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Judge’s ruling on secret wiretapping

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Re “Wiretap Project Ruled Illegal,” Aug. 18

Just when I was beginning to think that the America I grew up in was hopelessly lost, a federal judge in Detroit brought the hammer down on the Bush administration and restored my faith in the future of our democracy. Specifically referring to the Bush administration’s secret wiretaps on Americans since 9/11, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor warned, “There are no hereditary kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution.”

In her ruling, she said the electronic surveillance was in direct violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. One of our supposed reasons for being in Iraq is to save the world from a dictator, and this violation of FISA is the mentality of a dictator. The Bush administration’s argument that new technology inhibits its operating within the laws is unadulterated bull.

JIM GREEN

Seguin, Texas

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How does Al Qaeda spell relief? ACLU. The next time a terrorist successfully attacks U.S. citizens, I suggest we all thank our nearest American Civil Liberties Union office. Fortunately, now it is less difficult for journalists, scholars and lawyers to do their jobs. I feel much better.

MICHAEL ALLEGRETTI

Chatsworth

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It all comes down to whose job the Americans consider more important -- that of the journalists, scholars and lawyers who were the plaintiffs in the ACLU litigation or the executive branch employees whose job it is to root out and suppress terrorists and their allies? If you ask most Americans, they will say it’s the latter. Americans will be asked that question in November, and they better know how each candidate comes down on this question in order to give the correct answer and properly cast their ballots.

LOU BANAS

Brea

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