Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said Sunday that he believes the so-called terrorist surveillance program conducted by the National Security Agency under authorization from President George W. Bush is illegal. Specter, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, will begin holding hearings on the program Monday.

Specter, speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, called the program “in flat violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.”

The Judiciary Committee will question current Attorney General Albert Gonzales, and wants to question his predecessor, John Ashcroft, as well as other Bush administration officials, according to the International Herald Tribune.

Of Democratic calls to subpoena notes of administration deliberations about the legality of the program, Senator Specter said he would not immediately move to do so. But “if the necessity arises,” he added, “I won’t be timid.”

Mr. Specter’s strong language reflects sharp concerns among many in Congress — mainly Democrats, but also some Republicans — over the legality of the program, the administration’s decision to circumvent the FISA court rather than ask Congress to change the law, and whether the administration kept Congress adequately informed.

General Hayden, asked about a Washington Post report today that intelligence officers had eavesdropped on thousands of Americans on overseas calls before dismissing “nearly all” of them as potential suspects, said that he was “not quite sure why that would be the metric of success.” — International Herald Tribune

Specter joins many others, including former vice president Al Gore and John Dean, former counsel to President Richard Nixon, who have publicly called the program illegal or called for investigations into the program. The Department of Justice is indeed investigating who leaked the existence of the program to the New York Times in the first place.

President Bush has publicly defended the program, saying that it only monitors communications with a “clear link to terrorist networks” and that revealing the existence of the program “damages our national security and puts our citizens at risk.” He also said that he had full legal authority to order the program, both under Article II of the Constitution and the Authorization for the Use of Military Force passed on September 14, 2001.

Others say that the excessive secrecy of the Bush administration is the true threat to national security.

Gen. Michael Hayden, director of national intelligence, spoke both on ABC and FOX defending both the program’s targeting and its legality.

Speaking on the Fox network, General Hayden said the program was aimed only at people for whom there was, if not probable cause, then evidence “in that probable cause range” to believe they had links to Al Qaeda. — Ibid.

The legal aspects of the program are being debated, though, he acknowledged. Some would like to see it authorized with more legislation, but that could negate the program’s usefulness, Hayden said on the ABC program “This Week.”

“Whatever it is we do in the future has to be done in a way that doesn’t reveal our tactics, techniques and procedures to the enemy,” he told host George Stephanopoulos, explaining that further legislation of the program may do just that.

For those who are wary about calling overseas for fear of being monitored, Hayden said, that’s not likely to happen. The NSA isn’t monitoring all communications and sifting through them, he said. Al Qaeda is the program’s focus.

“We really don’t have the time or the resources — linguists — to linger to, go after (communications) that aren’t going to protect the homeland,” he said. “If you’re not relevant, if the intercept isn’t relevant … we don’t need it. We go on to those things that actually help us accomplish the mission.”

And whether or not conversations conducted inside the United States would be helpful to conducting that mission, they’re off limits, he said.

“Even after the president’s authorization, if Osama bin Laden … crossed the bridge (and) … he’s in Niagara Falls, N.Y., and he calls Pittsburgh, I still can’t cover him,” Hayden said. — American Forces Press Service

I feel so much better now. Of course, I’ve stopped making or accepting overseas calls entirely since learning of this program, and only reluctantly correspond via e-mail with people outside the U.S., for as we’ve seen already, there’s a chance that those communications will be picked up, and even if they are discarded afterwards…

Consider this. If a peeping Tom looks in your window, but you don’t notice, has your privacy been violated?