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US lawmakers call for probe into domestic spying program
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-19 11:00 Specter said he wants Bush's advisers to cite their specific legal authority
for bypassing the courts. Bush said the attorney general and White House
counsel's office had affirmed the legality of his actions.
Appearing with Specter on CNN's "Late Edition," Feingold said Bush is
accountable for the program regardless of whether congressional leaders were
notified.
"It doesn't matter if you tell everybody in the whole country if it's against
the law," said Feingold, a member of the Judiciary Committee.
Bush said the program was narrowly designed and used in a manner "consistent
with U.S. law and the Constitution." He said it targets only international
communications of people inside the U.S. with "a clear link" to al-Qaida or
related terrorist organizations.
Government officials have refused to define the standards they're using to
establish such a link or to say how many people are being monitored.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, called that troubling. If Bush is
allowed to decide unilaterally who the potential terrorists are, he in essense
becomes the court, Graham said on CBS's "Face the Nation."
"We are at war, and I applaud the president for being aggressive," said
Graham, who also called for a congressional review. "But we cannot set aside the
rule of law in a time of war."
The existence of the NSA program surfaced as Bush was fighting to save the
expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the domestic anti-terrorism law
enacted after the September 11 attacks.
Renewal of the law has stalled over some its most contentious provisions,
including powers granted law enforcement to gain secret access to library and
medical records and other personal data during investigations of suspected
terrorist activity.
Democrats have urged Bush to support a brief extension of the law so that
changes could be made in the reauthorization, but Bush has refused, saying he
wants renewal now.
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