Following up on an earlier item about the Bush White House quietly allowing the National Security Agency to spy on Americans, on U.S. soil, without getting a warrant, at least one Republican senator is bothered enough to consider hearings on the issue.
A key Republican committee chairman put the Bush administration on notice Friday that his panel would hold hearings into a report that the National Security Agency eavesdropped without warrants on people inside the United States.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he would make oversight hearings by his panel next year “a very, very high priority.”
“There is no doubt that this is inappropriate,” said Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican and chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
If the Senate Judiciary Committee follows through on this, it would likely be the first major hearing of a Bush-related scandal since, well, ever.
Not surprisingly, administration figures are on the defensive. Condoleezza Rice, on NBC’s “Today” show, said she wouldn’t comment on “intelligence matters,” but added that she believes the president “has not ordered people to do things that are illegal.”
The Center for National Security Studies disagrees, telling the WaPo that the secret order may amount to the president authorizing criminal activity.
Sounds like the kind of question that can be explored in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.