Carter Calls NSA Spying "Illegal"

When Jimmy Carter was president, way back in the '70s, there was a lot of controversy about the U.S. government spying on its citizens. I don't know how much information is available about the subjects of that spying, but it's no secret that it included such menaces to the nation as Martin Luther King, Jr. Way back in those olden days, most (but not all) Americans believed that it was wrong to spy on their fellow citizens without a good reason (probably cause) and with a complete lack of oversight. Congress set about to correct this problem and passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. President Carter signed that bill into law. All that translates into the fact that Carter knows what he's talking about when he offers his opinion on covert surveillance and FISA.

And his opinion is that what Bush is doing is illegal.

"Under the Bush administration, there's been a disgraceful and illegal decision--we're not going to the let the judges or the Congress or anyone else know that we're spying on the American people," Carter told reporters. "And no one knows how many innocent Americans have had their privacy violated under this secret act."

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The former president also rebuked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for telling Congress that the spying program is authorized under Article 2 of the Constitution and does not violate the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act passed during Carter's administration.

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"It's a ridiculous argument, not only bad, it's ridiculous. Obviously, the attorney general who said it's all right to torture prisoners and so forth is going to support the person who put him in office. But he's a very partisan attorney general and there's no doubt that he would say that," Carter said. "I hope that eventually the case will go to the Supreme Court. I have no doubt that when it's over, the Supreme Court will rule that Bush has violated the law."

Of course, that may depend on how many more Alitos the Prez will be able to nominate to the court by the time the NSA case gets there.