Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Mark Dayton today offered the following remarks regarding the Bush Administration’s dismissive attitude toward their pattern of power abuse.

“As a practical matter, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) readily permits wiretapping of those necessary to protect this country. Since it was established in 1978, the secret court has approved over 15,000 wiretap applications and has reportedly denied only four. It’s a slam dunk. All the Administration has to do is go through the procedure. They can wiretap, if necessary, for 72 hours without any permit or warrant whatsoever, and then go to the court retroactively for that permission. It’s an entirely reasonable and flexible law.

“If the President sees any reason why it can no longer be put into effect, as it was under President Carter, President Reagan, the first President Bush, and President Clinton, then he can rightfully go to Congress, he can go to the intelligence committees, and he can insist on a closed session of the Congress and present the information necessary and make the changes necessary. He hasn’t even bothered or attempted to do that. He has just simply decided that he’s going to preempt the law. And I think that’s bad leadership, that’s bad policy. It may or may not be illegal, but it’s wrong.

“And it has nothing to do with protecting the American people…. It has to do with whether the President is going to follow the law or whether he’s going to selectively ignore the law, as we see with these signing statements. As we see when he signs, with great flourish, the emergency defense appropriations bill, which has Senator McCain’s torture amendment, which passed the Senate 90 to 9, which the House ratified, I believe, almost unanimously, and which the Congress insisted upon. The President finally acquiesced, said that he would agree to it, signed it into law, and then two days later issues a signing statement saying he intends to ignore the parts of it that he doesn’t like or agree with…. Just as they say they can torture people in other parts of the world beyond the reach of U.S. law, they say they can refuse to provide information about how many times Jack Abramoff met with the President, after they said that he hadn’t at all. It’s a very imperial attitude. And it’s a dangerous attitude, by this President or any President.”

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