|
Surveillance program unconstitutional
Rogers concerned about ruling that hangs up warrantless wiretapping
Dan Meisler, Press & Argus and Sarah Karush, AP
Democrat Jim Marcinkowski, the Royal Oak lawyer and former CIA agent challenging Rogers in the November election, said the ruling was correct. He said the surveillance at issue can be done under the so-called FISA courts, named for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, without losing any effectiveness.
“No one’s saying you shouldn’t do (this type of surveillance),” Marcinkowski said. “You need to do it. The only thing I’m saying has to be done is to get a warrant. It’s a fundamental constitutional principle.”
“You have to operate withing the bounds of the law,” he continued. “If you’re a lawmaker, and this is going on, you should be screaming at the top of your lungs, not sitting back and doing nothing.”
Rogers said civil liberties issues had been raised in closed-door briefings between members of the intelligence committees of both parties and administration officials.
“We asked them hard, tough questions,” he said. “There are tough questions on both sides of the aisle.”
When asked if the Bush administration was telling people simply to trust it because it wouldn’t release information about the program, Rogers said Congress is providing oversight.
“It’s not just blindly trusting the government,” he said. “To some degree you have to trust the representatives you sent to the government.”
But Marcinkowski said the administration is trying to escape the American tradition of checks and balances:
“Current Republicans are operating without those fundamental constitutional principles,” Marcinkowski said.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(420 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
