They have a lot of authority to do that already, and the border security problems are exactly the types of crimes that they already have authority to do the wiretapping for.
Quotes about wiretapping (15 Quotes)
Remember Watergate. Remember Enron. Remember the secret wiretapping of American citizens. All these stories were brought to light because of confidential sources.
To simply exclude communications from the coverage of FISA and allow secret wiretapping without a warrant would be a clear violation of the 4th Amendment.
It was not about a break-in, a single break-in. It was about a pattern of illegal activities involving beating up members of the political opposition physically, stealing their memos, wiretapping political opponents, breaking into offices of psychiatrists, firebombing think tanks,
It's irresponsible for the top elected official in any state to suggest blanket wiretapping of houses of worship.
If I had been in that position, I'd have said, here's a copy of the Constitutional and the Bill of Rights. You are in violation, and you need to stop this immediately. I certainly would have broken the story. At some point you have to blow the whistle when people are breaking the law, spying on Americans, in violation of the federal wiretapping law.
It could play to the image of a president who is overreaching and not succeeding -- going to war without a clear purpose or credible proof in retrospect, isolating America, wiretapping.
There are causes worth fighting for even if you know that you will lose. Unless you are willing to accept torture as part of a normal American political lexicon, unless you are willing to accept that leaving the Geneva Convention is fine and dandy, if you accept the expansion of wiretapping as business as usual, the only way to express this now is to embrace the difficult and perhaps embarrassing process of impeachment.
Berlusconi is desperate and he's latching on to what he can to deflect attention away from the economy it's the most prominent chink in the armor. That's why he's jumped on the wiretapping scandals.
It's an unusual step. It's a big step, but what the president did by consciously and intentionally violating the constitution and laws of this country with this illegal wiretapping has to be answered.
In the wiretapping, despite all the momentum for a more assertive Congress, you're seeing Congress backing down, because there are many Republicans and even Democrats who are afraid of being seen as preventing the president from protecting the nation.
It was difficult for them personally with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated, and they became the targets of secret government wiretapping and other surveillance.
Stonewalling, wiretapping, cover-up, Lord's sake, if there isn't one of us here at this table that hasn't dabbled in that mystery.
It is the height of hypocrisy for George Bush and others to mourn a human rights leader and scorn the movement she represents. It's ironic that someone who supports wiretapping will be here among the people who were victims of wiretapping in the 1960s.
I think our findings are mixed. Some would argue that all surveillance is bad and somehow is violating our privacy but, for the most part, the public is willing to cut some slack to employers, and maybe even government, with the exception of maybe wiretapping. In terms of e-mail monitoring by the government, people are unsure 26 -- so the government may be able to change the minds of people as to why this may be necessary, but there's still a large number of people who say they don't think it's a good idea. Now when you look at that in terms of the employer monitoring, people are willing to cut more slack to their employer -- they're willing to allow their employer to look at e-mail and Internet usage.