Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, along with the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Jane Harman, said emphatically yesterday that President Bush should continue his controversial terrorist wiretapping program.
Daschle was asked by NBC "Meet the Press" moderator Tim Russert: "Knowing what we know now, should the president stop this program?"
The former top Senate Democrat responded: "No, absolutely not. I think it�s a very valuable program."
Moments later, Russert asked Rep. Harman: "Do you think the program should be stopped
"No," she responded. "I think the program should go on."
Both Democrats qualified their endorsements of the wiretapping program, saying it should be restructured to comply with the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
"I think we�ve got to respect the rule of law," former Sen. Daschle explained. "I think there ought to be an investigation by the appropriate committees of Congress and look into NSA to see how we might [change] it effectively."
After Rep. Harman offered her endorsement, she added: "I think the program should fully comply with FISA."
The California Democrat also said that she "deplored" the leak to the New York Times that exposed the program in December.
No comments:
Post a Comment