Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

January 17, 2006

FBI Questioned Legality of Spy Program

FBI Director Robert Mueller questioned the "legal foundation" of the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program soon after it started in 2001, the New York Times reports.

Furthermore, despite recent claims by President Bush and Vice President Cheney that the program has saved thousands of lives, "law enforcement and counterterrorism officials said the program had uncovered no active Qaeda networks inside the United States planning attacks."

Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune notes Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) "reiterated his reservations about President Bush's legal authority to order domestic spying, noting that Congress had not given Bush a 'blank check' for warrantless eavesdropping."

Specter also said that if hearings next month "determine that the president broke the law, 'the remedy could be a variety of things,' including impeachment or criminal prosecution, 'but the principal remedy . . . under our society is to pay a political price.'"

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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