GOP's Specter : NSA Wiretaps "In Flat Violation" of Law

Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, Specter said the Bush administration's contention that the Congressional authorization to go to war in Iraq also authorized NSA surveillance of deomstic telephone calls is "very strained and unrealistic."

The authorization for the use of force doesn’t say anything about electronic surveillance, issue was never raised with the Congress. And there is a specific statute on the books, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which says flatly that you can’t undertake that kind of surveillance without a court order.

Specter noted that if there was a Constitutional problem with the FISA Act of 1978, then the courts would be the correct place to solve those problems, but that the way it stands now, the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program is illegal.

...I’ve been so skeptical of the program because it is in flat violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testifies before Specter's Senate Judiciary Committee today.