"WH Keeping Tabs On People It Shouldn't Have Been Monitoring" (TPM) [View All]

[kpete]

That is a bit weird.

TPM Reader DK points me to this article http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/columnists/jonathan_s_landay/15032591.htm?source=rss&channel=krwashington_jonathan_s_landay by Jonathan Landay on the White House's agreement to submit its warrantless wiretap program to the scrutiny of the FISA court. Here are the second and third grafs (italics added) ...

By having the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court conduct the review instead of a regular federal court, the Bush administration would ensure the secrecy of details of the highly classified program. The administration has argued that making details of the program public would compromise national security.

However, such details could include politically explosive disclosures that the government has kept tabs on people it shouldn't have been monitoring.

Pretty high up in the piece that's quite a throaway line if that's all it is. After all, the details could included evidence of life on Mars too. Hell, anything's possible.

It sounds like Landay's pointing to the possibility that the White House has been using the program to monitor political opponents. (I'm not sure how else to interpret that line.) And you get the sense he's doing more than speculating.

-- Josh Marshall
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/009042.php