Gore speech gets unbiased coverage outside the US

[Jemmons]

Gore calls for special prosecutor in secret surveillance case

Former vice president Al Gore calls for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate potential transgressions of law by George W. Bush, when authorizing surveillance in the US with no court approval.

Chief justice Alberto Gonzales is expected to be questioned by the Senate next month about his role in the controversial matter. He is expected to deliver the administrations explanation of how the Whitehouse unsupported by courts can authorize wire taps.

Conflict of interest
An independent prosecutor should immediately be appointed by the chief justice to solve the obvious conflict of interest, which hinders his investigation of what many considers serious transgressions of law by the president, Gore said in his speech monday.

According to experts President Bush has broken criminal law and constitution by ordering intelligence surveillance of terror-suspects americans, without a court approval.

According to Gore, the secret wiretaps by NSA are a threat to democracy in the US.
Monday was holiday in the US to commemorate Martin Luther King. Gore reminded us that King as a civil rights activist was secretly wire tapped by the FBI.

Chief Justice Gonzales cannot be impartial
The contested wiretaps was ordered after the terror attacks against the US in 2001. Bush claims that after 9/11 Congress allowed him to order wire taping of americans with no court approval. Democrats and moderate republicans maintains that the president never had any approval from Congress.

Chief Justice Gonzales was as legal adviser to the president a central contributor to the legal opinions, which the administration refer to when arguing that the wire tapping's are legal.

The impartiality of Chief Justice Gonzales regarding the legality of procedures is challenged twice: on grounds of the loyalty he owe to the president and on the grounds of his past support of extended executive privileges.

The Shadow of 2000
Al Gore had more than half a million more votes than Bush in the 2000 presidential election, but lost the option of a recount in Florida after a controversial supreme court decision. Florida was lost by 537 votes and Bush won the electors of the state and the White House.

Republicans have since tried to diminish his political stature by picturing him as half-crazy, but he still enjoys huge respect by democratic core voters.


Source:
http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Udland/2006/01/17/071503.htm

NB: Some errors in quotations due to double translation