Senator Ted Kennedy, meanwhile, has written a letter to President Bush:
December 22, 2005
President Bush
The White House
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Mr. President:
On July 22, the Senate unanimously approved legislation to reauthorize and improve the USA PATRIOT Act, which granted appropriate means to intercept communications in relation to terrorist activities, while maintaining the fundamental principles and protections of the Bill of Rights. Last night, again with unanimous support, the Senate extended this act for an additional six months to give Congress and the Administration more time to deal with these extremely sensitive surveillance issues now being debated.
I urge you to provide Congress and the American people with answers about the Administration’s recently disclosed domestic electronic surveillance activities, including all documents relating to:
1. Authorizations of any domestic electronic surveillance by the National Security Agency, and activities conducted under such authorizations, including all presidential orders, authorizations and underlying legal opinions that you relied upon to authorize the Agency to intercept domestic international communications -- without judicial review -- more than 30 times since the September 11th attacks;
2. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s ongoing surveillance of religious, political and other citizen organizations engaged in public education campaigns; and
3. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s use of National Security Letters.
There is no legitimate purpose in denying Congressional access to all of the legal thought and analysis relied on by the Administration to develop and maintain these surveillance activities.
rest of the letter at:
http://www.dccc.org/stakeholder/