Wiretapping, Part 2

On this morning's edition of Meet the Press on NBC, I hear from members of Congress that they knew the operational details - some, if not all - of the wiretapping program that has drawn so much fire. So, I'll have to retract the comment I made yesterday about Bush not informing congressional officials about the program.

The more interesting part is that Senator Roberts, who has defended the president's authority to implement the surveillance program, said that the Bush Administration was targeting the calls of known Al-Qaeda operatives outside the country who were making calls into the United States. His comments seem to confirm Cal Thomas's position that the NSA was listening not to random Americans, but only to those Americans who have ties to known Al-Qaeda operatives.

If this is true, then - as I said yesterday - I'm glad to know the effort is more targeted than we may have originally been told. However, I'm still left wondering why, if the efforts are targeted, the NSA can't get approval from the FISA court in the 72 hour window allowed in the law after the surveillance has been conducted.

I also disagree with defenders of the president's program that disclosing the program has hurt national security.

I think that it's better that Al-Qaeda operatives know we have the technology to listen in on them - and that we are. Since they will never know when there conversation is the one to be monitored, they will chill their own communications and thus we can disrupts their plans.

This is not unlike our own military or intelligence services avoiding unsecured lines so they won't tip off anyone who may be monitoring those devices.

And frankly, I would much rather chill - or, preferably stop - communications between Al-Qaeda members rather than let it go on and hope that the NSA detects some information that may be of use in stopping an attack. If the NSA misses the information, then the effects can be devastating. But if we stop the communication - or make communication more difficult - then we may be able to stop the planning in its tracks.