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US Cheney says president has spying authority
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-21 08:35 Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary
Committee, introduced a bill calling on Congress to determine whether there are
grounds for impeachment 錕斤拷 an event that is extremely unlikely in a
Republican-controlled Congress.
Democrats called attention to a Bush statement in April 2004 that they said
conflicts with what the president is saying now.
"Any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it
requires 錕斤拷 a wiretap requires a court order," Bush said during a speech on the
Patriot Act in Buffalo, N.Y. "Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're
talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order
before we do so."
The White House said the president's comments 錕斤拷 two years after approving the
domestic surveillance program 錕斤拷 applied to the kind of roving wiretaps the
Patriot Act allows for law enforcement, not eavesdropping for foreign
intelligence.
Bush and his top advisers have suggested senior congressional leaders vetted
the program in more than a dozen highly classified briefings. Democrats said
they were told of the program, but had concerns.
West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the Senate Intelligence Committee's top
Democrat, on Monday released a letter he wrote to Cheney in July 2003 that,
given the program's secrecy, he was "unable to fully evaluate, much less endorse
these activities."
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., pushed back
Tuesday, saying that if Rockefeller had concerns about the program, he could
have used the tools he has to wield influence, such as requesting committee or
legislative action. "Feigning helplessness is not one of those tools," Roberts
said.
Cheney told reporters that in his view, presidential authority has been
weakened since the 1970s through laws such as the War Powers Act, which Cheney
says infringes on presidential authority.
He said the White House has helped protect presidential power by fighting to
keep secret the list of people who were a part of his 2001 energy task force.
The task force's activities attracted complaints from environmentalists, who
said they were shut out of discussions on developing a national energy policy
while corporate interests were present.
"That issue was litigated all the way up to the Supreme Court and we won,"
Cheney said.
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