Spies, lies: no surprise

There is a simple explanation for the inconsistencies in Bushco's rationale for illegal spying: they're lying their asses off. They know the public would demand an end to wiretaps, even impeachment, if they knew the NSA was indiscriminately listening in on their calls to 1-900-BLOW-JOB.

Limiting NSA Spying Is Inconsistent With Rationale, Critics Say

...The committee's debate highlighted one of the most significant apparent contradictions in the administration's defense of the spying program, under which the National Security Agency intercepts some calls to and from the United States and contacts overseas.

Many national security law experts said yesterday that the distinction makes little sense legally, because the administration concluded that President Bush has the constitutional authority to order wiretaps on U.S. citizens and residents without court approval.

Once that threshold is crossed, numerous experts said yesterday, there is little reason to limit the kind of calls that can be intercepted. It is irrelevant where the other contact is located, they said.

"The rationale for this surveillance has nothing to do with anything tied to
a border," said Geoffrey R. Stone, a University of Chicago law professor critical of the administration's legal justifications for the NSA program.

"There's no pragmatic reason and no principled reason why, if it is okay for NSA to listen in on phone calls between someone in Detroit and Pakistan without a warrant, they also can't listen in on a phone call between Detroit and New York," Stone said.

Bruce Fein, a deputy attorney general in the Reagan administration who is among a number of prominent Republican critics of the NSA program, said the argument underscores what he views as a lack of consistency in the administration's legal arguments.

"If it's good enough for international calls, then it should be good enough for domestic calls, too," Fein said.

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