10A | LAREDO MORNING TIMES

NATIONAL

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2006

Google case raises new questions about U.S. spying

By TOM RAUM
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON Already on the defensive about its domestic spying program, the Bush administration has alarmed privacy and free-speech advocates by demanding search information from millions of users of Google and other Internet companies. The moves raise questions about how far the government should be allowed to go to probe into American homes. The administration is pushing back hard, defending its surveillance as helping to protect the nation from terrorism and, to a lesser extent, shield minors from pornography. Critics see the moves as an unwarranted expansion of presidential authority. Sure, the more intrusive the government be-

comes, the more potential crime it can solve, said Daniel J. Solove, associate professor of law at George Washington University Law School. But our society is founded on the fact that we dont want to give the government this broad-based power, said Solove, author of the book, The Digital Person: Technology and Privacy in the Information Age. The administration, seeking to revive an online pornography law struck down by the Supreme Court, has subpoenaed Google Inc. for details on what its users have been looking for through its popular search engine. Google is fighting the Justice Department subpoena that the company has termed unduly burdensome, vague and intended to harass. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales this week asked a federal judge in California to order Google to comply.

We are trying to gather up information in order to help the enforcement of a federal law to ensure the protection, quite frankly, of our nations children against pornography, Gonzales said in Washington on Friday. We are not asking for the identity of Americans. Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. confirmed that they had complied, at least partially, with similar subpoenas. America Online, owned by Time Warner Inc., said it provided a list of search requests already publicly available from other sources. You have to be alarmed at the idea that the government can come in and say, I want you to give me your statistical data. This could be the first step on the way for asking for the content of the e-mails, said Shayana Kadidal, an attorney for the New Yorkbased Center for Constitutional Rights. The Justice Department has not asked for names

or computer addresses. But the search-engine subpoenas reinforced concerns about how much personal information the government should be entitled to. Congress is holding hearings early next month over whether President Bush overstepped his authority in ordering warrantless domestic eavesdropping by the National Security Agency as part of the post-Sept. 11, 2001, war on terror. Lawmakers, meanwhile, are also considering an administration request to extend the Patriot Act, which sharply expanded the governments ability to obtain private data on individuals. Both the NSA eavesdropping and the demands for information on Internet consumer searches are assertions of substantial powers that conflict with civil liberties, said I.M. Destler, a University of Maryland professor of public service who specializes in homeland security.

Rove says terrorism a major issue for elections

By RON FOURNIER
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON Embattled White House adviser Karl Rove vowed Friday to make the war on terrorism a central campaign issue in November and said Democratic senators looked meanspirited and small-minded in questioning Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. Republicans have a post-9/11 view of the world. And Democrats have a pre9/11 view of the world, Rove told Republican activists. That doesnt make them unpatriotic, not at all. But it does make ROVE them wrong deeply and profoundly and consistently wrong. Democratic Party chairman H oward Dean denoun ced Roves remarks and renewed his call for the deputy White House chief of staff to be fired for his role in leaking a CIA officials name. That is both unpatriotic and wrong, Dean said. Rove, making a rare public address while under investigation in the CIA leak cas e, joined Republican Party chairman Ken Mehlman in warning GOP leaders against falling prey to the corrupting nature of power. The GOPs progress during the last four decades is a stunning political achievement. But it is also a cautionary tale of what happens to a dominant party in this case, the Democrat Party when its thinking becomes ossified, when its energy begins to drain, when an entitlement mentality takes over and when political power becomes an end in itself rather than a means to achieve the common goal, Rove told Republican National Committee members. We need to learn from our successes, he said, and from the failures of others. The admonition reflects growing concerns among senior Republicans that ethics scandals in the Republican-led Congress could hurt the party in November, even among staunch GOP voters who may begin to blame corruption for Congress runaway spending habits. Mehlman couldnt have been more blunt: One of the oldest lessons of history is that power corrupts, he said, telling RNC members that any Republicans guilty of illegal behavior should be punished. The investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff threatens to ensnare at least a half dozen members of Congress of both parties and Bush administration officials. His ties to GOP congressional leaders and the White House pose a particular problem for Republicans. Abramoff, who has admitted to conspiring to defraud his Indian tribe clients, has pleaded guilty to corruption-related charges and is cooperating with prosecutors. In an unrelated scandal, I. Lewis Scooter Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is expected to stand trial in the CIA leak case this summer, just ahead of the midterm elections. The special prosecutors inquiry is still under way, leaving the fate of other senior White House officials, notably Rove, in doubt. Bushs political guru opened his remarks with a joking reference to the unwanted attention the case has brought him. Anybody want to get their picture in the paper? Come on up here, he said.