Legal Specialists Refute Bush Claims on Wiretaps

The Boston Globe has interviewed legal specialists who have refuted George Bush’s claims in the State of the Union that his warrantless wiretaps were legal. They have also refuted other claims Bush made, such as that other Presidents have done the same has him:

Bush’s contention that past presidents did the same thing as he has done ‘’is either intentionally misleading or downright false,” said David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor. Only Bush has made the assertion that his wartime powers should supersede an act of Congress, Cole said.

They also refuted the claims that this program has shown benefits, or could have prevented the 9/11 attacks:

For example, Bush strongly implied that if his program had been in place before the terrorist attacks, the government would have identified two of the hijackers who were placing international calls from inside the United States.

But the 9/11 Commission found that the government had already grown suspicious about both of the hijackers in question before the attacks took place. Bureaucratic failures to share information about the hijackers, not ignorance of their existence, was the problem, the commission said.