Report Rebuts Bush on Spying
'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'.
You do not need a 'nonpartisan assessment' to determine that Bush's wiretapping of American citizens without a warrant is 'illegal'. All you have to do is simply read the law that even the most simple-minded people should be able to comprehend. Even Republicans.
You do not need a 'nonpartisan assessment' to determine that Bush's wiretapping of American citizens without a warrant is 'illegal'. All you have to do is simply read the law that even the most simple-minded people should be able to comprehend. Even Republicans.
