According to Rasmussen Reports, 64 percent of Americans believe the National Security Agency (NSA) should be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States.
Even 51 percent of Democrats agree.
Rasmussen also found that only 26 percent believe President Bush is the first to authorize a program like the one currently in the news.
The survey was conducted December 26-27, 2005 and has a margin of error of +/- 4.5 percent.
It is indeed heartening to see that the public supports what is permissible under controlling legal authority. As David B. Rivkin and Lee A. Casey wrote in their Op-Ed piece in yesterday's New York Times:
The president has the constitutional authority to acquire foreign intelligence without a warrant or any other type of judicial blessing. The courts have acknowledged this authority, and numerous administrations, both Republican and Democrat, have espoused the same view. The purpose here is not to detect crime, or to build criminal prosecutions - areas where the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirements are applicable - but to identify and prevent armed attacks on American interests at home and abroad.
The Rasmussen findings are especially surprising when you consider the 2004 Biennial Media Consumption Survey conducted by the Pew Center for the People and the Press found television news is still America's most popular source of news. As Cori Dauber posts at Rantingprofs, "the complexities of the legal arguments are absent from broadcast news."
Who doesn't think we should eavesdrop on foreign terrorists?
The question is one of warrants, not the activity itself.
Consider: The poll question refers to "terrorism suspects." Why exactly are they suspects? Because the government has information to that effect? If so, then why not bring -- retroactively if necessary -- that information to the FISC for a warrant?
The reasoning of the NSA apologists has been inexcusably circular in just this manner.
Posted by: KipEsquire | Wednesday, December 28, 2005 at 05:11 PM