Progressive Talking Points 1/26/06

Breaking the Law

America’s ultimate objective is not merely to eavesdrop on the communications of someone who may have ties to al Qaeda, but to identify and capture or kill terrorists who plan or engage in attacks on the United States or our allies. And the illegal and unsustainable warrantless wiretap program will not help us reach that goal. President Bush and the White House are once again trying to reset the political debate on security, by making illegal domestic spying a political issue and obscuring the facts about their record on fighting terrorism. The President has ample authority to move quickly to intercept al Qaeda communications both in and outside of the United States. And he can do so without breaking the law.

• Surveillance is an important weapon in the fight against terrorism. America’s technological superiority and our commitment to the rule of law are perhaps our greatest advantages over al Qaeda and its supporters. The capability to conduct electronic surveillance of enemy communications is one of the most potent weapons we possess in the war on terrorism and it should be focused relentlessly on those who would do us harm.
  
  
• The President’s illegal wiretapping of Americans is another poor decision in his long record of incompetence in fighting terrorism and the war in Iraq. The President’s illegal domestic spying program undermines our ability to prevent terrorist attacks. It diverts counterterrorism resources from more productive investigations, could force countless counterterrorism investigations to be shut down, and might even result in convicted terrorists being released from prison. President Bush shifted resources from the war on terrorism to invade Iraq and as a result, we remain threatened by a still-at-large Osama bin Laden, and Americans no longer trust this President to protect them from terrorists.
  
  
• The Bush administration said FISA authorities were sufficient to intercept al Qaeda communications. James A. Baker, the Justice Department lawyer who oversees the DoJ's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review, wrote in 2002 that modifications to FISA that were passed in the PATRIOT Act "enabled the government to become quicker, more flexible, and more focused in going 'up' on those suspected terrorists in the United States." Specifically, expanding the time between when the surveillance can start and when the government must obtain a warrant "has allowed us to make full and effective use of FISA's pre-existing emergency provisions to ensure that the government acts swiftly to respond to terrorist threats."