Presidential Power and Domestic Intelligence Essay

Presidential Power and Domestic Intelligence - Essay Example of 1978 was implemented to guide the people on how to request for a judicial authorization before an electronic surveillance or physical search on a person can be done (FAS, 2012). Based on the original F.I.S.A. guidelines, the local government should first request for a judicial authorization before conducting an electronic surveillance or a physical search on a suspected person. During the Bush administration, there was a conflicting legal issue with regards to the latest intelligence collection practices and the F.I.S.A. guidelines. To correct the gap between the legal issue on electronic surveillance and the actual practice of warrantless domestic wiretapping of phones, tracking of messages from the Internet, the president went out of his way to persuade the Congress to support the need to amend the origninal guidelnes on F.I.S.A. (PBS, 2007). Based on the conversation between Bill Moyers with Fritz Schwarz and Charles Fried, it is clear that Bush was actually manipulating the Congress so that the president can do whatever he decided to do. Even though something is not legal, Bush was using his authoritative power to control the people around the Congress without the knowledge of the local citizens. Regardless of whether or not Bush’s strategy to control terrorism has been effective in serving its purpose, I think that the Bush administration went too far in reforming the domestic intelligence