{"id":1336,"date":"2006-09-13T14:58:26","date_gmt":"2006-09-13T18:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/2006\/09\/13\/5-things-specter-wont-say-about-cheney-specter-spying-bill\/"},"modified":"2006-09-14T08:31:58","modified_gmt":"2006-09-14T12:31:58","slug":"5-things-specter-wont-say-about-cheney-specter-spying-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/2006\/09\/5-things-specter-wont-say-about-cheney-specter-spying-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Things Specter Won’t Say about Cheney-Specter Spying Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
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  1. The Cheney-Specter bill makes following the protections in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act totally optional.<\/strong> The bill would change the law so that foreign intelligence surveillance of Americans could be conducted without following FISA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s requirement of individualized judicial review of wiretaps. The bill would change the law to allow the president to ignore FISA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s protections and unilaterally decide which Americans to wiretap, indefinitely and without any mandatory check to protect individual rights. The bill also gives President Bush support for his currently untenable argument that FISA does not apply in wartime by deleting the provisions saying FISA does apply in wartime. If the bill passes, presidents will have multiple avenues to circumvent the statute, rendering moot its protections for Americans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 civil liberties.<\/li>\n
  2. The Cheney-Specter bill does not require President Bush to get a warrant for every wiretap of every American currently subject to the NSA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s illegal warrantless wiretapping.<\/strong> President Bush\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so-called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153concession\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to submit a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153program\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to the FISA court to approve is not required by the bill\u00e2\u20ac\u201dit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conditional. Only if the bill passes exactly as it was written by the White House or with additional White House changes has President Bush \u00e2\u20ac\u0153promised\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that he will submit one of his secret surveillance programs to the FISA Court. Nothing in the bill requires him to do so, and the Cheney-Specter bill has stacked the deck so that the court will hear only the administration\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arguments and is directed to approve surveillance without ever knowing the name of every American wiretapped and any facts supporting such surveillance. Nothing in the bill requires any future president to get approval of programs of surveillance let alone actual warrants based on evidence a particular American is conspiring with al Qaeda. <\/li>\n
  3. The Cheney-Specter bill legalizes President Bush\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s illegal spying although Congress doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really know all that he has directed the NSA to do regarding people in the US.<\/strong> The bill rewrites FISA to legalize the surveillance President Bush is currently conducting in defiance of the law. Yet, the administration has stonewalled congressional attempts to learn the true scope and nature of all of the illegal surveillance the administration has secretly authorized. Specter, himself, has called President Bush\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s NSA program illegal \u00e2\u20ac\u0153on its face,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d yet his bill provides statutory power to do more than the president has admitted and it expands the NSA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s power to search Americans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 calls, e-mails, and homes without any warrant under FISA. <\/li>\n
  4. The Cheney-Specter bill allows law enforcement to enter Americans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 homes and offices without a warrant.<\/strong> Landlords, custodians and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153other people\u00e2\u20ac\u009d would be required to let law enforcement officers to access Americans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 computers and telephones, and no warrant is required, simply government say-so\u00e2\u20ac\u201dunder the expanded powers in the bill. This measure flies in the face of the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure. <\/li>\n
  5. The Specter bill does not enforce the Fourth Amendment\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s requirement that no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause stating with particularity the things to be searched and seized.<\/strong> Specter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bill so broadly redefines whom can be spied on without a warrant that countless Americans would be subject to secret NSA surveillance. All international phone calls and emails would be subject to warrantless surveillance under the bill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s changes to the law. Plus, emails and other Internet traffic would be subject to monitoring if the government did not know the physical location of every recipient of an American\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s email. Furthermore, the bill creates a new type of generalized surveillance power, which, while it requires court approval, does not require the government to identify each target in the US, the basis for such surveillance or the method of monitoring each American\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwiretaps, bugging or other devices. Under this exceedingly low threshold, the NSA could win approval for conducting surveillance of countless Americans while keeping secret from the courts and Congress who is being monitored and even whether the spying approved actually helps protect against terrorism. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \nA federal judge has already ruled that the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program violates the Constitution and must stop. But instead of listening to the judge, the White House and its allies are continuing to pressure Congress for new, expanded and unchecked government spying powers. Help convince Congress to support the rule of law, not limitless executive power. <\/p>\n

    Take action! Tell your members of Congress to oppose the Specter-Cheney Bill and other dangerous proposals that threaten your rights.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    (ACLU<\/a> – American Civil Liberties Union)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Cheney-Specter bill makes following the protections in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act totally optional. The bill would change the law so that foreign intelligence surveillance of Americans could be conducted without following FISA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s requirement of individualized judicial review of wiretaps. The bill would change the law to allow the president to ignore FISA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s protections and unilaterally decide which Americans to wiretap, indefinitely and without any mandatory check to protect individual rights. The bill also gives President Bush support for…<\/p>\n

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