Bush's AG has argued that the President was authorised to do wiretapping of US citizens because Congress's support for the war included "all necessary and appropriate force".
Now firstly, wiretapping is not "force". But even so, Tom Daschle explains that Congress never authorized anything of the sort:
As drafted, and as finally passed, the resolution authorised the President "to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organisations or persons" who "planned, authorised, committed or aided" the September 11 attacks.
"Literally minutes before the Senate cast its vote, the Administration sought to add the words 'in the United States and' after 'appropriate force' in the agreed-upon text," Mr Daschle wrote.
"This last-minute change would have given the president broad authority to exercise expansive powers not just overseas … but right here in the United States, potentially against American citizens. I could see no justification for Congress to accede to this extraordinary request for additional authority. I refused."
2 comments:
Gandhi said....The terrrrrrrrrst threat is not all that it is hyped up to be:
Jazzycat says.... Tell that to the 3000 who were in the world trade towers on 9-11-01. Then you might get your head out of the sand.
I also think the threat is well over-stated for political mileage. More people die from car crashes than terrorism. I notice that you are also a believer in Intelligent Design ... so it is not like you don't have yo irreducibly silly head in the sillica yo-self.
Post a Comment