OUR OPINION: Bush isn't above the law

12/23/05

President Bush is at it again with his brand of cowboy justice.

He's signed off on the National Security Agency's snooping into certain people in the United States who make phone calls or send e-mails overseas -- all without warrants approved by judges.

No one should want to overly tie the hands of intelligence officers as they work to protect this country from another Sept. 11 terrorist attack. But that's not really what's at issue here.

There's a legal way for the federal government to get permission for wiretaps. Go to a judge and make the case. Despite the Bush administration claims to the contrary, getting the OK for such eavesdropping isn't that difficult.

But at least there's a degree of protection. Judges look at your right to privacy and your right to be left alone by government. The government has to show some cause and not do this spying wholesale.

Mr. Bush is unrepentant. He's vowing to continue this spying on U.S. soil without the proper legal permission.

He's relying on an unsupportable interpretation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to conduct wiretaps without judicial approval. Statements by his own officials suggest that even they know what they're doing is a big stretch.

In Mr. Bush's view, it's as if the war in Iraq and war on terror give him the authority to gut legislative and constitutional safeguards. We're unsure in some cases that Mr. Bush even could claim a war declared to give him these powers.

Congress needs to step in and tell the administration to use the legal system to get approval for this type of spying. The president isn't above the law.

These actions should come as no surprise.

He charged into a war in Iraq, without the support of the international community and without real evidence that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.

He's made the United States despised in many countries around the world. The Iraq war has created more enemies for the United States across the Middle East, in other countries with significant Muslim populations, and elsewhere.

George Bush's continuing brand of cowboy justice has ill-served our county. Where will it stop?