Congressman Towns Supports Congressional Hearings Regarding President Spying on Americans
Congressman Towns Supports Congressional Hearings Regarding President Spying on Americans
New York, December 22, 2005-- Congressman Ed Towns (D-NY 10) supports Congressional hearings regarding the President's admission of covert wiretapping of Americans.
In a radio address on December 17, 2005, President Bush publicly confirmed the existence of a highly-sensitive National Security Agency (NSA) program for intercepting communications of Americans within the United States as reported in a December 16, 2005 New York Times article.
"I am sympathetic to the President's need to acquire information about potential terrorists, he must have information to protect American citizens, but all the President had to do was to get a warrant from the FISA Court," said Congressman Towns. "We are a country of laws and the President may have broken the law. If the President did not like the law, he should have gone to Congress and asked for a change in the law."
The FISA Court is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a secret Washington court that deals with national security issues. The FISA Court gets its authority from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. The law does allow for the Administration to tap international communications of people in the United States. The Administration can go to the FISA court up to 72 hours after a wiretap for retroactive permission.
The Administration states that the existing Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, created in response to Nixon-era spying on anti-war and civil rights protesters, was not written for an age of modern terrorism. Bush Administration officials also believe that its surveillance of Americans was limited in scope.
"When John Dean the White House Counsel to former President Nixon said President Bush may be the first American president to admit to an impeachable offense, you know this is a serious issue," continued Congressman Towns. "It would be ironic that while we are promoting democracy in Iraq, we are at the same time eroding the civil liberties of American citizens."
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ny10_towns/spying.html