Senator Russ Feingold has issued a response to President Bush's admissions during his radio address today that he authorized domestic intelligence wiretaps without a warrant or court order. It is available as a radio actuality at the following number: 800-511-0763, Code 4945:

"The President believes that he has the power to override the laws that Congress has passed. This is not how our democratic system of government works. The President does not get to pick and choose which laws he wants to follow. He is a president, not a king."

Here is a fact sheet I received from Sen. Feingold's office on domestic intelligence wiretaps:

by TChris

The Bush administration has rewritten the nation's first principles. No man is above the law, except the president. Ours is a government of men (gathered in the White House) and not of laws. Separation of powers gives way to a concentration of power in an omnipotent executive. The president's power must be unchecked, even if the president is unbalanced.

The federal legislature enacted laws that prohibit the executive branch from electronically eavesdropping on private communications without the approval of the judicial branch. The law authorizes the president to apply to a special court for easily-obtained permission to intercept telephone calls of persons suspected of supporting terrorism or of working on behalf of a foreign government. Nothing in the Constitution gives the president greater power than that bestowed by Congress to listen to private conversations, and the Fourth Amendment requires the executive branch to obtain a warrant before it does so.

Like a rebellious child who continues to stick out his tongue after being told to behave, President Bush today acknowledged that he has authorized wiretaps and insisted that he will continue to do everything in his power to protect Americans. While the president contended that he is acting "under our laws and Constitution," his understanding of the law -- detention without trial or counsel, torture, secret renditions to foreign prisons, all deemed appropriate exercises of presidential power -- is untrustworthy.

A president who lies about a private sexual encounter is impeached. A president who defies the law and, when exposed, arrogantly proclaims his right to do so, will never stand trial.

Here is the entire FISA Act. Section 1802 covers electronic surveillance under the Act without a court order. You may have to check the GAO database to make sure none have been updated recently. I will be posting another version from Lexis later, but since readers can't access it without paying, I thought this publicly available version would be helpful to get you started.

Section 1811 of the act pertaining to surveillance during wartime states:

Notwithstanding any other law, the President, through the Attorney General, may authorize electronic surveillance without a court order under this subchapter to acquire foreign intelligence information for a period not to exceed fifteen calendar days following a declaration of war by the Congress.

Section 1805 of the Act covers emergency situations where a court order cannot be obtained in advance. Such surveillance can only last 72 hours before an Order is applied for.

President Bush today admitted he ordered National Security wiretaps without a warrant more than 30 times since 2001. He says he has the power to do it. You can watch his statement here.

From the Washington Post:

Bush said that he authorized the program "using constitutional authority vested in me as commander-in-chief." He argued that the program is consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution, and used "to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations."

The New York Times has a ten page article explaining how President Bush, via executive order issued after 9/11, directed the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on thousands of conversations and read e-mails, without a warrant. Not even a secret FISA warrant was obtained. The Times says it withheld reporting this for a year because the White House said it would alert terrorists.

Mr. Bush's executive order allowing some warrantless eavesdropping on those inside the United States ­ including American citizens, permanent legal residents, tourists and other foreigners ­ is based on classified legal opinions that assert that the president has broad powers to order such searches, derived in part from the September 2001 Congressional resolution authorizing him to wage war on Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, according to the officials familiar with the N.S.A. operation.

As for numbers:

by TChris

Senators who oppose a “compromise” that would extend the Patriot Act’s most obnoxious provisions are finding support from editorialists around the country. The San Jose Mercury News reminds readers that "[t]he right to privacy -- the right of ordinary citizens to be free from government snooping -- is paramount to America's democracy, and a handful of provisions in the anti-terrorism law ride roughshod over it." The Vacaville Reporter complains that the proposed revision “still doesn't go far enough to protect individual liberties.” The Honolulu Star-Bulletin urges Congress to allow provisions to expire that infringe on people's liberties.

by TChris

European investigators suspect that prisoners once secretly detained by the CIA in Europe are now being held in North Africa. Senator Dick Marty, who leads the Council of Europe investigation, says it is “still too early to say if there has been any involvement or complicity of member states in illegal actions.” If member countries permitted the CIA to hold detainees “without judicial involvement,” Marty warns that “the member states would stand accused of having seriously breached their human rights obligations to the Council of Europe.” (TalkLeft coverage of the rendition program is collected here.)

by TChris

After fighting so vigorously to keep Jose Padilla from having his day in court (TalkLeft background collected here), the Justice Department now finds itself fighting to convince the Fourth Circuit to disregard its earlier claim that Padilla is actually an enemy combatant who should be denied the protections of the Constitution. In the words of Emily Litella, "Never mind."

In papers Friday, lawyers for the Justice Department said that the president had the authority to choose to prosecute Mr. Padilla on charges of participating in a terrorist cell in North America. As a consequence, the issues raised in the case before the appeals court as to whether he could be held as an enemy combatant were now moot. The court should even withdraw its opinion on the matter, the department said.

Accusations that Padilla intended to detonate a “dirty bomb” somewhere on U.S. soil have quietly slipped away, leaving the Fourth Circuit to wonder what all the fuss was about. The Justice Department likely fears that the Supreme Court would reject its authority to declare an American citizen arrested within U.S. borders an “enemy combatant.” But the Fourth Circuit may be unwilling to treat the question as moot, given the government’s ability to flip-flop once more if its criminal case against Padilla unravels (as did its heralded terrorism prosecution of Sami al-Arian).

by Last Night in Little Rock

The NY Times reports this afternoon that NYC police searches of bags in subways are constitutional under the Fourth Amendment as a deterrent to terrorists.

by TChris

This sums up nicely the Bush administration's policy regarding the detention of those it suspects of terrorism:

"The position of the executive branch," said Eric M. Freedman, a law professor at Hofstra University who has consulted with lawyers for several detainees, "is that it can be judge, jury and executioner."

In the wake of the Padilla flip-flop, Adam Liptak explores the secret (or absent) standards the Bush administration uses to designate detainees as enemy combatants rather than criminal defendants. The prospect of indefinite detention as an enemy combatant is so frightening that it might induce someone in Padilla's shoes to plead guilty to a serious criminal charge with the hope of remaining under the jurisdiction of the criminal justice system.

In an interview with British ITV News Network , former CIA Director Stansfield Turner reportedly said the following:

President Bush is not telling the truth when he says that torture is not a method used by the US. Speaking of Bush's claims that the US does not use torture, Admiral Turner, who ran the CIA from 1977 to 1981, said: "I do not believe him".

On Dick Cheney he said "I'm embarrassed the United States has a vice president for torture. "He condones torture, what else is he?".

Turner was the CIA Director from 1977 to 1982 under Jimmy Carter.

by Last Night in Little Rock

The NY Times reports this afternoon that a Congressional conference committee compromise was reached just before dawn today on the PATRIOT Act renewal. Some provisions that sunset December 31st are extended 7 years, but Democrats claim 4 was agreed to and that they were cut out of the final negotiations. As for the infamous National Security Letters: