[Dialogue] W pushes envelope on U.S. spying

[Harry Wainwright]

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com

W pushes envelope on U.S. spying 
BY JAMES GORDON MEEK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU 
Thursday, January 4th, 2007 

WASHINGTON - President Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open
Americans' mail without a judge's warrant, the Daily News has learned. 

The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill
into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a "signing statement" that declared
his right to open people's mail under emergency conditions. 

That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just
signed, say experts who have reviewed it. 

Bush's move came during the winter congressional recess and a year after his
secret domestic electronic eavesdropping program was first revealed. It
caught Capitol Hill by surprise. 

"Despite the President's statement that he may be able to circumvent a basic
privacy protection, the new postal law continues to prohibit the government
from snooping into people's mail without a warrant," said Rep. Henry Waxman
(D-Calif.), the incoming House Government Reform Committee chairman, who
co-sponsored the bill. 

Experts said the new powers could be easily abused and used to vacuum up
large amounts of mail. 

"The [Bush] signing statement claims authority to open domestic mail without
a warrant, and that would be new and quite alarming," said Kate Martin,
director of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington. 

"The danger is they're reading Americans' mail," she said. 

"You have to be concerned," agreed a career senior U.S. official who
reviewed the legal underpinnings of Bush's claim. "It takes Executive Branch
authority beyond anything we've ever known." 

A top Senate Intelligence Committee aide promised, "It's something we're
going to look into." 

Most of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act deals with mundane
reform measures. But it also explicitly reinforced protections of
first-class mail from searches without a court's approval. 

Yet in his statement Bush said he will "construe" an exception, "which
provides for opening of an item of a class of mail otherwise sealed against
inspection in a manner consistent ... with the need to conduct searches in
exigent circumstances." 

Bush cited as examples the need to "protect human life and safety against
hazardous materials and the need for physical searches specifically
authorized by law for foreign intelligence collection." 

White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore denied Bush was claiming any new
authority. 

"In certain circumstances - such as with the proverbial 'ticking bomb' - the
Constitution does not require warrants for reasonable searches," she said. 

Bush, however, cited "exigent circumstances" which could refer to an
imminent danger or a longstanding state of emergency. 

Critics point out the administration could quickly get a warrant from a
criminal court or a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge to search
targeted mail, and the Postal Service could block delivery in the meantime. 

But the Bush White House appears to be taking no chances on a judge saying
no while a terror attack is looming, national security experts agreed. 

Martin said that Bush is "using the same legal reasoning to justify
warrantless opening of domestic mail" as he did with warrantless
eavesdropping. 

 

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