Editorial: Is Bush's wiretap proposal really necessary?

President Bush's new bill that has been sent to Congress would amend the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act -- the law that requires spy agencies to get a warrant from the a FISA court before wiretapping anyone inside the United States.  The Administration's goal, should the bill pass, is to allow the NSA to spy on our soil without a warrant.

Now let's put aside the fact that the NSA should not be spying on us anyway, since it is their job to conduct foreign surveillance.  Also ignore for a minute that the Bush Administration is currently in violation of that '78 law.  Those two points are very important.  But they are not my number one concern regarding this new bill.

My question is why does the Bush Administration would want to bypass the FISA courts?   According to the Associated Press, the FISA courts sided with the Administration 2,176 times in 2005.  And how many warrants did the FISA courts not approve?  Only one.

So if the FISA courts rule in the Administration's favor 99.95% of the time, how can Bush sit there and argue that the existing FISA law restrains the intelligence community's ability to keep our country safe?

More than anything, this bill appears to represent an unprecedented excuse to increase Executive power -- coming from a President that campaigned on a platform of smaller government.

Comments

[granny]

~ Necessary?
Of course it's necessary, when you're on your way to being "Dictator Guy".

[Roguelystated]

Check out Sarada Peri's commentary on this - http://roguelystated.com/2007/05/02/expanding-surveillance/