Liberal Organizations Say Bush Exceeding Authority
By Steve Boggess (01/31/06)
If Al-Qaeda, Al-Jazeera, Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations could have one thing to say to the liberal democrats in the House and Senate, they would have one thing to say: “Thank you for your support.”
The American Civil Liberties Union recently filed suit in the Eastern District of Michigan on behalf of several journalists, authors, scholars and organizations against the president’s wiretapping program.
Separately, the Center for Constitutional Rights also filed a suit in the Southern District of New York on behalf of “clients who fit the criteria described by the attorney general for targeting” under the program.
The American Civil Liberties Union of New York killed several trees in order to write a monumental 60-page complaint in which the names of NSA (National Security Agency) and its director, Lieutenant General Keith Alexander, as defendants, and the New York suit names the agency, the general, and other heads of major security agencies.
The ACLU’s executive director, Anthony Romero said: “President Bush may believe he can authorize spying on Americans with out judicial or congressional approval. But this program is illegal and we intend to put a stop to it.”
Perhaps Anthony Romero didn’t bother watching the president’s speech given recently to an audience at Kansas State University, in which the president said he was mindful of our civil liberties, that, or he was too busy writing the 60 page complaint against the president to notice.
Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said that the department believes these cases are without merit and plans to vigorously defend against the charges. White House spokesman Scott McClellan added that such frivolous lawsuits do nothing to enhance our civil liberties or protect the American people.
Attorney General Albert Gonzales defended the program, saying that it “has carefully been reviewed by lawyers from throughout the administration, and that the president does have the legal authorities to authorize this program.”
Mr. Romero said in a written statement that “surveillance of Americans is a chilling assertion of presidential power that has not been seen since the days of Richard Nixon.”
In keeping with true democratic grudge-keeping, former presidential candidate failure Al Gore said: “Bush has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently.”
The American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit asks the court to find the program violates the Constitution’s first and fourth amendments of “free speech and associational rights” as well as the “principle of separation of powers” of the legislative and executive branches of government.
The other lawsuit seeks to protect the Center for Constitutional Rights’ attorneys and their clients.
The group issued a statement that said: “Given that the government has accused many of the Center for Constitutional Rights overseas clients of being associated with Al-Qaeda or of interest to the 9/11 investigation, there is little question that these attorneys have been subject to the NSA surveillance program.”
Bill Goodman, Center for Constitutional Rights legal director, also said in the statement: “On this, the day following Martin Luther King Day, we are saddened that the illegal electronic surveillance that once targeted that great American has again become characteristic of our present government.”
The question I have is this; if those same liberal organizations don’t have anything to hide, then why are they filing frivolous lawsuits?
The founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, Roger Baldwin, said that communism was the goal.
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