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August 22, 2006
Surveillance Woes and Foes
by Tina Grazier
We may never hear the last word on the National Security Agencies' surveillance program. An article in the New York Times, Experts Fault Reasoning in Surveillance Decision by Adam Liptak, points out that even scholars who agree with the ruling judge find herdecision shakey. As one blogger, Howard J. Basham, a lawyer from Pennsylvania put it:
“It does appear that folks on all sides of the spectrum, both those who support it and those who oppose it, say the decision is not strongly grounded in legal authority.�
A former Clinton administration official said the program is legal yet commented on the poorly thought out opinion:
“It’s hard to exaggerate how bad it is,� said John R. Schmidt, a former Justice Department official...
According to the New York Times John Schmidt...
"pointed to Judge Taylor’s failure to cite what he called several pertinent decisions, including one from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review in 2002 thatsaid it took for granted that Congress 'could not encroach on the president’s constitutional power' to conduct warrantless surveillance to obtain foreign intelligence.
Personally, I'd rather see the courts tied up on this one for the duration than see the program eliminated by silly judges playing politics, but that's just me.
Posted by Post Scripts at August 22, 2006 08:03 AM
Comments
What about all thousands of people in this country that have been hurt by this evil law to catch terrorists?
Wait a sec, let's not talk in generalities, let me get the exact number of victims hurt, - its, uh, z-e-r-o? Not even one frivilous ACLU lawsuit representing a victim of the Bushco-Haliburton Conspiracy Group? Oh, no!
Never mind.
Posted by: Liberalis-extinctus at August 22, 2006 08:15 AM
You are correct, not a single one...BUT, it's the seriousness of the charge doncha know!
Posted by: Tina at August 22, 2006 08:04 PM