Sen Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has asked four presidential scholars for their opinions on whether the warrantless spying President Bush ordered is an impeachable offense. She becomes the first Senator to formally raise the impeachment issue in the spying scandal. (Raw Story)
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Boxer Asks about Impeachment
Sen Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has asked four presidential scholars for their opinions on whether the warrantless spying President Bush ordered is an impeachable offense. She becomes the first Senator to formally raise the impeachment issue in the spying scandal. (Raw Story)
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Didn't President Clinton use wire taps without a warrant?
Nope.
I think you're talking about Echelon.
It was an international intelligence gathering agreement between several nations. The US and allies would trade intel -- but the US did no spying within the US.
It was a high tech attempt to identify suspect messages over phone, email, fax, and other communication lines.
It searched for key words "Osama bin Laden," "Saddam Hussein," "atomic bomb." If enough of these words came up, the communication was flagged.
The US didn't spy on Americans. They'd only look into something if foreign allies alerted us to a flagged conversation.
Then if the spy shops wanted to zero in on that person, they got a warrant.
Even so, the Bush administration had 72 hours after starting wire taps to request.
And just because Clinton did it (if he really had) doesn't make it right for Clinton or Bush.
I read something about Clinton using warrant-less wire taps to track a Russian spy.
I look for it, maybe I'm wrong
"The Department of Justice believes, and the case law supports, that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes," Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on July 14, 1994."
http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200512200946.asp
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