http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/17/politics/17spy.html?ei=5094.
I don't think most people Democrat or Republican appreciate the depth of trouble Bush has placed himself in by admiting his DIRECT involvement in the NSA spying program. Bush has essentially admitted to committing a crime that can and will very soon be proven to have effected ordinary citizens. Put aside a second the question of whether what Bush did is right or wrong. The fact still remains that Bush clearly violated the statutue as laid out in the F.I.S.A law. Furthermore they have commited this violation of the law for reasons that do not meshed with conventional reasoning. The Bush administration argues that they did not follow the law because of the pressing need for urgent information following the Sept 11th attacks. However the F.I.S.A statue allows for such wiretapping to be conducted WITHOUT a warrant so long as the government applies for one within 72 hours. In other words they broke the law even though according to their argument they did not need to . Which begs the question, Why did they ? What if the information the Bush administration was getting from the N.S.A. was so thin and unreliable that they knew no court would ever issue a warrant for it ? What if the N.S.A interceptors were allowed to eavesdrop on communications totally related to terrorists but totally unrelated to commiting terrorist acts. For example. A lawyer who represents a client being accused of plotting an attack in this country calls the client's mother in saudi arabia to discuss his client's case. Under the executive order that Bush signed the N.S.A could intercept his communications even though neither the lawyer or the mother was involved in planning attacks. Sound familar? Thats exactly what the Times reported.
Furthermore there's the matter of using this information in a legal court. How can information that was obtained illegally be used in a lawful proceding? By obtaining the information illegally Bush has effectively prevented that information from being used against an enemy of this country. In other words someone who wants to attack the United States could walk free because the information used to investigate them was obtained in a illegal way. In other words the program itself is a danger to national security because it could make it more difficult to put REAL terrorist in prison.