US court rules secret wiretaps violate rights
UNITED STATES: A judge ordered the Bush administration on
Thursday to stop a domestic wiretap program it says protects Americans
from terrorism but which the judge said violated their civil rights.
The administration, buoyed by polls showing Americans back its
handling of security and terrorism, appealed against the federal court
ruling, saying: "We couldn't disagree more."
U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor said the wiretaps under a
five-year-old "Terrorist Surveillance Program" violated freedom of
speech, protections against unreasonable searches and a constitutional
check on the power of the presidency.
"There are no hereditary kings in America and no powers not created
by the Constitution," Taylor said in a 44-page ruling.
The National Security Agency program has been widely criticized by
civil rights activists and raised concern among lawmakers, including
some in President George W. Bush's own Republican Party, who say he may
have overstepped his powers.
Bush authorized the NSA program after the Sept. 11 attacks on the
United States, and it became public last year.
Both sides agreed the program could go on until the judge hears the
government's case for a stay pending appeal. The program allows the
government to eavesdrop on the international phone calls and e-mails of
U.S. citizens without obtaining a warrant, if those wiretaps are made to
track suspected al Qaeda operatives.
"We have confidence in the lawfulness of this program," Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales, said after Thursday's ruling. "That's why the
appeal has been lodged."
A Justice Department statement called the program "an early warning
system to detect and prevent a terrorist attack."
Officials said last week a foiled plot to blow up airliners from
Britain underscored the need for secret surveillance.
"The very real threat posed by radical Islamists requires every tool
at our disposal, including the ability to track financial activity and
the communications of terrorists," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a Michigan
Republican and chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives
intelligence committee.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit which could well
end up being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court
delivered a similar blow to the administration in June when it struck
down as illegal a system of military tribunals set up to try foreign
terrorism suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
On Thursday, the judge ruled the Bush administration had violated the
terms of a 1978 law by skirting a requirement that warrants be issued by
a special secret court for eavesdropping on individuals or suspects in
the United States.
The judge sided with the government on one issue - that arguments in
open court about the NSA's "data mining" of phone records would
jeopardize national security and rejected an ACLU challenge to that part
of the NSA's surveillance program.
The ACLU suit was filed on behalf of scholars, attorneys, journalists
and nonprofit groups that regularly communicate with people in the
Middle East and believed their phone calls and e-mail may have been
intercepted by the U.S. government.
"The ruling of the judge is not only a victory for the American
Muslim community but a victory for the entire American population," said
Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations for Michigan, which joined the ACLU as a plaintiff in the
lawsuit.
A similar suit brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights is
pending in federal court in New York. The judge in that case is set to
hear arguments on Sept. 5.
The Bush administration has thrown its support behind a bill
sponsored by Republican Sen.
Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania that would submit the NSA's
surveillance program to a secret court for review.
Meanwhile the White House sharply criticized Thursday a ruling by the
federal judge ordering a halt to the US government's warrantless
wiretapping program.
"We couldn't disagree more with this ruling, and the Justice
Department will seek an immediate stay of the opinion and appeal," White
House spokesman Tony Snow said in a statement.
The Bush administration said the warrantless wiretapping was crucial
to disrupting possible terrorist plots since the attacks of September
11, 2001 on New York and Washington.
"United States intelligence officials have confirmed that the program
has helped stop terrorist attacks and saved American lives," the White
House spokesman said.
"The program is carefully administered, and only targets
international phone calls coming into or out of the United States where
one of the parties on the call is a suspected Al-Qaeda or affiliated
terrorist," he said. Detroit, Washington,
Friday, Reuters, AFP |