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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

SR Edit: Bush Overstepped Secrecy Bounds

For reasons Bush hasn't adequately explained, the White House refused to comply with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which Congress passed after the abuses of the Nixon administration. FISA established secret courts as a check against executive power. Some check. Those courts have approved 99 percent of search requests. Still, the White House has brazenly bypassed the process that already affords more secrecy than dedicated civil libertarians think comfortable. President Bush says the government needs to move fast, but the courts take only a few hours, and warrants can even be obtained after the fact. It's a flexible law.

For the rest of Associate Editor Gary Crooks's edit on domestic spying, click here.

Question: Do you agree/disagree with Gary's premise that Bush went too far?



Huckleberries Online

D.F. Oliveria started Huckleberries Online on Feb. 16, 2004. Oliveria's Sunday print Huckleberries is a past winner of the national Herb Caen Memorial Column contest.