"77 percent of Americans reject the president's claim that he alone has the power to suspend constitutional freedoms without any check or balance."
Somehow I missed that speech by Bush.
Me too.
CHICAGO, Feb.10, 2006 - According to a poll commissioned by the American Bar Association and released today, 52 percent of respondents said that in the fight against terrorism, the President of the United States alone cannot suspend constitutional freedoms, with an additional 25 percent saying he must obtain authorization by a court of law or Congress. Thus 77 percent of Americans express deep reservations about the president's secret surveillance program.The telephone poll conducted by Harris Interactive® over the past weekend found that only 18 percent of respondents believe the president can suspend constitutional freedoms "anytime the President thinks it is necessary to protect the country." ...
In a separate question, 45 percent said that in the fight against terrorism the government would never be justified in eavesdropping on their own personal communications without approval by a court or Congress.
When presented with specific reasons that might justify monitoring personal communications, 22 percent said it would be justified by an anonymous tip that they may be helping to plan a terrorist attack in the U.S.; 21 percent said it would be justified if someone suspected they may be sending money to a terrorist organization, and eight percent said it would be justified if the person was a member or supporter of an organization which has publicly criticized the President. Respondents were allowed to choose more than one reason.
Additionally, Greco released a policy proposal that is to be presented to the ABA House of Delegates on Monday, when it convenes during the ABA's 2006 Midyear Meeting in Chicago. The report will not constitute ABA policy until it is adopted by the House of Delegates.
The report was submitted by a Task Force on Domestic Surveillance created by Greco in January to respond to revelations about NSA domestic surveillance. A roster of task force members, which includes a former Director of the FBI, former General Counsel of the CIA and former Counsel of the National Security Agency, is available at http://www.abanet.org/op/domsurv.
The proposal includes six clauses, which would:
- Call on the President to abide by our constitutional system of checks and balances and respect the roles of Congress and the judiciary in protecting national security consistent with the Constitution
- Oppose any further electronic surveillance in U.S. for foreign intelligence purposes that does not comply with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and urge the President, if he believes FISA is inadequate, to seek amendment or new legislation
- Urge Congress to affirm that the Authorization for Use of Military Force adopted by Congress in September 2001 did not provide an exception to FISA, saying such an exception must be explicit
- Urge Congress to conduct a comprehensive, thorough investigation of the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program
- Urge Congress to assure proceedings of that investigation are open to public
- Urge Congress to review and make recommendations regarding intelligence oversight process The public opinion poll results were produced in a nationwide poll of 1,045 U.S. adults aged 18 or over surveyed by telephone between Feb. 3 and 6, 2006, by Harris Interactive®. In theory, with probability samples of this size, one could say with 95 percent certainty that the results have a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points of what they would be if the entire U.S. adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Full poll results are available on the ABA Web site at http://www.abanews.org/docs/surveillancepoll06.pdf.