http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/opinion/07tue1.html
The New York Times
August 7, 2007
Editorial
The Fear of Fear Itself
It was appalling to watch over the last few days as Congress now led by
Democrats caved in to yet another unnecessary and dangerous expansion
of President Bushs powers, this time to spy on Americans in violation
of basic constitutional rights. Many of the 16 Democrats in the Senate
and 41 in the House who voted for the bill said that they had acted in
the name of national security, but the only security at play was their
job security.
There was plenty of bad behavior. Republicans marched in mindless
lockstep with the president. There was double-dealing by the White
House. The director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell, crossed
the line from being a steward of this nations security to acting as a
White House political operative.
But mostly, the spectacle left us wondering what the Democrats
especially their feckless Senate leaders plan to do with their majority
in Congress if they are too scared of Republican campaign ads to use it
to protect the Constitution and restrain an out-of-control president.
The votes in the House and Senate were supposed to fix a genuine glitch
in the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires the
government to obtain a warrant before eavesdropping on electronic
communications that involve someone in the United States. The court
charged with enforcing that law said the government must also seek a
warrant if the people are outside the country, but their communications
are routed through data exchanges here a technological problem that did
not exist in 1978.
Instead of just fixing that glitch, the White House and its allies on
Capitol Hill railroaded Congress into voting a vast expansion of the
presidents powers. They gave the director of national intelligence and
the attorney general authority to intercept without warrant, court
supervision or accountability any telephone call or e-mail message that
moves in, out of or through the United States as long as there is a
reasonable belief that one party is not in the United States. The new
law all but eviscerates the 1978 law. The only small saving grace is
that the new statute expires in six months.
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Michael