!!!BUSH SOUGHT WAR POWERS IN THE UNITED STATES!!!

[kpete]

Bush sought war powers IN the U.S.!!!

By Barton Gellman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 23, 2005; Page A04

Daschle: Congress Denied Bush War Powers in U.S.

WASHINGTON--The Bush administration requested, and Congress rejected, war-making authority ``in the United States'' in negotiations over the joint resolution passed days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to an opinion article by former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., in Friday's Washington Post.

Daschle's disclosure challenges a central legal argument offered by the White House in defense of the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. It suggests that Congress refused explicitly to grant authority that the Bush administration now asserts is implicit in the resolution.

Daschle's article reveals an important new episode in the resolution's legislative history.

The Justice Department acknowledged Thursday, in a letter to Congress, that the president's October 2001 eavesdropping order did not comply with ``the 'procedures' of'' the law that has regulated domestic espionage since 1978. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, established a secret intelligence court and made it a criminal offense to conduct electronic surveillance without a warrant from that court, ``except as authorized by statute.''

Thursday's letter, signed by Assistant Attorney General William Moschella, asserted that Congress implicitly created a new exception to FISA's warrant requirement by authorizing President Bush to use military force in response to the destruction of the World Trade Center and a wing of the Pentagon. The congressional resolution of Sept. 18, 2001, formally titled ``Authorization for the Use of Military Force,'' made no reference to surveillance or to the president's intelligence-gathering powers, and the Bush administration made no public claim of new authority until news accounts disclosed the secret NSA operation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/22/AR2005122202119.html
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/12/22/222857/78