p2pnet - rss feed: NSA surveillance law
p2p news / p2pnet: The US Justice Department would have to turn over records of the National Security Agency’s infamous telephone surveillance program to Congress if a resolution passed by the House Judiciary Committee, yesterday, goes through.
But it’s little more than an exercise because it still has to be approved by the full House of Representatives before going to the Bush administration, says Reuters.
And even then, the story goes on, “the administration would not be required to comply because a resolution does not carry the force of law”.
It does, though, comprise a step by House lawmakers to, “investigate a USA Today report that telephone companies turned over millions of call records without a court warrant to the National Security Agency to help track terrorist plots,” says the story, adding:
“The Bush administration has not confirmed the report, which if true would indicate that a controversial program that monitors international phone calls without a warrant is much broader than previously known.”
Some 20 class action lawsuits have been filed against Verizon Communications, AT&T and BellSouth about the call records, says CNET.
Five other lawsuits are pending against the Justice Department related to the surveillance program and the DoJ is now demanding the lawsuits be brought into a single case.
Also See:
Reuters - House panel would ask Bush for surveillance records, June 21, 2006
single case - DoJ, Verizon, team up, June 21, 2006
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June 23rd, 2006 at 1:12 am
Unfortunately, Congress possesses no control over this matter. It has been proven time and again that all the DoJ must do is claim ‘National Security interests’ and the members of Congress can sit on a spinning top. It is amazing to me how our Legislative branch of government spinelessly yields all of its Constitutional powers to the Executive branch — effectively foreswearing its oath to preserve, protect, and defend the document which was designed to preserve the separation of powers. On a conservative note (pun intended), I give our Constitution another fifty years before it is no longer worth the paper it is written on.
June 23rd, 2006 at 11:35 am
Will Congress review the NSA role in the book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. Allegedly the author was an NSA employee whose job was to subvert other nations or their governments.
Now NSA turns against Americans.