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Seventy two in Congress join battle against wiretaps John Byrne / Raw Story | May 11 2006 Seventy two members of Congress filed papers late Wednesday seeking to end President George W. Bush's warrantless NSA eavesdropping program, RAW STORY has learned. The filing came just before a report Thursday in USA Today which revealed that the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program had collected call records on tens of millions of Americans through agreements with AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth. It also comes a day after lawyers looking into the NSA program abruptly closed their probe after the Bush Administration refused to grant them clearances. The 71 Democrats and one independent filed an amicus brief in two federal courts reviewing challenges to the warrantless wiretapping program in Detroit and New York, joining the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights. Both suits demand the program be stopped. Top Democrats did not sign the call. Neither House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) nor House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) have joined the brief. "It is very disturbing that, on the same day we learn that the NSA has been secretly collecting the phone records of tens of millions of Americans, we also learn that the Department of Justice has abruptly cancelled its investigation into the Agency's warrantless wiretapping program," said Rep. John Conyers, the ranking House Judiciary Democrat who is spearheading the initiative. "These developments clearly point to the urgent need for oversight and review of this program. Congress has failed to provide this critical oversight which has led us to the courts." The brief argues that Congress never authorized the warrantless spying program, neither through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 nor the post-9/11 authorization for use of military force. It details the legislative history of both and asks the court to halt the program immediately. "As our brief makes clear, this Congress dealt with this issue authoritatively almost 30 years ago - warrantless spying on American soil is flatly prohibited," Conyers added. Conyers cited the Church Committee -- a special senatorial committee in the 1970s that gave Congress more oversight of the intelligence community in the wake of President Nixon's Watergate scandal. The following 72 Representatives are amici in the brief. The brief can be read here. John Conyers, Jr. of Michigan ---------------------------------------------------
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