Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter put the &to=http://english.pravda.ru/war/2003/03/18/44603.html' target=_blank>Bush administration on notice Friday that his panel would hold hearings into a report that the government eavesdropped without warrants on people inside the United States.
"There is no doubt that this is inappropriate," said Specter, a Republican, calling hearings early next year "a very, very high priority." He wasn't alone in reacting harshly to the report. Sen. John McCain said the story about the National Security Agency's actions, first reported in Friday's New York Times, was troubling.
The &to=http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/06/20/30799.html' target=_blank>NSA is normally barred from eavesdropping within the country, and the report is expected trigger debate about whether the practice violates the U.S. constitution. U.S. authorities normally need court orders before they can conduct spying within the country.
Neither Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice nor White House press secretary Scott McClellan would confirm or deny the report which said the super-secret NSA had spied on as many as 500 people at any given time since 2002 in this country.
That year, following the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush authorized the NSA to monitor the international phone calls and international e-mails of hundreds _ perhaps thousands _ of people inside the United States, the Times reported.
McClellan said the White House has received no requests for information from lawmakers because of the report. "Congress does have an important oversight role," he said.
Before the program began, the NSA typically limited its domestic surveillance to foreign embassies and missions and obtained court orders for such investigations. Overseas, 5,000 to 7,000 people suspected of terrorist ties are monitored at one time, reports AP.
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