[amutr22]

"My take, from following all the debates on TV and radio, is whether the "tapping" is for legal prosecution or battlefield intelligence."

Thanks PJ---just trying to sort through all this.

Where would this issue of what the purpose of the tapping is be defined?

And why is the issue of US citizen vs Foreign Citizen continually brought up? These things will bother me as I want to be sure my defense of this action is correct.

[Political Junkie Too]

Specifically, the issue is that the President authorized tapping of conversations where one end of the call was in a foreign country and the other end was in the United States. Furthermore, they say that the call has to come from a suspected number, gathered from other intelligence. It's not a random snooping of phone calls.

Also, the term "American" and "American citizen" is being loosely tossed around. No one said for sure that the person on the USA side of the call was, in fact, a citizen. It could just as easily be an illegal alien on the line.

Finally, they say that the purpose of the tapping is not for prosecution, but to stop a terrorist attack. Nothing they gather would be usable in court.

-PJ