inconsistent with the law

[warbly]

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 - A legal analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service concludes that the Bush administration's limited briefings for Congress on the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping without warrants are "inconsistent with the law."

The analysis was requested by Representative Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who said in a Jan. 4 letter to President Bush that she believed the briefings should be open to all the members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.

Instead, the briefings have been limited to the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate and of the Intelligence Committees, the so-called Gang of Eight.

Since 2002, the security agency has intercepted the international phone calls and e-mail messages of some Americans and others in the United States who the agency believes are linked to Al Qaeda. The eavesdropping was authorized by an executive order signed by President Bush but without the court warrants usually required.

NY Times


Rep. Harman has been pursuing the Spy on America program's violation of the National Security act of 1947 which requires that the executive branch keep all members of the House and Senate intelligence committees "fully and currently informed" of such intelligence activities as the domestic surveillance effort.
This is just one of several laws the program is inconsistent with. The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is another, not to mention the 4th amendment to the Constitution and the bill of rights.

And the Title for Specter's judiciary committee hearings is "Wartime executive power and the N.S.A.'s surveillance authority". Wartime? You mean Iraq, or the war against AlQueda?
The War in Iraq is a war of Bush's choice and he doesn't deserve to be rewarded with unheard of new power to wiretap anyone he chooses without oversight because he invaded Iraq.
The War on Terror, as Bush reflected with relish, "is a different kind of War" with no real criteria for victory, so as Gore noted, this War Time wiretapping authority will last our lifetimes, at least.
I think that title is a bad omen for Specter's hearings, and anyway, Bush started wiretapping Americans before 911.
Did Judiciary Committee hearings always have titles? How about we call the hearings, "The lessons of 911, why Bush must be allowed to wiretap us all", or "Dr. Strangebush, (how I learned to stop worrying and love the loss of my Freedoms)"
They are going to try to wrap the whole stinking program so deep in War Time rhetoric, stars and stripes, 911 and fear that legislators will shy away from asking real questions i bet. Hopefully the House hearings on Friday will ask tough questions and make it harder to whitewash, or red white and blue wash this sickening violation of the most basic right to Privacy.

[kentuck]

1. "inconsistent with the law" = illegal

word games