Hmmmm

[grunion]

I'm not currently inclined to further research the matter right this moment, but this article in the Chicago Tribune seems to argue that the president does in fact have the authority to order what he's come out and admitted he ordered the NSA to do.

Comments

[darklordskippy]

Seems to support my ideas of the situation. If its citizen to non-citizen, its legal.

Citizen to citizen would be a law violation.

[paravati]

I think it's a load of horse pucky. Just another way for Bush to trample all over our civil rights and make up some bullshit as to why it's 'necessary to combat terror".

Did you notice that after the conference show, they had the big news story about hundreds of pounds of plastic explosives somehow being "stolen" from a solidly encased in metal bunker?

It felt like to me he was saying, "Here, let me violate your civil rights, but look, I really needed to, because now there's this supposedly "stolen" explosive material on the rampage here in the US.

Riiiiight.

[grunion]

Oh, I'm not even starting to debate the need for the actions or the appropriateness of them, only the legality.

There is a WIDE difference from 'right and proper' to 'legal'. As it is now, I'll worry more about the legality until more solid information can be provided. THEN I'll actually start on how needed such sources of intel were/are.

I didn't see the conference or the news afterward. There is NO shortage of plastic explosives in this country, or in most others. The tough part for those "of nefarious intent" is using the materials they can get. Thankfully, intent is not always easy to convert to action and is even more difficult to convert into repeatable action (once people go b00m, they seldom do it again).