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Rights groups prepare suits over domestic spying

Posted on: Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 10:18 CST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's domestic spying program faces legal challenges by two U.S. civil liberties groups who said on Tuesday they will seek court orders to stop it immediately and permanently.

The American Civil Liberties Union said its lawsuit would be filed against the National Security Agency in U.S. district court for eastern Michigan on behalf of journalists, scholars, attorneys and national nonprofit organizations that frequently communicate by telephone and e-mail with people in the Middle East.

The lawsuit, which also names NSA Director Army Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander as a defendant, seeks a court order declaring that the spying program is illegal and ordering its immediate and permanent halt.

Separately, the New York City-based Center for Constitutional Rights, which has provided legal aid to people detained or interrogated in Washington's declared war on terrorism, said it would file a suit in federal court in Manhattan.

That suit, naming Bush and the heads of security agencies, challenges the eavesdropping program and seeks an end to it, said an attorney for the group, Shayana Kadidal.

Bush acknowledged last month that he had authorized the NSA to monitor the international telephone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens without first obtaining warrants in an effort to track al Qaeda members and other terrorism suspects.

News of the program set off an outcry among both Republicans and Democrats, who questioned whether the administration was violating the Constitution by spying on Americans.

The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act makes it illegal for the U.S. government to spy on Americans without first getting approval from a secret federal court.

The ACLU said its legal complaint charges that the spying program violates Americans' rights to free speech and privacy under the First and Fourth amendments of the Constitution.

The ACLU also charges that Bush exceeded his authority under separation of powers principles.

Plaintiffs in the case believe their communications are being intercepted by the NSA and that the program is disrupting their ability to talk with sources, locate witnesses, conduct scholarship, and engage in advocacy, the ACLU said.

Plaintiffs include authors and journalists such as Christopher Hitchens and Tara McKelvey as well as James Bamford, a leading expert on U.S. intelligence and the National Security Agency.

Nonprofit groups that have joined the lawsuit on behalf of their members and staff include Greenpeace and Council on American Islamic Relations, the ACLU said.

Source: REUTERS

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