Cong. Vic Snyder's response re: wiretapping bill

[LonelyLRLiberal]

I received the following letter from Arkansas Rep. Vic Snyder (D) in response to a communication asking him to oppose warrantless wiretapping:

"Thank you for contacting me about the proposals to legalize the
wiretapping program run by the NSA. I appreciate hearing from
you about this matter.

I voted against the House legislation to legalize the wiretapping
program, H.R. 5825. I firmly believe that the government must
have the ability to eavesdrop on the calls of known and suspected
terrorists who are communicating with persons in the United
States. However, I do not believe that the President should have
the ability to order such eavesdropping for an unlimited time and
without meaningful oversight of other branches of government.
Under the bill that came to the House floor, if the President
believed that there was a reasonable chance of a terror attack, he
could order wiretapping of suspects for 90 days, so long as he
notified the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court and
the Congressional Intelligence Committees. The President could
continue this monitoring essentially forever, simply by notifying
the court and the committees every 90 days that he thought it was
necessary. Unfortunately, as the bill was written, it seems unlikely
that either the Congress or the FISA court could conduct
meaningful oversight of this monitoring and neither the Congress
nor the Court could order it be stopped. Given the abuses that have
been committed in the past when executive power was unchecked
by either Congress or the Judicial branch, this did not seem to be a
prudent way to set up the system. It would make more sense to
allow for an initial 90 day or longer period of monitoring, and then
require the President to seek the authority of the FISA court or the
Congressional Intelligence Committees to continue the
wiretapping. This would help to ensure that the President had the
authority he needs to catch suspected terrorists, while ensuring that
American's civil rights are not violated. The House passed H.R.
5825 by a vote of 232-191. The Senate passed a very different
wiretapping bill, and it is unclear when or if a conference
committee will be charged with working out the differences
between the two bills.

Again, thank you for contacting me about this issue. I look
forward to hearing from you in the future.

Sincerely,

Vic Snyder"

[AX10]

1. Thank you congressman!

This is a Democrat from a red state who has stood up to Bush's abuses! I commend Rep Snyder!

:kick:

:cheers:

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Well, that's one of his votes I can support.