Eavesdropping erodes privacy (Ventura County Star)

[struggle4progress]

Congress must protect rights
January 4, 2006

<snip> Obtaining a warrant from the court is hardly a cumbersome hurdle. Whole years go by without the court denying a warrant. Most warrants are granted within 24 hours. If agents have to act immediately, they can do so as long as they retroactively apply for the warrant within the next three days. Mr. Bush's decision to short-circuit that court has caused one justice to resign.

Mr. Bush insists that NSA eavesdropping is confined to only "a few numbers," but published accounts put the number at more than 500 a day. <snip>

Under the expanded Patriot Act, which Mr. Bush urged Congress on Tuesday to renew, FBI agents have the power, without recourse to courts, to grant themselves secret subpoenas called National Security letters for a wide variety of financial records. The bureau was issuing 30,000 of these letters a year. <snip>

http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/opinion/article/0,1375,VCS_125_4361140,00.html

[Spinzonner]

1. It's not about the obtaining the warrant

it's about somebody having a record of what they're doing to whom.

[struggle4progress]

2. I'm not a FISA fan but rule of law is better than Nixon's claim that ..

.. the President is an absolute monarch.