Feingold's letter to the editor re the illegal wiretapping in today's WSJ

[kpete]

Wall Street Journal - Feingold (4.00 / 3)

Russ Feingold's letter to the editor re the illegal wiretapping is in today's WSJ.
Sorry, it looks like sub only. Here is a little bit:

first few paragraphs:

Your Dec. 20 editorial "Thank You for Wiretapping" ignores the law in order to support the president's decision to wiretap American citizens on U.S. soil without a warrant. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) specifically prohibits any wiretapping of Americans within the U.S. that is conducted without a court order either under FISA or the criminal wiretap statute.

FISA appropriately permits the wiretapping of individuals working on behalf of any terrorist network, including al Qaeda, as long as the government first obtains a court order authorizing the surveillance. In an emergency, where the attorney general believes that surveillance must begin before a court order can be obtained, FISA permits the wiretap to be turned on immediately as long as the government goes to the court within 72 hours.

The president has provided no evidence that FISA lacks the flexibility, speed or secrecy that terrorism investigations may require. Indeed, the administration has obtained thousands of warrants approved by the FISA court since 9/11, and it has hardly ever been turned down. If the president and the attorney general believed that further changes to FISA were needed, they should have come to Congress and requested them.

Last paragraph:

In addition, the president cannot plausibly argue that Congress acquiesced to this program. Although it remains unclear precisely what members of Congress were told about the program, informing a handful of congressional leaders who are prohibited from discussing what they have been told is not oversight, and congressional inaction under these extraordinary circumstances is not approval.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/12/29/143257/48
http://users2.wsj.com/lmda/do/checkLogin?a=t&d=wsj&sd=users2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Fopinion%2Fletters%3Fmod%3D2_0048

[WI_DEM]

1. It doesn't surprise me that the Wisconsin State Journal

A Right wing rag--supported Bush on this.

[bahrbearian]

2. Its the Wall Street Journal.. still a right wing rag