The Failed Pacifist

Bush Authorized Spying on Americans

The New York Times is reporting that President Bush signed an order in 2002 authorizing the NSA to spy on Americans, without the court-approved warrants normally required for domestic spying. The monitoring has included telephone calls and emails, and is said to represent a major shift in the information gathering practices of American spy agencies, particularly the NSA.

"This is really a sea change," said a former senior official who specializes in national security law. "It's almost a mainstay of this country that the N.S.A. only does foreign searches."

The White House asked the NY Times to not publish the story. The paper complied for a year, "to conduct additional reporting", and the final story omits information which is considered useful to terrorists.

posted by Doran @ 7:54 AM