Prior to 21st century America, had one group of officials tried to prevent their own government from discovering the plans of enemy agents hiding among the populace, they would have been tried for treason -- if they were lucky.

Had some members of Congress tried to prevent the government from tapping the phones of known Nazi collaborators during WWII, or attempted to protect the "right" of Confederate spies to pass information to the South during the Civil War, they would have been arrested. Unlike anything we've seen before, the Left is turning national security and the prosecution of a war against terrorists into political talking points.

Since shortly after 9/11, the NSA has been monitoring international phone calls to and from domestic phone numbers known to be affiliated with al-Qaeda associates. Without an easy way to communicate with al-Qaeda leaders overseas, another attack would be more difficult for terrorists to plan and execute. It was a wartime decision essential to our defense, and as such came directly under the authority of the President as commander-in-chief. Those who claim that the Legislative or Judicial branches of the Federal government should have control over military decisions are clearly unfamiliar with the Constitutional separation of powers, or how "efficiently" bureaucrats can run a war. The Left likes to pretend terrorism is merely a matter of civilian law enforcement, but this is a war, not an episode of CSI: Terrorism. Treating terrorism as a law enforcement matter, like jaywalking or stealing apples, is what allowed al-Qaeda to plan 9/11 so elaborately and secretly in the first place.

The fact that phone calls with al-Qaeda have been monitored is not news, though the Left seems to think it is. In 2002, the Associated Press reported that the government had "recently uncovered numerous calls from difficult-to-track prepaid cell phones, Internet-based phone service, prepaid phone cards and public pay phones in the United States to known al-Qaeda locations overseas." The story mentioned that the phone calls were "one piece of a growing body of evidence pointing to the presence of suspected members of terrorist sleeper cells operating on U.S. soil, and a growing sophistication on their part to keep their communications secret." The Left's response, three years later, is to attack the Bush administration for not having the proper paperwork on file when they eavesdropped on conversations with terrorists.

In fact, warrantless electronic surveillance has been done before, and since the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was signed in 1978. President Carter authorised wiretapping without requiring a court order in 1979. President Reagan authorised warrantless searches against agents of a foreign power. President Clinton authorised electronic surveillance without a warrant in 1995, as well as physical searches of property. Clinton's Deputy Attorney General, Jamie Gorelick, testified before the
Senate that the "Department of Justice believes, and the case law supports, that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes." Some may remember Gorelick as the person responsible for building up the wall between law enforcement agencies that kept them from sharing information they gathered during terrorism investigations.

But does electronic surveillance without a court-issued warrant violate the law? In 2002, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review examined the issue of warrantless surveillance. The Court noted that "all the other courts to have decided the issue, held that the President did have inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches to obtain foreign intelligence information." Is the President's authority under the Constitution limited by FISA? "We take for granted," the Court stated, "that the President does have that authority and, assuming that is so, FISA could not encroach on the President's constitutional power." Since that is precisely what FISA was created to do, doesn't that essentially make FISA itself unconstitutional?

And what of our Constitutional rights? There is, as yet, no evidence that American citizens were targeted for electronic surveillance, but what if they were? The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution protects us against "unreasonable searches and seizures." Is it unreasonable to tap phone numbers discovered in al-Qaeda databases?

Is it unreasonable to listen in on phone calls to or from known al-Qaeda locations?
The Left is merely ramping up paranoia, hoping that people fearful of government intrusion will vote the Big Government party into power in 2006 and 2008. The fact is that no one actually cares about your recipe exchanges with Aunt Sally, or how you complain about your boss and to whom. Unless your Aunt Sally is a known al-Qaeda operative in Pakistan, no one's even listening.

If Osama bin Laden calls me up from his Baluchistan hideout, however, you can bet I want the Feds taking notes. Moreover, I want them tracking the call to its source and sending every JDAM and MOAB in our inventory.

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Joe Mariani is a computer consultant born and raised in New Jersey. He now lives in Pennsylvania, where the gun laws are less restrictive and taxes are lower. Joe always thought of himself as politically neutral until he saw how far left the left had really gone after 9/11. His essays and links to articles are available at http://www.guardianwatchblog.com/