Illegal Wire-Tapping Suit Now in Obama's Court | CommonDreams.org
President-elect Barack Obama dismayed civil liberties groups last summer when he voted to authorize President Bush's clandestine wiretapping program after publicly denouncing it.
Now, thanks to a ruling by a San Francisco federal judge, Obama must take a stand on whether the Bush administration violated Americans' rights when it intercepted their phone calls and e-mails without seeking a court's permission.
The Jan. 5 decision by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker revived the last remaining lawsuit against the program Bush authorized after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Without seeking congressional approval or court warrants, the president ordered the National Security Agency to intercept calls and e-mails between Americans and suspected foreign terrorists.
Obama's options
He could continue Bush's defense strategy to press for dismissal of the suit on national-security grounds. He could switch sides and acknowledge that the program was illegal from the start. Or he could find a middle ground, such as allowing the case to proceed and leaving its resolution to the courts.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6836
"The National Security Agency had access to all Americans' communications --- faxes, phone calls, and their computer communications," Tice claimed. "It didn't matter whether you were in Kansas, in the middle of the country, and you never made foreign communications at all. They monitored all communications."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...MNJ7159LAP.DTL