1984

From Bill in DC
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This country is really getting to be like 1984. A "war" that never
ends, a shadowy, foreign-looking enemy, and a government that invokes
security to justify a police state. It's only a matter of time before the
administration brands all of its opponents "terrorists" and imposes a
massive crackdown on civil liberties in the name of national security,
all the while proclaiming the virtues of freedom and democracy. Freedom
is slavery.
Bush Defends Eavesdropping Program

President Bush today offered his most elaborate defense yet of his administration's domestic eavesdropping program, saying he was legally and constitutionally authorized to implement it and obligated to do so in order to protect the country from a new kind of enemy.

In a wide-ranging news conference this morning, Bush said his authority to have the National Security Agency eavesdrop without judicial involvement derived from his inherent constitutional powers as commander in chief as well as from the authorization for the use of military force approved by Congress in the wake of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "Congress gave me authority," he said.

Some if not many in Congress disagree.

"Where does he find in the Constitution the authority to tap the wires and the phones of American citizens without any court oversight?" demanded Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He also disputed Bush's statement in the news conference that checks on his executive power -- such as his authority to order the secret surveillance -- came from his oath of office and congressional oversight.

"That's not a check on the executive branch, notifying some members of Congress -- if he did -- that he's taken the law into his own hands," Levin said. "That is not a check on the executive branch, nor is the fact that he gets opinions from six lawyers in the executive branch, all under his control, that he can do this."

Levin noted that FISA allows for retroactively seeking the court's permission for wiretaps in the event of an emergency. "And so he can't just simply use the necessity to move quickly as an excuse to bypass the law," he said.

"The president does not have a leg to stand on legally with regard to this program," said Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.). He added, "I think it's one of the weakest legal arguments I've heard that this [Afghanistan] war resolution somehow undid the basic laws of wiretapping in the United States."

See a related post on Echelon below.