Posted on 08/05/2007 9:17:44 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CAMP DAVID, Md. - President Bush on Sunday signed into law an expansion of the government's power to eavesdrop on foreign terror suspects without the need for warrants.
The law, approved by the Senate and the House just before Congress adjourned for its summer break, was deemed a priority by Bush and his chief intelligence officials.
Bush signed the bill into law on Sunday afternoon at his retreat at Camp David, Md.
"When our intelligence professionals have the legal tools to gather information about the intentions of our enemies, America is safer," Bush said. "And when these same legal tools also protect the civil liberties of Americans, then we can have the confidence to know that we can preserve our freedoms while making America safer."
The administration said the measure is needed to speed the National Security Agency's ability to intercept phone calls, e-mails and other communications involving foreign nationals "reasonably believed to be outside the United States."
The law is designed to capture communications that pass through the United States.
Civil liberties groups and many Democrats say it goes too far, possibly enabling the government to wiretap U.S. residents communicating with overseas parties without adequate oversight from courts or Congress.
The new law updates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and it will expire in six months unless Congress renews it. Bush wants deeper, permanent changes.
"We must remember that our work is not done," Bush prodded. "This bill is a temporary, narrowly focused statute to deal with the most immediate shortcomings in the law."
US President George W. Bush (R) and First Lady Laura Bush ride in a golf cart with Afghan President Hamid Karzai upon his arrival at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland. Karzai arrived here Sunday for talks with Bush on the deteriorating security situation in his country after raising eyebrows by describing US nemesis Iran as more friend than foe.(AFP/Mandel Ngan)
I agree with GW on this one. We need security agency’s that can move fast and hard on bad guys here and elsewhere to get the job done !!!
Bingo! That how the Brits found out last Spring about the 10 airlines headed here that were going to be crashed into the Atlantic.
Bush will never get credit for this, but without a doubt lives have been and will be saved by preventing these types of attacks.
If Bush signed a Bill that increases the power of our government to wiretap terror suspects, then that means Congress had to first pass that Bill.
And if the Democrats hold a majority in both the House and the Senate then that means quite a few Democrats in both chambers had to vote in favor of the Bill.
I wonder what the liberal progressive Democrat supporters who worked so hard to put these Democrats in Congress think about the results of their hard work.
The next legislative session is going to be fun to watch as the Democrats in Congress have to continuously choose which group of supporters to betray in order to please some other group of supporters.
"Congress passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which severely restricted federal courts' ability to grant habeas corpus relief, paving the way for speedier executions (like that of Timothy McVeigh), and ultimately for Guantanamo. It also restricted the rights of immigrants, extended surveillance capabilities, and provided $1 billion in authorization for antiterrorism work, half of it for the fbi. The act raised only muted protest, perhaps in part because it was signed into law by a Democratic president. Yet there can be no doubt that the roots of the Patriot Act were planted not in the chasm of Ground Zero but in the dusty soil of Oklahoma." [My emphasis]
from the article "In Search of John Doe No. 2: The Story the Feds Never Told About the Oklahoma City Bombing" at www.motherjones.com/
As I recall the Clinton Administration also got some "anti-terror" laws following the TWA 800 explosion -- targeted radical center fuel tanks?
The Rats welcomed Patriot Acts that targeted Americans of certain apparent political leanings but the Rats try to protect all others including the killers wanting to out do 9/11. Go figure. I guess the Rats will know when not to come to work that day.
We need to get this word out to all of the Cindy Sheehan-type Democrats out there so they can be even more pissed off at their Congressmen and Senators.
Wow! Did the Dim Congress do something right in a timely fashion?
Bush is getting plenty of credit for this. I just took a peek over a DU Land and they are crediting Bush for burning the Constitution. LOL!
The global police state is right on schedule.
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