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Eavesdropping effort illegal,lawyer testifies

By Times Wires
Published October 3, 2007

WASHINGTON

Jack Goldsmith, a former top lawyer for the Bush administration, said Tuesday that parts of President Bush's much-criticized eavesdropping program were illegal. "I could not find the legal support for" aspects of the Terrorist Surveillance Program, Goldsmith, the former head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, told the Senate Judiciary Committee. He would not say exactly what law or constitutional principle the surveillance violated, saying the White House has forbidden him from saying anything about the legal analysis underpinning the program. He also told the committee that access to the surveillance program was so tightly controlled that even the attorney general did not know all the details.

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Embassy bombing: The House voted to compensate the families of 12 Americans killed in the al-Qaida-linked bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya in 1998. Each family would receive about $940,000. The bill "provides a sense of closure that they so rightfully deserve," said Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill. It now goes to the Senate.

Quiet veto: With no ceremony for TV cameras, President Bush will veto a bill today expanding a popular health care program for children by $35-billion. The move will set up a veto fight that Bush probably will win but will give Democrats a campaign issue for next year's elections.

[Last modified October 3, 2007, 01:05:50]