Spying program illegal, Senate committee told - Americas - International Herald Tribune

Spying program illegal, Senate committee told - Americas - International Herald Tribune: "WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 2006
WASHINGTON A group of legal specialists told a Senate committee that President George W. Bush's domestic spying program is illegal and may set a precedent that allows wartime presidents to break laws freely in the name of national security.

In its second hearing on the once- secret surveillance program, the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony Tuesday from a number of law professors and former officials. Most voiced skepticism of the president's assertion that his wartime powers allow him to bypass the courts and spy on Americans' international calls and e-mail messages without warrants. Bush's legal theory, they said, is both wrong and dangerous.

'This is a defining moment in the constitutional history of the United States,' said Bruce Fein, a lawyer who served in the administration of President Ronald Reagan. He said the theory used by the administration 'could equally justify mail openings, burglary, torture, or internment camps, all in the name of gathering foreign intelligence. Unless rebuked, it will lie around like a loaded weapon ready to be used by any incumbent who claims an urgent need.'

But other specialists disagreed.

In his testimony, Douglas Kmiec, a Pepperdine University law professor who was a Reagan administration lawyer, endorsed the White House's assertion that Bush's power as commander in chief allowed him to set aside the warrant law and eavesdrop on Americans.

And a former CIA director, R. James Woolsey, who served under President George H.W. Bush, said the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 transformed all of the United States into a battlefield, and that Congress could not restrict a president's constitutional power to conduct war as the commander in chief sees fit.

'Unlike the Cold War, our intelligence requirements are not just overseas,' Woolsey said. 'The country has been invaded, though of course not o"