"1st time a pres has authorized gov to violate criminal prohibition"

[kpete]

Domestic Spying Criminal Penalties and Civil Liability

The Washington Post, following up on yesterday's New York Times revelations reports that the Bush administration's domestic spying violates the law:

President Bush signed a secret order in 2002 authorizing the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens and foreign nationals in the United States, despite previous legal prohibitions against such domestic spying, sources with knowledge of the program said last night.

The super-secretive NSA, which has generally been barred from domestic spying except in narrow circumstances involving foreign nationals, has monitored the e-mail, telephone calls and other communications of hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of people under the program, the New York Times disclosed last night...

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."

For anyone interested the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is here.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/donors/solicit.php?http_referer=/uscode/html/uscode50/usc_sup_01_50_10_36.html
http://wampum.wabanaki.net/vault/2005/12/002161.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/16/AR2005121600021.html