Warrantless wiretaps unlikely to be OK'd

[buckthesystem]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061111/ap_on_...ntless_wiretaps

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer

33 minutes ago

Legislation aimed at President Bush's once-secret program for wiretapping U.S.-foreign phone calls and computer traffic of suspected terrorists without warrants shows all the signs of not moving ahead, notwithstanding President Bush's request this week that a lame-duck Congress give it to him.

Senate Democrats, emboldened by Election Day wins that put them in control of Congress as of January, say they would rather wait until next year to look at the issue. "I can't say that we won't do it, but there's no guarantee that we're going spend a lot of time on controversial measures," Democratic Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois said Thursday.

In Senate parlance, that means no.

Republicans for months have known that no bill accomplishing Bush's goal could get filibuster-proof support from 60 senators. Sealing off any hope was what Democratic leader Harry Reid put on his lame-duck to-do list. The warrantless domestic surveillance bill was conspicuous in its absence.

As for next year, Bush should not expect Democrats to allow such legislation to pass without language establishing considerable congressional oversight of any expansion of warrantless wiretaps.

"We have been asked to make sweeping and fundamental changes in law for reasons that we do not know and in order to legalize secret, unlawful actions that the administration has refused to fully divulge," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record) of Vermont, the next Judiciary Committee chairman. "If legislation is needed for judicial review, then we should write that legislation together, in a bipartisan and thoughtful way."

(continues - link).

[Leonard]

Yes the Demoncrats believe Osama Bin Ladin should be able to call whoever he wants inside the U.S. and make arrangements to kill us!

[Spunky]

Let's just tie a big red bow around America why don't we,

seems to me the terrorists are probably sitting back and

getting a good laugh about how quickly the tide changes

here in the U.S. and surely they'll be ready to take all the

advantages.

God Bless!

[Hypathia]

I'm against wire-tapping; I'm also against gun-control.

It amazes me that people who are against gun-control are in favor of wiretapping.

I think there's been a lot more going on with this wire-tapping than the general public has been informed of. I suspect that the govt has been spying on their political enemies and using "terrorists" as an excuse to do it. We need to protect all of our freedoms. --- I bet there's a lot of paper shredding going on in republican Washington offices this weekend.

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -- Benjamin Franklin

[tah]

Yes the Demoncrats believe Osama Bin Ladin should be able to call whoever he wants inside the U.S. and make arrangements to kill us!

And then we should die for his freedom to do that...

[Hypathia]

Yes the Demoncrats believe Osama Bin Ladin should be able to call whoever he wants inside the U.S. and make arrangements to kill us!

And then we should die for his freedom to do that...

A few years ago George W. Bush said he wasn't too concerned with Osama Bin Laden.

[Marnie]

Yes the Demoncrats believe Osama Bin Ladin should be able to call whoever he wants inside the U.S. and make arrangements to kill us!

And then we should die for his freedom to do that...

A few years ago George W. Bush said he wasn't too concerned with Osama Bin Laden.

Neither was Bill Clinton.

[ted]

I think there's been a lot more going on with this wire-tapping than the general public has been informed of. I suspect that the govt has been spying on their political enemies and using "terrorists" as an excuse to do it.

Sources and/or links, please?

--- I bet there's a lot of paper shredding going on in republican Washington offices this weekend.

Or papers being stuffed down people's pants and stolen out of the National Archives.

Look, wire tapping is a tool. Nothing more.

When used against terrorists trying to contact their people inside of the US, it's a great tool. When used against average US citizens for entertainment purposes, it's a bad thing.

Trust me, the people who are working this have way too much on their hands to worry about your calls to your mom.

Although the tools have the potential to be abused, I'd like to see if there is a real case of that before I'd call for the program to be shut down.

Besides, the big wail about the program was not about phone taps in the first place, it was the fact that people were tapping calls before getting a warrant to do it.

As for tapping, your local and state agencies (police, etc) do it all of the time, and no one cries. Many of them do it without an initial warrant, too. They go back and get warrants if they hear anything that might help them in a case. I don't see too many marching at the local police station, though.

Laws are already on place for that, so let's work on following up on that, rather than shelving the whole program.

Woops! Too late for that, I guess. Someone at the NY Times felt it was more important to make a buck off the story, rather than let things work out. Now that it's old news, we ain't gonna surprise anyone with the program anyway.

Hmm, what's left that might trick them......

t.

PS- I'm interested in something.

How many here, by show of hands, feel that they may have been tapped as part of the DHS's anti-terrorist wire tapping program?

[Leonard]

And realistically, NOONE, repeat NO-ONE is talking about 'wire-tapping'. Just something that lets us know when a KNOWN terrorist calls someone in the USA, or vice-versa. No 'listening in' was even what they were talking about.

The Left, and the anti American press twisted this deliberately to America's detriment (what else is new?), and some people STILL believe our press!!!

[Guest man]

Buck...

What's your take on all of this?