A Tale of the Nastiness Behind Wiretaps

The Washington Post had a two-part series about the behind the scenes battle over the Bush administration's domestic wiretapping program. The series started here and finished here.

Here is my favorite quote:

"The analysis is flawed, in fact facially flawed," Comey said. "No lawyer reading that could reasonably rely on it."

Gonzales said nothing. Addington stood by the window, over Cheney's shoulder. He had heard a bellyful.

"Well, I'm a lawyer and I did," Addington said, glaring at Comey.

"No good lawyer," Comey said

Awesome stuff. As the Libertarian Party's Platform states:

The defense of the country requires that we have adequate intelligence to detect and to counter threats to domestic security. This requirement must not take priority over maintaining the civil liberties of our citizens. The Bill of Rights provides no exceptions for a time of war. Intelligence agencies that legitimately seek to preserve the security of the nation must be subject to oversight and transparency.

Amen, brothers and sisters. This idea that the government's powers should be limited is one of the things the Republicans are supposed to value, but they discard the principle anytime it's an inconvenient obstruction to them.

Let's hear it for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who are suing the NSA, Bush, and Cheney.