Barbara Lee Slams Warrantless Eavesdropping Bill
(Washington, DC) – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) spoke forcefully against a Republican bill designed to provide legal cover for the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program, during debate on the House floor this evening. The following is her statement (as prepared):
“Mr. Speaker, I rise in total opposition to H.R. 5825, the Electronic Surveillance Act.
“The FISA law that the President chose to ignore and that this bill seeks to bypass is a law that powerfully symbolizes both the risk of the abuse of executive power and the strength of our system of checks and balances.
“The FISA law was enacted to protect against very real abuses.
“In the name of fighting communism, our executive branch – through the likes of J. Edgar Hoover and COINTELPRO –perpetrated massive abuses in surveillance of innocent Americans. These abuses included the surveillance, among many others, of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta, as part of what the Church Commission described as ‘an intensive campaign by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to “neutralize” him as an effective civil rights leader.’
“The only thing that redeems our Nation's great shame at these abuses was that the system of checks and balances created by our Constitution worked. The convening of a special Congressional Committee and the Church Commission’s investigation ensured that there was oversight, and there was accountability. In the end, Congress produced a law that allowed us to protect our Nation, our Constitution and our citizens.
“This Congress ignores that lesson at our nation’s peril.
“I urge my colleagues to remember our history, and vote against this bill.”
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