NEW YORK (AP):
LAWSUITS FILED yesterday in federal courts sought to halt President George W. Bush's domestic spying programme, calling it an "illegal and unconstitutional programme" of electronic eavesdropping on American citizens.
The lawsuits accusing Bush of exceeding his constitutional powers, were filed in federal courts in New York by the Centre for Constitutional Rights and in Detroit by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The New York suit, filed on behalf of the centre and individuals, names Bush, the head of the National Security Agency, and the heads of the other major security agencies, challenging the NSA's surveillance of persons within the United States without judicial approval or statutory authorisation.
WARRANT OF COMMUNICATIONS
It asked a judge to stop Bush and government agencies from conducting surveillance without a warrant of communications in the United States.
The Detroit suit, which also names the NSA, was filed by the ACLU, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the environmental group Greenpeace and several individuals.
Messages seeking comment were left yesterday morning with the National Security Agency and the Justice Department.
The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to hold hearings next month on the decision to allow the NSA domestic eavesdropping programme without court approval.
Bush, who said the wiretapping is legal and necessary, has pointed to a congressional resolution passed after the attacks of September 11, 2001 that authorised him to use force in the fight against terrorism, as allowing him to order the domestic eavesdropping programme.
The programme authorised eavesdropping of international phone calls and e-mails of people deemed a terror risk.
But the New York lawsuit noted that federal law already allows the president to conduct warrantless surveillance during the first 15 days of a war and allows court authorisation for surveillance of agents of foreign powers or terrorist groups.
Instead of following the law, Bush "unilaterally and secretly authorised electronic surveillance without judicial approval or congressional authorisation," the lawsuit said.
The Centre for Constitutional Rights maintained its work was directly affected by the surveillance because its lawyers represent a potential class of hundreds of Muslim foreign nationals detained after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
It said its attorney-client privilege was likely intercepted as it represented hundreds of men detained without charge as enemy combatants at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba and a Canadian citizen who was picked up at a New York airport while changing planes, sent to Syria and allegedly tortured and detained without charges for nearly a year.
The group said the surveillance program has inhibited its ability to represent clients vigorously, making it hard to communicate via telephone and e-mail with overseas clients, witnesses and others for fear the conversations would be overheard.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan noted that rules on how the president can conduct surveillance were written before Congress enacted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.
The law was enacted after the disclosure of widespread spying on American citizens by various federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
The Detroit lawsuit said the plaintiffs, who frequently communicate by telephone and e-mail with people in the Middle East and Asia, have a "well-founded belief" that their communications are being intercepted by the Government.
"By seriously compromising the free speech and privacy rights of the plaintiffs and others, the program violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the United States Constitution," the lawsuit states.
