Letters

is a constitutional crisis

Editor,

We are in the middle of a constitutional crisis and no one seems to care.The Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping is illegal and an unjustified threat to our civil rights.

Bush has been violating the requirements of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and pledges to continue doing so despite the fact that this act provides the means necessary to protect our security in a lawful manner. Bush’s claim that FISA procedures are too slow or cumbersome to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists is untruthful, as the law allows him to retroactively obtain a warrant if urgency requires wiretapping earlier.

The court has rejected only five of 19,000 prior warrant requests, so clearly there is not a huge obstacle to legitimate surveillance. No, the truth is that the Bush administration is unable to provide reasonable justification for the wiretapping that they want to do, and thus are unwilling to abide by the law. The recent disclosure that only a handful of perhaps 5000 instances of warrantless wiretapping were even worthy of further domestic surveillance shows that the Bush administration does not have probable cause for such surveillance. Thus Bush’s claim that this is a "terrorist surveillance” program is also false since the program spies on thousands of innocent Americans.

When the president breaks the law and shows no sign of stopping, and when Congress seems unwilling to act to stop this abuse, our constitutional system is in crisis. The Constitution specifies that impeachment is the appropriate remedy in such circumstances.

Rob Dickinson

Redwood City

Preachings of

radicals dangerous

Editor,

In Response to Col. Henry H. Rallard’s letter in your Feb. 7 edition titled "Make sure the issue is clear” he states that the "Lunatic Left” would somehow bow to the pressures of the likes of Osama bin Laden and al Qaida.

That is laughable: In no way would any politician or person, no matter what political belief, would surrender our way of life to in Laden or al Qaida. After all, didn’t we prosecute those responsible for the first attack on the World Trade Center while Clinton was president? Lastly, radicals, no matter what religion they belong to, are a dangerous thing.

Even though Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell have never committed a violent act the words they preach are a dangerous thing. It only takes one whack job to take to heart what those two say and do something outlandish in the name of Christianity.

Jerry Habib

Foster City

Corruption and scandal in the Bush administration

Editor,

A Resolution of Inquiry (House of Representatives H Res 375), if passed, will require the White House and the State Department to "transmit all information relating to communication with officials of the United Kingdom between Jan. 1, 2002 and Oct. 16, 2002, relating to the policy of the United States with respect to Iraq.” Please give this piece of legislation and the evidence found in the Downing Street Documents the coverage they deserve. The so-called Rove Scandal was, after all, caused by White House retaliation against a man who debunked some of the President’s false claims to justify the war.

The Downing Street papers provide strong evidence that the White House worked for months to deceive the public and Congress.

The only reason for the president and the White House to block this resolution is to protect himself from being exposed as he apparently lied our troops into deadly battle.

If Bush is innocent of this charge, he would embrace this opportunity to clear his name and demonstrate that he acted in good faith.

The usual stonewalling will be more evidence that the only thing the current federal administration is capable of protecting is its’ own rear end.

Tim Murphy

San Carlos

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