The Kansas senator who oversees the nation's intelligence-gathering on Monday defended a secret wiretapping program authorized by President Bush, even as experts back home expressed alarm.
U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, for the first time Monday acknowledged he had been aware of the secret program since becoming chairman in 2003. The program is "consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution," Roberts' spokeswoman said.
"Reflecting his constitutional responsibilities and authorities, the president has authorized a program which makes it far more likely that in the future, al-Qaida affiliated terrorists, like the 9-11 hijackers, will be identified and located prior to the next attack," said the spokeswoman, Sarah Little.
She added: "Sen. Roberts believes that in a time of war, the president should have every lawful authority to protect the American people."
Some Lawrence experts, however, questioned the legality of unwarranted wiretaps.
Bill Staples, a Kansas University professor of sociology who has written about government surveillance, said the Bush administration was "ignoring" the federal Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which in 1978 set up a court to authorize secret wiretaps.
"It certainly seems like they're using executive privilege in a way that skirts the law and what the FISA court was intended to do," Staples said.
He said if the surveillance act's procedures were unwieldy, the Bush administration "ought to propose some method for redoing it, rather than simply ignoring the law."
Phil Minkin, president of the Douglas County American Civil Liberties Union, said he was concerned about the wiretapping revelation, particularly in light of recent media reports that American anti-war groups had come under surveillance by the federal government.
"Under this kind of procedure, everyone is a suspect. Everyone in the United States is a suspect," Minkin said. "That's not very pleasant."
But Little, Roberts' spokeswoman, said the eavesdropping program had been "thoroughly reviewed" by offices in the National Security Agency and Department of Justice to ensure activities "are consistent with U.S. law and the preservation of civil liberties."
Additionally, she said, Roberts is talking with Senate leaders about providing additional congressional oversight of the program.
Comments
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merrill (anonymous) says…
Better start with the Bush family:
http://www.hereinreality.com/familyva...
happyp (anonymous) says…
Yes, the Bush Family would be a good place to start. Perhaps with the fact that Daddy George was visiting with the Bin Lauden family when the 9/11 attack occured. By the way, where is Osama? Has Duba conveniently forgotten to keep searching for him? Could it be the "family ties"?
mkhawk (anonymous) says…
Pat Roberts needs to go away. Talk about a Bush lackey!
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
srj (anonymous) says…
It does sound bad, doesn't it. But I will wait until, say, open senate comittee meetings for more info. I just wish the Bush white house could be honest, for once. Admit he made up stuff (or at least heard what he wanted to hear) about going to war, that they wiretap out phones and touture people, to make out country safe. Stop hidding stuff, tell us the truth, we can handle it.
cowboy (anonymous) says…
senator drag my feet , why does he bother , another of the completely worthless ks reps. Being an apologist for the worst administration in memory. This banished to Crawford forever and quickly.
merrill (anonymous) says…
CensureBush.org Campaign Launched in Response to New House Legislation
The AfterDowningStreet.org coalition, an alliance of over 100 grassroots organizations, has launched a new campaign called CensureBush.org in order to support new legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers that would censure President Bush and Vice President Cheney and create a select committee to investigate the Administration's possible crimes and make recommendations regarding grounds for impeachment.
H.Res.635 would create a select committee - modeled after Sam Ervin's Watergate committee - to investigate the Administration's intent to go to war before congressional authorization, manipulation of pre-war intelligence, encouraging and countenancing torture, and retaliating against critics, and to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment.
H.Res.636 and H.Res.637 would censure, respectively, Bush and Cheney for failing to respond to requests for information concerning allegations that they and others in the Administration misled Congress and the American people regarding the decision to go to war in Iraq, misstated and manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification for the war, countenanced torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of persons in Iraq, and permitted inappropriate retaliation against critics of the Administration, for failing to adequately account for certain misstatements they made regarding the war, and in the case of President Bush for failing to comply with Executive Order 12958.
These two efforts are complementary - H.Res.635 seeks accountability for the Bush administration's monumental crimes, while H.Res.636 and H.Res.637 seek accountability for their coverups.