To the editor:

The following facts are largely uncontroverted:

1. Administration officials have massively eavesdropped on American citizens without warrants.

2. Their spying criminally violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.

3. Administration lawyers don’t deny that, but they claim President Bush is above the law because of the struggle against terrorism. (Bush says the struggle may never end.)

4. Nearly all independent lawyers disagree.

5. Bush said warrantless spying was illegal and he wasn’t doing it. Later he admitted he had.

6. In 1976, President Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment for illegally spying on Americans and claiming he was above the law.

7. Congressional leaders aren’t planning to impeach Bush. They want to make what he did legal.

8. Congress recently confirmed Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Alito has argued that the president is above the law.

9. The Democrats lacked the courage to sustain a filibuster against Alito.

Now comes Sen. Pat Roberts, described by the New York Times as “doing the president’s dirty work.” Roberts claims (Feb. 24, Journal-World) the spying is:

l “not domestic” and “very limited.” (News reports estimate tens or hundreds of thousands of Americans were spied on.)

l based on “probable cause.” (News reports without exception say the opposite. Roberts is preventing a Senate investigation.)

l “necessary and effective.” (News reports say the FBI interrupted more effective work to check out several thousand low-value illegally obtained leads.)

In short, we seem to be replacing constitutional checks and balances with an executive dictatorship – with Roberts as enabler.

David Burress,

Lawrence