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U.S. wiretapping based in law, Gonzales says JOHN O'NEIL / New York Times | January 25 2006 WASHINGTON - Continuing the Bush administration's stepped-up defense of the National Security Agency's eavesdropping program, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Tuesday cited a long history of military surveillance conducted without warrants, going back to George Washington's reading of captured mail between the British and Americans during the Revolutionary War. In a speech at Georgetown University, Gonzales also said that it was crucial for the president to be able to act quickly on the professional judgment of intelligence experts to gather information on potential plots. The wiretaps only involved calls or e-mail between someone in the U.S. and someone in a foreign country "when experienced intelligence experts have reason to believe that one party to the communication is a member of al-Qaida or has an affiliation with it," Gonzales said. Gonzales' speech follows up a lecture given on Monday by Bush, in which he labeled the wiretaps a "terrorist surveillance program." Bush is to visit the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Md., today to discuss the program. Gonzales' speech laid out the legal basis for the secret program, which has drawn widespread fire from Democrats and some Republicans since it was disclosed last month. He said the program fell well within the president's inherent powers under the Constitution to protect the country. Along with Washington's spy program during the Revolutionary War, he cited the interception of telegrams during the Civil War, and orders by Woodrow Wilson during World War I and Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II to intercept communications between foreign countries and the United States. "All these were without warrants," Gonzales said. He also cited the resolution Congress passed
just after the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, authorizing the use
of force against people involved in the plot. |
