Even the Republicans are ****ed....the one's that aren't lemmings, at
least

Report of NSA Spying Prompts Call for Probe
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer

Friday, December 16, 2005


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(12-16) 09:04 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --


A key Republican committee chairman put the Bush administration on
notice Friday that his panel would hold hearings into a report that the
National Security Agency eavesdropped without warrants on people inside
the United States.


Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he would make oversight hearings by his
panel next year "a very, very high priority."


"There is no doubt that this is inappropriate," said Specter, a
Pennsylvania Republican and chairman of the Judiciary Committee.


Other key bipartisan members of Congress also called on the
administration to explain and said a congressional investigation may be
necessary.


Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., appeared annoyed that the first he had heard
of such a program was through a New York Times story published Friday.
He said the report was troubling.


Neither Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice nor White House press
secretary Scott McClellan, asked about the story earlier Friday, would
confirm or deny that the super-secret NSA had spied on as many as 500
people at any given time since 2002.


That year, following the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush authorized the NSA to
monitor the international phone calls and international e-mails of
hundreds - perhaps thousands - of people inside the United States,
the Times reported.


Before the program began, the NSA typically limited its domestic
surveillance to foreign embassies and missions and obtained court
orders for such investigations. Overseas, 5,000 to 7,000 people
suspected of terrorist ties are monitored at one time.


"We need to look into that," McCain told reporters at the White House
after a meeting on Iraq with President Bush. "Theoretically, I
obviously wouldn't like it. But I don't know the extent of it and I
don't know enough about it to really make an informed comment. Ask me
again in about a week."


McCain said it's not clear whether a congressional probe is warranted.
He said the topic had not come up in the meeting with Bush.


"We should be informed as to exactly what is going on and then find out
whether an investigation is called for," he said.


Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., also said he needed more information.


"Of course I was concerned about the story," said Lieberman, who also
attended the White House Iraq meeting. "I'm going to go back to the
office and see if I can find out more about it."


Other Democrats were more harsh.


"This is Big Brother run amok," declared Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
"We cannot protect our borders if we cannot protect our ideals." Sen.
Russell Feingold, D-Wis., called it a "shocking revelation" that he
said "ought to send a chill down the spine of every senator and every
American."


Administration officials reacted to the report by asserting that the
president has respected the Constitution while striving to protect the
American people.


Rice said Bush has "acted lawfully in every step that he has taken."
And McClellan said Bush "is going to remain fully committed to
upholding our Constitution and protect the civil liberties of the
American people. And he has done both."


The report surfaced in an untimely fashion as the administration and
its GOP allies on Capitol Hill were fighting to save provisions of the
expiring USA Patriot Act that they believe are key tools in the fight
against terrorism.


The Times said reporters interviewed nearly a dozen current and former
administration officials about the program and granted them anonymity
because of the classified nature of the program.


Government officials credited the new program with uncovering several
terrorist plots, including one by Iyman Faris, an Ohio trucker who
pleaded guilty in 2003 to supporting al-Qaida by planning to destroy
the Brooklyn Bridge, the report said.


Faris' lawyer, David B. Smith, said on Friday the news puzzled him
because none of the evidence against Faris appeared to have come from
surveillance, other than officials eavesdropping on his cell phone
calls while he was in FBI custody.


Some NSA officials were so concerned about the legality of the program
that they refused to participate, the Times said. Questions about the
legality of the program led the administration to temporarily suspend
it last year and impose new restrictions.


Asked about this on NBC's "Today" show, Rice said, "I'm not going to
comment on intelligence matters."


Caroline Fredrickson, director of the Washington legislative office of
the American Civil Liberties Union, said the group's initial reaction
to the NSA disclosure was "shock that the administration has gone so
far in violating American civil liberties to the extent where it seems
to be a violation of federal law."


Asked about the administration's contention that the eavesdropping has
disrupted terrorist attacks, Fredrickson said the ACLU couldn't comment
until it sees some evidence. "They've veiled these powers in secrecy so
there's no way for Congress or any independent organizations to
exercise any oversight."


Earlier this week, the Pentagon said it was reviewing its use of a
classified database of information about suspicious people and activity
inside the United States after a report by NBC News said the database
listed activities of anti-war groups that were not a security threat to
Pentagon property or personnel.


Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said that while it appears that some
information may have been left in the database longer than it should
have been, it was not clear yet whether mistakes were made. A written
statement issued by the department implied - but did not explicitly
acknowledge - that some information had been handled improperly.


The administration had briefed congressional leaders about the NSA
program and notified the judge in charge of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court, the secret Washington court that handles national
security issues.


Aides to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte and West
Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the top Democrat on the Senate
Intelligence Committee, declined to comment Thursday night.


The Times said it delayed publication of the report for a year because
the White House said it could jeopardize continuing investigations and
alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny. The Times
said it omitted information from the story that administration
officials argued could be useful to terrorists.