Bush's circumventing of the 1st Amendment

"As President, I took an oath to defend the Constitution, and I have no greater responsibility than to protect our people, our freedom, and our way of life. On September the 11th, 2001, our freedom and way of life came under attack by brutal enemies who killed nearly 3,000 innocent Americans. We're fighting these enemies across the world. Yet in this first war of the 21st century, one of the most critical battlefronts is the home front. And since September the 11th, we've been on the offensive against the terrorists plotting within our borders."-Bush in his December 17, 2005 radio address

Apparently, President Bush has a strange definition off what protecting "our freedom [and] our way of life". The USA Patriot Act was passed on October 25, 2001 with a vote in the Senate on the conference bill (HR 3162) of 98-1 (with Mary Landrieu (D-LA) abstaining and Russ Feingold (D-WI) voting against). The USA Patriot Act revised two facets of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). It extended the length of the wiretaps and the liability of those who comply with the wiretaps. The Patriot Act maintains the restriction "That no United States person may be considered a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power solely upon the basis of activities protected by the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States". Bush states that:

"In the weeks following the terrorist attacks on our nation, I authorized the National Security Agency, consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution, to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations. Before we intercept these communications, the government must have information that establishes a clear link to these terrorist networks."

However, the NSA could have undertaken the same surveillance activities with a warrant (the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) finds that only four requests were denied since FISA was enacted, and even those four were just modified). The warrants can be obtained within hours, but as noted above, cannot be obtained for U.S. persons "solely upon the basis of activities protected by the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States"
According to the NSA website, U.S. persons are legally defined as:

* a citizen of the United States
* an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence
* an unincorporated association with a substantial number of members who are citizens of the U.S. or are aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence
* a corporation that is incorporated in the U.S.

Bush later goes on to note that:

"As the 9/11 Commission pointed out, it was clear that terrorists inside the United States were communicating with terrorists abroad before the September the 11th attacks, and the commission criticized our nation's inability to uncover links between terrorists here at home and terrorists abroad. Two of the terrorist hijackers who flew a jet into the Pentagon, Nawaf al Hamzi and Khalid al Mihdhar, communicated while they were in the United States to other members of al Qaeda who were overseas. But we didn't know they were here, until it was too late."

However, as the 9/11 Commission report notes, the two hijackers Bush mentioned were "instructed Hazmi and Mihdhar to pose as newly arrived Saudi students". They would not be covered under the U.S. persons exemption to the FISA Act, and so this example rings hollow unless information on them was based on first amendment-protected activities of a U.S. person. In essence, Bush told the NSA to spy on Americans outside of the FISA act because, in addition to violating the 4th amendment, he wanted to avoid the protections FISA provides for the 1st amendment. His assurance that he would "do everything in [his] power under our laws and Constitution" rings quite hollow.