By Mal Leary,Capitol News Service

AUGUSTA – Members of Maine’s Congressional delegation are upset at the revelation in the New York Times that President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to monitor international telephone calls and e-mail messages of hundreds, and possibly thousands, of people inside the United States without a judge’s approval.

“These reports raise serious concerns regarding domestic surveillance, safeguarding our constitutional rights, and the proper role of the National Security Agency,” Sen. Olympia Snowe said in a statement. “I am working with my colleagues on the Senate Intelligence Committee and with the Bush Administration to determine exactly what activities have occurred and their legal implications.”

The purpose of the intercepts, the Times reported, was to monitor possible links to Al Qaeda. First District Congressman Tom Allen said if that was the purpose, the government could have gotten a judge to approve the intercepts in keeping with the usual practice for national security wiretaps.

“The President authorized the National Security Agency to conduct domestic surveillance on Americans without obtaining warrants,” he said. “No Judicial oversight, no congressional oversight. We need hearings, in both the House and Senate, to find out exactly what happened and whether the constitution and laws were followed.”

Sen. Susan Collins, chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, said, “This is outside of the carefully established structures and safeguards that are in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,” she said. “To me, it seems to be an attempt to evade the careful safeguards that are in the current law.”

Second District Congressman Michael Michaud, a Democrat, said he was astonished to read about the intercepts and that they had been going on since 2002.

“This is an intrusion on American civil liberties and privacy,” he said. “It is an outrage that the administration would do this, and it should stop.”

Michaud said the government could have used the expedited process under the Patriot Act to gain judicial approval of the actions. He said authorizing the intercepts without judicial involvement is “an abuse of presidential power” and deserves a full investigation by Congress.

The report of the President’s executive order allowing some warrantless wiretapping of those living in the United States was neither confirmed nor denied Friday by White House spokesman Scott McClellan at his daily news briefing.

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