By Jennifer LaLima
Roughly 60 Long Islanders came together in response to the domestic eavesdropping program, which the Bush administration started after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
King was not present at his Long Island office during the protest. In a prepared statement, the congressman said in response to the rally, "I support the president's constitutional right to use electronic surveillance during a time of war. As to the protesters, I hope they enjoyed the weather in beautiful downtown Massapequa Park."
Brian Mannix, a member of Democracy for Long Island, organized the protest. He called for an independent investigation of the president's wiretapping program.
Mannix said, "No one is above the law, not even the president... The problem with the National Security Agency's surveillance program is not that they are spying on terrorists. Spying on terrorists in order to protect from attack is a prudent measure."
Mannix noted, "Without the oversight of the judicial branch, warrantless wiretaps are a clear violation, not only of the 1978 F.I.S.A. law, but of the system of checks and balances inherent in the Constitution."
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 outlines proper procedure to request judicial authorization for electronic surveillance and physical search of anyone involved in espionage or terrorism against the U.S.
The warantless wiretapping program came to the public's attention after publication of a Dec. 16, 2005, New York Times article, "Bush lets us spy on callers without courts."
The chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Pat Roberts, a Republican of Kansas, has proposed that the administration's eavesdropping program be regulated by a special intelligence court.
The Long Island protesters support oversight of the president's wiretapping program. Felicia McCable-O'Hara of Levittown said, "I'm horrified over the wiretapping. We have a system of checks and balances in the United States, which is being violated."
Members of Moveon.org, a liberal political action committee, organized more than 250 protests against the wiretapping program throughout the country.
Mannix is a seventh-grade social-studies teacher at Great Neck Middle School. He said, "I teach the Constitution every year. As a result of the National Security Agency's programs of surveillance without the judicial branch's oversight, I was having an increasingly more difficult time convincing the students that the guiding principle in the Constitution of checks and balances was still operative..."
Supporters of Nassau County Legislator Dave Denenberg, a Democrat of Merrick, spoke at the rally, advocating for Denenberg's election as the 3rd District representative. Carl Flatow of Oceanside distributed fliers asking for contributions to the Denenberg campaign. Denenberg did not attend the protest. Of the president's wiretapping program, he said, "The judicial branch must oversee this and clarify the laws governing when wiretapping is legal and when it is not. It is their prerogative to decide when the executive branch is acting without constitutional authority."
Flatow said, "We were there because we feel that Congressman King, as chairman of the Homeland Security [Committee], is responsible for helping us defend the Constitution. He is responsible for helping us to retain our rights."
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