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http://feingold.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=315641
Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold On the Inspectors General Report on President Bush's Warrantless Wiretapping Program
Friday, July 10, 2009
“This valuable report highlights just how outrageous and damaging the illegal warrantless wiretapping program really was. Although more information can and should be declassified, the unclassified version of the report underscores the dangers of operating a hidden, illegal program for years. It documents the internal conflicts and chaos surrounding the purported legal authorizations, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s highly misleading congressional testimony. Notably, the report calls into serious question the repeated assertions from Bush Administration officials, especially during debate over the so-called Protect America Act and the FISA Amendments Act, that stopping the program would have had catastrophic results.
“This report leaves no doubt that the warrantless wiretapping program was blatantly illegal and an unconstitutional assertion of executive power. I once again call on the Obama administration and its Justice Department to withdraw the flawed legal memoranda that justified the program and that remain in effect today.”
- - U.S. Senator Russ Feingold
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