Presidential Power-Grab

This isn't the first time that the President has amended FISA. On July 28, 2007, President Bush called on Congress to pass legislation to reform the FISA in order to ease restrictions on surveillance of terrorist suspects where one party to the communication is located overseas. On August 3, 2007, the Senate passed a Republican-sponsored version of FISA in a vote of 60 to 28. The House followed by passing the bill, 227-183. The Protect America Act of 2007 was then signed into law by George W. Bush on August 5, 2007.
Under the Protect America Act, communications that begin or end in a foreign country may be wiretapped by the US government without supervision by the FISA Court. The Act removes from the definition of "electronic surveillance" in FISA any surveillance directed at a person reasonably believed to be located outside the United States. As such, surveillance of these communications no longer requires a government application to, and order issuing from, the FISA Court.
The Administration's justification for the Executive Order is that they need to be able to tap calls that go overseas without a warrant. The only reason the administration would want this power is because they want to listen to phone calls from anti-war groups calling American citizens, without obtaining a warrant. The Administration is lying and fear-mongering to try to expand their powers. They are needlessly encroaching on our civil liberties, with the sole goal of listening to lawful conversations between American citizens. Americans have an absolute civil right to carry on a conversation which isn't listened to by the NSA, so long as they follow the law. MORE...

By: Michael Soneff