[Wasn't it Gonzales who said that it was OK for the U.S. to illegally
call Prisoners of War "Belligerent Combatants" and thus not protected
by the Geneva Convention, and also said that it was perfectly OK for
the U.S. to torture anybody held in U.S. Custody if there was even
the slightest hint they were withhold any information that could be
of even the slightest value?]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/06/AR2006040600764.html
Warrantless Wiretaps Possible in U.S.
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 7, 2006; A03
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales left open the possibility
yesterday that President Bush could order warrantless wiretaps on
telephone calls occurring solely within the United States -- a move
that would dramatically expand the reach of a controversial National
Security Agency surveillance program.
In response to a question from Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) during an
appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, Gonzales suggested
that the administration could decide it was legal to listen in on a
domestic call without supervision if it were related to al-Qaeda.
"I'm not going to rule it out," Gonzales said.
In the past, Gonzales and other officials refused to say whether they
had the legal authority to conduct warrantless eavesdropping on
domestic calls, and have stressed that the NSA eavesdropping program
is focused only on international communications.
Gonzales previously testified in the Senate that Bush had considered
including purely domestic communications in the NSA spying program,
but he said the idea was rejected in part because of fears of a
public outcry. He also testified at the time that the Justice
Department had not fully analyzed the legal issues of such a move.
In yesterday's testimony, Gonzales reiterated earlier hints that
there may be another facet to the NSA program that has not been
revealed publicly, or even another program that has prompted
dissension within the government. While acknowledging disagreements
among officials over the monitoring efforts, Gonzales disputed
published reports that have detailed the arguments.
"They did not relate to the program the president disclosed,"
Gonzales testified. "They related to something else, and I can't get
into that."
Justice spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos played down Gonzales's remarks,
saying he "did not say anything new" about the NSA program.
"The Attorney General's comments today should not be interpreted to
suggest the existence or non-existence of a domestic program or
whether any such program would be lawful under the existing legal
analysis," Scolinos said in a statement.
The NSA program, which was first revealed publicly in media reports
in December, has been the focus of sharp criticism from lawmakers of
both parties and prompted a recent call by Sen. Russell Feingold
(D-Wis.) to formally censure Bush for violation of federal surveillance laws.
The criticism from both parties continued yesterday. At one point
during Gonzales's testimony, Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (Wis.),
the committee's Republican chairman, accused the attorney general of
"stonewalling" for refusing to discuss how the NSA program was authorized.
"I think that saying that how the review was done and who did the
review is classified is stonewalling," Sensenbrenner said. "And if
we're properly to determine whether or not the program was legal and
funded -- because that's Congress's responsibility -- we need to have
answers, and we're not getting them."
Administration officials have acknowledged that Bush issued an order
in October 2001 authorizing the NSA to intercept phone calls and
e-mails between the United States and overseas in which one of the
parties was suspected of some link to al-Qaeda. Gonzales and the
Justice Department have argued that the program is constitutional and
was effectively authorized by Congress when it approved the use of
force against al-Qaeda after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Many Democrats and some Republicans say that Congress did not intend
any such authorization, and that the program violates the 1978
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which created a special
court to oversee clandestine surveillance within the United States.
Lawmakers are considering several proposals to legalize the program
in some way, whether by incorporating it within FISA or authorizing
it separately.
In a news release, Schiff, a former federal prosecutor, called
Gonzales's testimony about intercepting domestic calls "disturbing."
He said it "represents a wholly unprecedented assertion of executive power."
"No one in Congress would deny the need to tap certain calls under
court order, but if the administration believes it can tap purely
domestic phone calls between Americans without court approval, there
is no limit to executive power," he said.
During his testimony, Gonzales said he was constrained in what he
could disclose about the highly classified program. "I do not think
we are thumbing our nose at the Congress or the courts," he said.
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Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:17 CST