Sunday, January 08, 2006
Congress report doubts Bush justification for domesitc spying
Isn't it interesting that this ISN'T front page news on CNN.com or FOX news online? Ok, forget about FOX. That'll never happen...
CNN, however, disappoints me. I mean, nowhere on their front page is this news story visible. I can see a story about 3 sharks attacking a woman, but nothing about this. It figures.
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Taken from the www.inq7.net web-site (January 8, 2006)
Congress report doubts Bush justification of domestic spying
First posted 07:15pm (Mla time)
Jan 07, 2006 Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON -- The US Congress' research arm has concluded that the Bush administration's justification for eavesdropping without warrants "conflicts with existing law and hinges on weak legal arguments," The Washington Post reported Saturday.
"The Congressional Research Service's report rebuts the central assertions made recently by [President George W.] Bush and Attorney General Alberto 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 Post reported.
The findings have prompted Democratic lawmakers and civil liberties advocates to repeat calls for Congress to conduct hearings on the monitoring program and attempt to halt it.
"It appears unlikely that a court would hold that Congress has expressly or [implicitly] authorized the NSA electronic surveillance operations here," the authors of the report wrote, according to the Post.
The administration's legal justification "does not seem to be ... well-grounded," they were quoted as saying.
A 2002 Bush order enabled the National Security Agency (NSA) to monitor, without a court warrant, international telephone calls and the electronic mail of US citizens with suspected ties to Al-Qaeda.
Domestic spying is a sensitive issue for many Americans who are proud of their civil liberties. Similar revelations about domestic spying led to legislation in the 1970s that allows wiretapping but requires government agencies to obtain a special court warrant for it.
However, in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, Bush approved the mass wiretap program under which the NSA could conduct domestic spying without a court warrant.
CNN, however, disappoints me. I mean, nowhere on their front page is this news story visible. I can see a story about 3 sharks attacking a woman, but nothing about this. It figures.
* * * * *
Taken from the www.inq7.net web-site (January 8, 2006)
Congress report doubts Bush justification of domestic spying
First posted 07:15pm (Mla time)
Jan 07, 2006 Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON -- The US Congress' research arm has concluded that the Bush administration's justification for eavesdropping without warrants "conflicts with existing law and hinges on weak legal arguments," The Washington Post reported Saturday.
"The Congressional Research Service's report rebuts the central assertions made recently by [President George W.] Bush and Attorney General Alberto 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 Post reported.
The findings have prompted Democratic lawmakers and civil liberties advocates to repeat calls for Congress to conduct hearings on the monitoring program and attempt to halt it.
"It appears unlikely that a court would hold that Congress has expressly or [implicitly] authorized the NSA electronic surveillance operations here," the authors of the report wrote, according to the Post.
The administration's legal justification "does not seem to be ... well-grounded," they were quoted as saying.
A 2002 Bush order enabled the National Security Agency (NSA) to monitor, without a court warrant, international telephone calls and the electronic mail of US citizens with suspected ties to Al-Qaeda.
Domestic spying is a sensitive issue for many Americans who are proud of their civil liberties. Similar revelations about domestic spying led to legislation in the 1970s that allows wiretapping but requires government agencies to obtain a special court warrant for it.
However, in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, Bush approved the mass wiretap program under which the NSA could conduct domestic spying without a court warrant.
