Released: February 08, 2006

Necessary force resolution doesn’t OK spying

Many in Congress say Bush is out of line

Source: Edward Epstein, San Francisco Chronicle

Just what Congress meant on Sept. 14, 2001, when it authorized President Bush “to use all necessary and appropriate force’’ to fight “those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks’’ of three days earlier is at the center of the roiling dispute over the administration’s domestic spying.

The Bush administration cites the resolution for the authorization of military force as a legal basis for the president’s order for the secret National Security Agency to eavesdrop on phone calls and e-mails without a warrant issued by a special court.

But many in Congress, from both parties, say they authorized no such thing when they granted Bush the right to wage war against al Qaeda, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

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