Spy vs. Spy

Reports: Bush Authorized NSA to Spy in U.S.:

The National Security Agency has eavesdropped, without warrants, on as many 500 people inside the United States at any given time since 2002, The New York Times reported Friday.

That year, following the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush authorized the NSA to monitor the international phone calls and international e-mails of hundreds — perhaps thousands — of people inside the United States, the Times reported...

But some NSA officials were so concerned about the legality of the program that they refused to participate, the Times said. Questions about the legality of the program led the administration to temporarily suspend it last year and impose new restrictions.

On Friday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was asked about the program...,

"The president acted lawfully in every step that he has taken," Rice said, "to defend the American people and to defend the people within his constitutional responsibility."

Caroline Fredrickson, director of the Washington legislative office of the
American Civil Liberties Union, said the group's initial reaction to the NSA disclosure was "shock that the administration has gone so far in violating American civil liberties to the extent where it seems to be a violation of federal law."

Of course, his consitutional responsibility includes upholding the letter and the spirit of the constitution itself. But he's been derelict in that duty for a long, long time.

Now watch conservatives, who no longer have any core principles that I can discern (other than power for the sake of power), rush to the President's defense in allowing a spy agency to eavesdrop on American citizens without a warrant.

Ben Franklin rolls in his grave.