Free Republic

Congressional Quarterly just reported a highly secret National Security Agency wiretap report on Rep. Jane Harman. Wait. Before we get to the content of the wiretap, all you ACLU types should be hitting the ceiling in rage. Because NSA wiretaps are the most carefully protected, super-secret operations carried on by the Federal government. Even during the Bush Administration, when the CIA carried on an unconcealed war on the Bush policy in the War on Terror through selective and politically damaging leaks to the New York Times, no wiretap recordings were released. Wiretaps of Members of Congress are even more sensitive,...

WASHINGTON — A federal grand jury investigating leaks of classified information has summoned a former National Security Agency officer who says he talked to reporters about the agency's warrantless eavesdropping program. Russell Tice received a subpoena to testify next Wednesday to a grand jury that is meeting in Alexandria, Va. The subpoena was posted Friday on a Web site run by a whistleblowers' group to which Tice belongs. "The grand jury is conducting an investigation of possible violations of federal criminal laws involving the unauthorized disclosure of classified information," according to a letter that accompanied the subpoena.

In the aftermath of the New York Times's illegal disclosure of surveillance by the National Security Agency, the Senate now debates whether to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the law that formulates a procedure for the president to obtain warrants to wiretap foreign individuals and entities within the United States. The senators claim they are considering such legislation not to bury the NSA program, but to save it. It's time for a legal primer on the Constitution and national security law.In Article II, the Constitution establishes the president as commander in chief. As such he has inherent authority...