Secret Spying Update

From the Associated Press:

Congressional intelligence committees had at least a hint in October 2001 that the National Security Agency was expanding its surveillance activities after the 9/11 attacks, according to a letter released Tuesday by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

The California Democrat had raised questions to Gen. Michael Hayden, then the NSA director, about the legal authority to conduct the eavesdropping work.

In the October 2001 letter, Pelosi said she was told in a briefing that month that the agency "had been operating since the Sept. 11 attacks with an expansive view" of its authorities "to the conduct of electronic surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and related statutes, orders, regulations and guidelines."

So...once again, old news is suddenly new news because some bonehead thought they could score political points...

Let's remember what this is all about:

President Bush has acknowledged he authorized the NSA to eavesdrop — without warrants — on international calls and e-mails of Americans and others inside the United States with suspected ties to al-Qaida or its affiliates.

"I can say that if somebody from al-Qaida is calling you, we'd like to know why," Bush said this week. "This program is conscious of people's civil liberties, as am I."

Emphasis added. And that is a great quote that really brings this issue in to focus. This isn't a matter of Big Borther monitoring your calls to Aunt Ethel...this is a program designed to connect dots and prevent attacks. That used to be important to Democrats when they thought they could score political points with that too, remember?

A series of independent commissions have encouraged national security agencies to improve cooperation. But it is far from clear in the letter how this work may be happening.

Said Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert with the Federation of American Scientists: "It does seem that the NSA is doing something different and in a different way than what it has done before."

Some of us think that's a good thing...