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NSA Spying Comes Under Attack

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the get-out-of-my-head dept.

maotx writes "The NSA's no-longer-secret surveillance program came under a two-pronged attack this week on both political and legal fronts. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania threatens to cut funding to NSA's spying program if President Bush's administration does not come clean on how it works. Separately, two hearing dates have been set for a lawsuit that seeks to prove that AT&T illegally cooperated with the NSA and violated federal wiretapping laws in doing so. Sen. Specter emphasized that he doesn't want the issue to fade into the background, saying that he'd like to see 'public concern and public indignation build up.'"

4 of 324 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Yadda, yadda by sconeu · · Score: 5, Informative

    Because the President violated his oath of office?

    He swore to uphold and defend the Constitution. Allowing domestic wiretaps without a warrant is a violation of said oath.

    And the warrants would have been easy to obtain, including the fact that they're available up to 72 hours after the fact.

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  2. What the item leaves out by KarMann · · Score: 5, Informative
    They didn't mention this bit, however:

    "Institutionally, the presidency is walking all over Congress at the moment," Specter said. "If we are to maintain our institutional prerogative, that may be the only way we can do it."

    Specter made clear that, for now, the threat was just that.

    "I'm not prepared to call for the withholding of funds," he told reporters later.

    So for Specter's part, it's pretty much just posturing, or else maybe he kinda sorta meant it, until some of the boys from the administration came to have a friendly little chat with him.
    --
    ProofReading Markup Language - and yes, I find typos.
  3. Re:FISA Court Anyone? by CaymanIslandCarpedie · · Score: 5, Informative

    Classic A=B and C=B therefore Z=A thinking. Court says president and do foreign wiretapping...everyone agrees this court has final say...therefore president can do domestic wiretapping!

    you need to read your history book.

    I like reading as much as the next guy, but I prefer to reference documents such as the constitution, federalist papers, etc more than a brief submitted by the AG explaining why his boss can do whatever he wants.

    For anyone thinking the above was taken from some scholarly dissertation on the subject, it is actually taken from everyone's favorite civil liberties crusader (NOT) AG Gonzolez's response to congress about the NSA wire tapping (that means VERY unbiased look at the issues ;-).

    --
    "reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
  4. Re:FISA Court Anyone? by DragonWriter · · Score: 5, Informative

    First, a bit of pedantry, its not the "Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court", it is the "Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court" which is set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

    But more substantively, the ruling you cite refers back to a Fourth Circuit ruling prior to the adoption of FISA (which, therefore, discusses what powers the President has when Congress has not acted) and then makes some comments about inherent power that have little precedential weight because the issue of the degree and extent of Presidential authority to act without or contrary to Congressional dicates was not at issue in the case before the FISC. Instead, the issue was whether FISA has expanded Presidential power.

    Though, for some reason, everytime this issue gets brought up in any internet forum, some defender of the administration trots this out as if it conclusively proved something.