CNN News article
Gore Assails Domestic Wiretapping Program
Former Vice President Al Gore called Monday for an independent Tinvestigation of President Bush's domestic spying program, contending the president "repeatedly and insistently" broke the law by eavesdropping on Americans without court approval.
Gore charged that the administration acted without congressional authority and made a "direct assault" on a special federal court that authorizes requests to eavesdrop on Americans. One judge on the court resigned last month, voicing concerns about the National Security Agency's surveillance of e-mails and phone calls.
The former vice president said that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should name a special counsel to investigate the program, citing the attorney general's "obvious conflict of interest" as a member of the Bush Cabinet as well as the nation's top law enforcement officer.
He said the spying program must be considered along with other administration actions as a constitutional power grab by the president. Gore cited imprisoning American citizens without charges in terrorism cases, mistreatment of prisoners - including torture - and seizure of individuals in foreign countries and delivering them to autocratic regimes "infamous for the cruelty of their techniques."
Republicans are also concerned, from
Domestic spying prompts talk of impeachment:
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would conduct hearings on the unwarranted monitoring of international phone calls, faxes and emails of U.S. citizens or residents since 2002.
"There are limits to what the president can do under the Constitution," Specter said on CNN’s "Late Edition." "Whether it was legal is a matter that ought to be examined."
Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, has asked why Bush failed to get the warrants from the court under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which set up an 11-member court to issue warrants to investigate U.S. suspects in national security cases. In recent years, the secret court has issued more than 4,000 warrants and denied fewer than a dozen requests by the administration.
"Why did the president choose not to use FISA?" McCain asked on "This Week," an ABC news show. "That’s a legitimate question."
Meanwhile, a member of that court, U.S. District Judge James Robertson, resigned from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, apparently to protest Bush’s decision to bypass the special court. According to the Washington Post, two sources familiar with his decision say that "Robertson privately expressed deep concern that the unwarranted surveillance program authorized by the president in 2001 was legally questionable and may have tainted the FISA court’s work."
Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean, a Republican, expressed deep concern about the revelation and has publicly described Bush as being "the first president to admit to an impeachable offense."
A new Zogby poll says:
ModerateIndependent
As reported by Democrats.com, the new poll, commissioned by Afterdowningstreet.org and conducted by Zogby, when asked, "If President Bush wiretapped American citizens without the approval of a judge, do you agree or disagree that Congress should consider holding him accountable through impeachment," 52% of respondents said yes, 42% said no, a 6% were undecided.
The poll had a +/- 2.9 margin of error.
The article on democrats.com points out that the polls the mainstream media has been using have been asking questions that lead to misleading results.
What, the media distorting the results with misleading questions? Giving a false impression that 64% of the people support the government spying on civilians?
The "liberal" media?
Riiiiiight.
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