It appears that more and more Democrats in Congress was telling the NSA their
wiretapping program was not legal.
WASHINGTON – The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee told
President Bush Wednesday that the White House broke the law by withholding
information from the full congressional oversight committees about a new
domestic surveillance program.In a letter to Bush, Rep. Jane Harman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif.,
said the National Security Act requires the heads of the various
intelligence agencies to keep the entire House and Senate intelligence
committees “fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of
the United States.”Only in the case of a highly classified covert action can the president
choose to inform a narrower group of Congress members about his decision,
Harman said. That action is defined in the law as an operation to influence
political, economic or military conditions of another country.“The NSA program does not qualify as a ‘covert action,'” Harman wrote.
View complete article
here.
I have read FISA over a few times and it constantly refers to the wiretaps
being for “foreign powers” and not “U.S. citizens”.
Something else in the article that really strikes my curiosity:
Responding in writing to Harman, House Intelligence Chairman Peter
Hoekstra, R-Mich., said Harman had never previously raised concerns about
the number of people briefed on the program.“In the past, you have been fully supportive of this program and the
practice by which we have overseen it,” he wrote. “I find your position now
completely incongruent.”
This has been Hoekstra’s generic response to everyone speaking out against
the program. He never seems to defend the legalities of the program, just that
people didn’t complain before. Does Hoekstra actually feel the program might be
over the line? I guess we will need hearings to find out about that.