Specter Caves on NSA Wiretap Investigation

Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was initially touch on the administration for not cooperating with the committee's investigation into the National Security Agency's illegal wiretapping program. In a letter to Dick Cheney, Specter demanded that they cooperate:

[C]ritics of the program, including some Republicans..say it must be brought within the scope of the intelligence court. Among them is Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who is circulating legislation that would require the court to pass judgment on whether the wiretapping is constitutional.

“Unless they’re prepared to have a determination on constitutionality as to their programs, window-dressing oversight will not be sufficient,” Specter said.

But now, Specter appears to have flip-flopped. Instead of requiring the administration to submit to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the new bill simply makes it optional:

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has proposed legislation that would give President Bush the option of seeking a warrant from a special court for an electronic surveillance program such as the one being conducted by the National Security Agency.

What's more, Specter has now included a provision protecting anyone who authorizes illegal surveillance from legal trouble:

Another part of the Specter bill would grant blanket amnesty to anyone who authorized warrantless surveillance under presidential authority, a provision that seems to ensure that no one would be held criminally liable if the current program is found illegal under present law.