Bush and illegal wiretaps

Dec 27 23:55 UTC 2005

from UPI wire report:

This is a continuation of the item in fall agora on Bush and his 
authorization of illegal and/or unethical spying.  Here's the latest 
scoop in this scandal:

"WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush decided to 
skip seeking warrants for international wiretaps because the court was 
challenging him at an unprecedented rate. 

A review of Justice Department reports to Congress by Hearst newspapers 
shows the 26-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court modified 
more wiretap requests from the Bush administration than the four 
previous presidential administrations combined. 

The 11-judge court that authorizes FISA wiretaps modified only two 
search warrant orders out of the 13,102 applications approved over the 
first 22 years of the court's operation. 

But since 2001, the judges have modified 179 of the 5,645 requests for 
surveillance by the Bush administration, the report said. A total of 
173 of those court-ordered "substantive modifications" took place in 
2003 and 2004. And, the judges also rejected or deferred at least six 
requests for warrants during those two years -- the first outright 
rejection of a wiretap request in the court's history. "


So the Court exercises its legal authority to block questionable 
surveillance requets, and Bush simply decides to go ahead and authorize 
them anyway.  This is a shocking abuse of power.

response 2 of 404:

Dec 28 01:10 UTC 2005

I agree this is a shocking abuse of power, and I agree he ought to be
impeached under the circumstances.  The abuse is at the level of "high
crimes and misdemeanors".

However, he's not going to be impeached by his own party.  It's
unfortunate but it's also true.