FISA: ‘Unnecessary And Dangerous Expansion of President Bush’s Powers’

Editorials On FISA: ‘Unnecessary And Dangerous Expansion of President Bush’s Powers’

Last week, under heavy political pressure from the White House, Congress approved the White House-backed version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which provided expansive spying authority to the Bush administration. The White House had earlier rejected a compromise bill that provided powers sought by the Director of National Intelligence, opting instead to play politics with the issue.

In the past two days, at least nine major newspapers have editorialized against the FISA legislation, with the New York Times today calling it an “unnecessary and dangerous expansion of President Bush’s powers.” Some examples:

USA Today: A skittish Congress allowed itself to be stampeded last week into granting the president unfettered surveillance power. ... [Link]

Washington Post: To call this legislation ill-considered is to give it too much credit: It was scarcely considered at all. Instead, it was strong-armed through both chambers by an administration that seized the opportunity to write its warrantless wiretapping program into law — or, more precisely, to write it out from under any real legal restrictions. [Link]

The New York Times: While serving little purpose, the new law has real dangers. ... [Link]

The Los Angeles Times: You know something’s wrong with this Congress when a Democratic champion of privacy rights feels compelled to vote for Republican legislation that compromises those rights. ... [Link]

San Francisco Chronicle: ... the shift guts any semblance of oversight, leaving the picking and choosing of targets to spy agencies. [Link]