The Spying Program: Deal Or No Deal?
(CBS)
The continuing saga over the legal legitimacy of the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program is a story that has been underreported recently. And that’s probably because for a few months anyway there seemed to be harmony between the branches over the extent to which the White House could undertake its spy program with and without Congressional oversight.
In January, the White House relented to legal and political pressure and agreed to again go through the super-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act courts for permission to wiretap people believed to be terror suspects (or people at least believed to be talking to people believed to be terror suspects). Even though the executive branch was squirrelly about sharing the details of its deal with the FISA Court, even though Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales initially stonewalled, the legislators seemed mostly satisfied that at least the court would provide some sort of oversight to check the worst excesses of the program.
Now let’s fast forward to Tuesday...
Author Thomas Friedman on Obama's Afghanistan plan and the war on terror.
