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NEWS RELEASE August 17, 2006
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Case
welcomes Federal Court Decision on
NSA Surveillance
Honolulu, Hawaii - U.S. Congressman Ed Case (2nd
District, Hawaii) welcomed the decision of a federal
judge in Detroit who ruled today that the Bush
administration’s domestic surveillance program violated
the constitutional protections of free speech and
privacy and ordered the program to end at once.
“When news reports of the Bush-approved domestic
surveillance program first surfaced in December 2005, I
was extremely concerned that the program was not working
within the legal framework established by the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA),” said Case. “The
fact that numerous senior administration officials
familiar with the program claimed legal authority, but
inexplicably refused to cite authority directly, raised
many additional red flags.”
“I fully agree that, in fighting the reality of
terrorism in our post-9/11 world, we cannot any longer
distinguish neatly in intelligence gathering between
foreign and domestic, nor even between wartime and
peacetime. The Bush administration, however, cannot
operate outside the system of checks and balances as
laid down by the framers of our Constitution.”
In May 2006, it became evident that the domestic
surveillance program was not limited to international
communications and was far more expansive than the
American public was led to believe. The National
Security Agency (NSA) had been collecting the phone call
records of tens of millions of Americans using data
provided by AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth.
Case is a cosponsor of H.R.5371, the Lawful Intelligence
and Surveillance of Terrorists in an Emergency by NSA
(LISTEN) Act. H.R. 5371 makes clear that any attempt to
listen in on Americans or collect telephone or e-mail
records must be conducted in accordance with FISA or
Title III of the criminal code. In both cases, court
warrants based on probable cause are required. The
LISTEN Act further states that FISA is the exclusive way
to conduct electronic surveillance of U.S. persons on
U.S. soil for intelligence purposes. It also states that
provisions of the Joint Resolution providing for
Authority for the Use of Force (P.L. 107-40) do not
constitute authority to engage in electronic
surveillance outside of FISA.
Case has also previously joined his colleagues in
sending two Congressional joint letters of inquiry. The
first, to NSA, requested a full accounting of its
actions and an explanation of how any such surveillance
was consistent with our U.S. Constitution and federal
laws. The second, to the U.S. House Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence, requested a full and
expedited investigation on the program.
Contact:
Anne
Stewart 202-225-4906
(Washington, D.C.)
Esther
Kiaaina, 808-541-1986
(Honolulu)
Release
Number: 2006-32 |
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Last Updated:
08/21/2006
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