NYT: spying law may have given Bush Admin broader powers than intended

[uberllama42]

Concerns Raised on Wider Spying Under New Law

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 — Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congress this month could allow the Bush administration to conduct spy operations that go well beyond wiretapping to include — without court approval — certain types of physical searches on American soil and the collection of Americans’ business records, Democratic Congressional officials and other experts said.

Administration officials acknowledged that they had heard such concerns from Democrats in Congress recently, and that there was a continuing debate over the meaning of the legislative language. But they said the Democrats were simply raising theoretical questions based on a harsh interpretation of the legislation.

They also emphasized that there would be strict rules in place to minimize the extent to which Americans would be caught up in the surveillance.

The dispute illustrates how lawmakers, in a frenetic, end-of-session scramble, passed legislation they may not have fully understood and may have given the administration more surveillance powers than it sought.

It also offers a case study in how changing a few words in a complex piece of legislation has the potential to fundamentally alter the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a landmark national security law. The new legislation is set to expire in less than six months; two weeks after it was signed into law, there is still heated debate over how much power Congress gave to the president.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/washington/19fisa.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1187519440-jkh58/WawmLtQeOpbYUrWQ

[Kagemusha]

1. Than intended by whom? Than Dick Cheney? I think not.

This is just rubber stamping powers that the admin thinks it has an inherent constitutional right to. If the language was offensive to the administration, going well beyond what it wanted in a way the admin did not like and did not seek, I'm sure the admin would have loudly let Congress know about it. Mere days after the signing, Dana Perino was out there to complain about the sunset provision; Bush wants that removed ASAP. If the admin didn't intend to have extra power under the legislation, uh, we'd have heard.

The admin seems to have a bigger budget for getting people to understand legislation than Congress does.

[DeeDeeNY]

2. Well at least they got to go on vacation on time!

This line says it all: "The dispute illustrates how lawmakers, in a frenetic, end-of-session scramble, passed legislation they may not have fully understood."
Sickening.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Same modus operandi when Congress passed the PATRIOT Act.

No reasoned, deliberate debate and examination of the legislation.

The Founders never intended for Congress to enact laws in the manner we've witnessed during the last six years.

[MasonJar]

4. We need to pound our reps daily...even the PUG ones. This is

legislation which cannot wait even 6 months to be withdrawn. And no giving these bastards the right to have done illegal acts in the past.