a) If you are not calling enemies or vice versa, then there is no justification for tapping your phone.....UNLESS your name and info appears in said terroist's rolodex or some other serious indicator that you belong to Al Quaeda.
The bottom line is this. If the feds know the numbers of the terrorists, then they should be able to mine the incoming and outgoing calls from that #. And if you or I are calling or recieving from that #, I believe it is neither unjust nor unreasonable for the feds to monitor those calls. Just because typical domestic surveillance requires a court order, does not mean that atypical wartime overseas communications fall under court purvue.
The CIC has lotsa constitutional power to conduct war as he deems necessary. It has been that way since the founding of the Republic.
You agree that, in order to tap the phones of US citizens who are NOT making or receiving calls to/from known terrorists and who do NOT have some "serious indicator that you belong to Al Qaeda" (your phrase), the US Government MUST obtain a warrant.
AND you agree that electronically monitoring, without a warrant, the phone calls of US citizens who do NOT fall within this category is ILLEGAL.
Is this correct?
By bypassing the existing oversight protocol, the administration has made it impossible to know whether this limit, or indeed any limit, is in fact observed.
That is why this nation was established with a President instead of a King.