What are the arguments for the legality of the NSA operation?
The Bush administration has made two basic arguments. One is that the Sept. 14, 2001 use of force resolution which Congress passed to authorize Bush to fight al Qaida included, by implication, the power to eavesdrop on al Qaida contacts inside the United States. The FISA law says that the government cannot engage in electronic surveillance “except as authorized by statute.” And according to Gonzales, in this case, that other statute is the Force Resolution. Secondly, the administration argues that any president has inherent power under the Constitution to wage war, spy on our foreign enemies, and protect the country from attack. Bush argued in his State of the Union address that the NSA program is needed because If there are people inside our country who are talking with al Qaida, we want to know about it, because we will not sit back and wait to be hit again. What are the arguments that critics of the NSA program are making against it? Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Arlen Sp
