House to consider terrorism spy bill

[ProSense]

House to consider terrorism spy bill

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 1 minute ago

WASHINGTON - The White House was halfway to its goal of winning expanded powers to eavesdrop on suspected foreign terrorists. Senate Democrats reluctantly agreed to passing a bill Friday night to update the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The House was expected to consider it Saturday after rejecting a Democratic alternative the night before.

<...>

President Bush has demanded that Congress give him the expanded authority before leaving for vacation this weekend.

The White House applauded the Senate vote and urged the House to quickly follow suit.

<...>

"Al-Qaida is not going on vacation this month," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "And we can't either until we know we've done our duty to the American people."

<...>

"We can have security and our civil liberties," said Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass.

<...>

The Bush administration began pressing for changes to the law after a recent ruling by the special FISA court that barred the government from eavesdropping on foreign suspects whose messages were being routed through U.S. communications carriers, including Internet sites.

Democrats agreed the law should not restrict U.S. spies from tapping in on foreign suspects. However, they initially demanded that the FISA court review the eavesdropping process before it begins to make sure that Americans aren't targeted.

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., angrily chastised his colleagues for bending to the administration's will.

"The day we start deferring to someone who's not a member of this body ... is a sad day for the U.S. Senate," Feingold said.

more

[Hubert Flottz]

1. The cowards had more important thing to think about than the

Constitution that they swore to defend and protect...their vacation plans would have been all messed up if they hadn't let bush stampede them into selling the country out again.

[Robbien]

2. I vote we remove the word Democratic from this forum

I really hate anything to do with Democrats right now.

A red hot searing hatred.

[ixion]

3. "We can have security and our civil liberties,"

Yes, perhaps. But this is not what is happening. Quite the opposite, in fact. :grr: