VOA News - U.S. Seeks to Continue Intelligence Program After Judge Finds It Illegal

The program lets the agency monitor the international calls and e-mail of individuals in the United States without the need for a court order.

 

 

The key issue here is surveillance without a court order.  No sensible person in today's society does not recognize the need for surveillance in order to prevent acts of terrorism. 

However,  if this government sets aside its fundamental beliefs in freedom in order to combat terrorism, have not the terrorists already won?   plk

 

 

Read the entire article at:  http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2006-08-18-voa1.cfm

Excerpt:

A federal judge in the United States says the Terrorist Surveillance Program violates the Constitution.  This is the first such ruling against the secret program approved by President Bush.  The National Security Agency established the program after the attacks on the United States on September eleventh, two thousand one. 

The program lets the agency monitor the international calls and e-mail of individuals in the United States without the need for a court order.

The Justice Department is moving quickly to appeal the ruling by Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit, Michigan.  Her order Thursday to stop the program will not be enforced at least until she hears arguments on September seventh. 

The American Civil Liberties Union brought the case in January for a group including reporters, researchers and criminal defense lawyers.  They say the program interferes with their work and violates free speech and privacy rights.

Judge Taylor agreed.  She suggested that the president acted like a king and violated the separation of powers in the Constitution.  The judge is a former civil rights worker.  President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the court in nineteen seventy-nine.

Administration officials say the surveillance program is carefully administered and has helped stop terrorist attacks.  On Friday President Bush condemned the ruling.  He said those who praise it do not understand the nature of the world in which we now live.