Bush Authorized Domestic Spying
"Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said the secret order may amount to the president authorizing criminal activity.
The law governing clandestine surveillance in the United States, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, prohibits conducting electronic surveillance not authorized by statute. A government agent can try to avoid prosecution if he can show he was 'engaged in the course of his official duties and the electronic surveillance was authorized by and conducted pursuant to a search warrant or court order of a court of competent jurisdiction,' according to the law.
'This is as shocking a revelation as we have ever seen from the Bush administration,' said Martin, who has been sharply critical of the administration's surveillance and detention policies. 'It is, I believe, the first time a president has authorized government agencies to violate a specific criminal prohibition and eavesdrop on Americans.'"
- posted by geoff @ #