[Intelforum] Bush's Warrantless Wiretaps

[George W. Maschke]

At a press conference today, in defending his (in my opinion, clearly 
criminal) order to the National Security Agency to conduct warrantless 
wiretapping of the overseas communications of U.S. persons, President 
George W. Bush has suggested that the whistleblowers who reported this 
to the press had undermined national security by giving terrorists 
information about intelligence sources and methods. He invoked earlier 
press reports that the NSA had been monitoring a phone used by Osama bin 
Laden and how this press report had led bin Laden to stop using that phone.

But it is hard to see how the revelation of Bush's decision to order 
warrantless wiretapping is in any way comparable. It is no secret that 
the U.S. has the technical means to intercept electronic communications, 
and that domestically, this has been legally done under the Foreign 
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). How does the revelation that the 
NSA has also been illegally monitoring the communications of U.S. 
persons in any way aid terrorists?

I think that the whistleblowers who revealed this illegal domestic 
surveillance program to the press are to be commended, not condemned.

George W. Maschke