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Friday, July 4, 2008
Court: Bush Engaged in Illegal Wiretapping
Breaking News! George W. Bush has been explicitly and cravenly breaking the law and subverting the Constitution!
Oh, not a surprise to you? Well, maybe a new ruling in a Federal case dealing with Bush's illegal wiretapping activities, in direct contravention of the explicit intent of Congress in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, might raise some eyebrows:
A federal judge in California said Wednesday that the wiretapping law established by Congress was the “exclusive” means for the president to eavesdrop on Americans, and he rejected the government’s claim that the president’s constitutional authority as commander in chief trumped that law.
The judge, Vaughn R. Walker, the chief judge for the Northern District of California [who was appointed by George H.W. Bush (irony!)], made his findings in a ruling on a lawsuit brought by an Oregon charity. The group says it has evidence of an illegal wiretap used against it by the National Security Agency under the secret surveillance program established by President Bush after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
...
“Congress appears clearly to have intended to — and did — establish the exclusive means for foreign intelligence activities to be conducted,” the judge wrote. “Whatever power the executive may otherwise have had in this regard, FISA limits the power of the executive branch to conduct such activities and it limits the executive branch’s authority to assert the state secrets privilege in response to challenges to the legality of its foreign intelligence surveillance activities.”
Posted by Metavirus at 7/04/2008 10:54:00 AM
Tags: Barack Obama , Bush , Election 2008 , FISA , General Election , Illegal Wiretepping , John McCain
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