Is the NSA's Domestic Surveillance Justified?
NPR.org, Feb. 3, 2006 · What are the limits of executive authority? Does national security trump civil liberties during wartime? These questions are once again being fiercely debated following the revelation that the National Security Agency has been secretly wiretapping Americans without a warrant. Below, a sampling of opinion on the controversial surveillance program:
A Real Surveillance Scandal
The WSJ Editorial Board
The Wall Street Journal
No one has found any evidence of any spying recently on anybody's domestic political enemies. Instead, the 'controversial' NSA surveillance has been directed at people with unambiguous al Qaeda connections... if there were any real abuses going on here, there were plenty of people in the loop and able to blow the whistle.
We Must Accept Risk to Protect Freedoms
by James Werrell
The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.)
If the commander-in-chief operates outside the law and is not answerable to the other branches of government, he, in essence, becomes the law unto himself, more despot than president. The real-world ramifications of that include not only secret wiretaps but also the condoned torture of detainees and the establishment of secret prisons to hold terrorist suspects in other countries.
Why We Listen
by Philip Bobbitt
The New York Times
If we agree that the National Security Agency now needs to trace and analyze large volumes of phone and Internet traffic looking for particular patterns and to cross-reference leads, then it seems clear that traditional, specific warrants may sometimes not be appropriate.
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Bad Targeting
Washington Post Editorial Board
The Washington Post
What Those Big Ears Might Hear
by Steve Ford
The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Spying by Another Name
The L.A. Times Editorial Board
The Los Angeles Times