This article from today's New York Times punches big holes in the Bush Administrations defense of their NSA spying activities. My favorite quote from the article is:
... in bureau field offices, the N.S.A. material continued to be viewed as unproductive, prompting agents to joke that a new bunch of tips meant more "calls to Pizza Hut," one official, who supervised field agentsSo now we have several sources stating that the program was not "limited" in scope and that the information gathered was basically a wild goose chase of busy work for the NSA and FBI - and in reality the program probably made the nation less safe.
One more point that I haven't heard any speculation about - What is the likelihood that Bush or his minions were spying on Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame during the time of the now infamous leak? How likely is it that Fitzgerald is asking this very same question?
I haven't had time to think this through fully, but it sure seems likely to have happened. We know that the Whitehouse was incredibly worried about Wilson. It appears that Bush had already approved the domestic spying. It is not much of a leap. Could this end up as part of the CIA leak investigation?
Let me know if I'm crazy or if this seems plausible.
Unless one of the whistleblowers at the NSA reveals that they were directed to spy on Wilson, or Wilson files a lawsuit over it which allows details about him to be brought forward, I doubt we would ever find out.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me that Fitz is unlikely to go there on his own, as it would basically mean starting an entirely separate line of investigation.
Then again, if someone in the Administration knew and tipped him off to it. Who knows?
If it could be shown that Bush used the NSA to spy on his political enemies (instead of just potential terrorists), that would definitely get him impeached though.
Just for fun, I posed this question on a related thread at firedoglake. I'm wondering if Wilson has ever said he suspects that he was being wiretapped. Since there are lots of hardcore plameologists there, perhaps someone will come up with something.
ReplyDeleteI'll report any response I get.