Congress Rejected Domestic Power Bid

The administration's primary legal justification for the NSA spying revealed by the NYT always leads back to the resolution passed shortly after 9/11. They contend the following words gave them the appropriate authority: "all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations or persons the president] determines planned, authorized, committed or aided" Now the Washington Post reports they sought to explicitly write domestic leeway into the wording of the resolution and were rejected by Congress. According to Tom Daschle, they wanted the phrase to read: "all necessary and appropriate force in the United States and against those nations, organizations or persons [the president] determines planned, authorized, committed or aided" Several house members have indicated they did not believe the resolution spoke to domestic surveillance. Now it's known that the attempt to include it was specifically rebuffed.