Unease Rises Over Domestic Spying - Prosecutions May Be Tainted

[Jon8503]

(Dec. 22) The Bush administration's decision to sometimes bypass the secretive U.S. court that governs terrorism wiretaps could threaten cases against terror suspects that rely on evidence uncovered during the disputed eavesdropping, some legal experts cautioned.

These experts pointed to this week's unprecedented resignation from the government's spy court by U.S. District Judge James Robertson as an indicator of the judiciary's unease over domestic wiretaps ordered without warrants under a highly classified domestic spying program authorized by President Bush.

Sources tell CBS News that three other judges are described as "deeply upset" by the revelations, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent John Roberts.

Neither Robertson nor the White House would comment Wednesday on his abrupt resignation from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the little-known panel of 11 U.S. judges that secretively approves wiretaps and searches in the most sensitive terrorism and espionage cases. But legal experts were astonished.

"This is a very big deal. Judges get upset with government lawyers all the time, but they don't resign in protest unless they're really offended to the point of saying they're being misused," said Kenneth C. Bass, a former senior Justice Department lawyer who oversaw such wiretap requests during the Carter administration.


http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20051222064009990003&cid=2249

[illflem]

1. Another FISC judge said today

the court should be disbanded if bush is just going to do an end run around it.

[Zinfandel]

2. Would Bush spying on democrats running for office be okay with republicans

This spying went to back around the 2002 elections and through the 2004. Do republicans (or anyone else) think this is fair, and it’s fine if BushCo spied on his opponents running for Congress, the senate and the presidency?

And who knows for sure? Bush refuses to tell a court who he was spying on, is this absolute arrogance?

Bush says he’s going to continue doing it, is he a dictator, does he believe he’s king? Does he not know he’s not above the law? Do republicans believe only republican presidents can say fuck the United States Constitution?