Maine delegates outline positions on wiretapping

WASHINGTON – As congressional committees meet this week to consider the legality of President Bush’s domestic wiretapping program, members of Maine’s delegation express their own concerns about the practice.

“The [National Security Agency’s] domestic electronic surveillance program raises profound questions about the executive branch’s authority as it pursues our enemies in the war on terror,” Sen. Olympia Snowe said in a statement released Tuesday.

Snowe is on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is scheduled to have closed-door briefings this morning with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Gen. Michael Hayden, the number two intelligence official.

The Republican joined four Senate Democrats in December, when the program first became public, in calling for the judiciary and intelligence committees to review it.

“Revelations that the U.S. government has conducted domestic electronic surveillance without express legal authority indeed warrants congressional examination,” Snowe said at the time.

The judiciary panel started its hearings Monday with Attorney General Gonzales testifying.

Snowe said she looked forward to learning more about the legal justifications for the National Security Agency’s program at her committee’s hearing today.

Fellow Republican Sen. Susan Collins also is in favor of bringing the issue to Capitol Hill with hearings.

“There is no question that there are terrorists that want to strike our country, and it is important that the administration have the authority to use all the tools necessary to detect those plots,” Collins said in a statement. “It is also important, however, that we have in place a system of checks and balances to ensure that our efforts to protect Americans from terrorist attack do not infringe upon our personal liberties.”

Democratic Rep. Michael Michaud supports the Senate hearings and said he believes the administration had plenty of tools within existing law to defend the country.

“While I share the president’s commitment to securing our country from those who wish to do us harm, I firmly believe that our surveillance programs must be conducted within the law,” Michaud said in a statement. “Our law and intelligence communities need the necessary tools to ensure that critical information is obtained that would help prevent future attacks. However, we have legal safeguards in place, including the FISA Court, that exist to ensure that we can gather intelligence in a lawful way. We should not be circumventing these safeguards.”

The secret court was created under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Democratic Rep. Tom Allen said he welcomes further investigation. “Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ defense of the program was evasive and incomplete,” Allen said of Gonzales’ appearance before the committee on Monday. “Further and broader investigation is clearly needed.”

“The law is clear: the National Security Agency cannot conduct surveillance of Americans’ foreign communications without a court-approved warrant,” Allen said in a statement released Tuesday. “The President’s program of warrant-less surveillance may violate basic Fourth Amendment rights and has troubling consequences for our democracy. The Constitution forbids any government official, including the president, from waiving or ignoring fundamental liberties as a matter of convenience or policy.”