like the president's
wiretapping was not only illegal, but also ensnared innocent Americans who
did nothing more than place a phone call."
[snip]

Read the rest at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/06/AR2006010601772_pf.html


The only people comfortable with the attack on the constitution and law by
Bush and his fascists are those who have no loyalty to America.
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