Now please understand -- I fully believe the administration had the AUTHORITY to act as it did by ordering warrantless wiretaps in national security cases -- the Supreme Court determined that a quarter century ago in a case involving the Carter Administration. However, as a matter of politics, it would have been preferable to use the FISA court -- in order to avoid giving dishonest critics of the Administration and the War on Terror the ammunition they so desperately desired.

Now the Bush Administration is doing what it out to have done -- but it looks like a move made out of weakness.

The Bush administration, in a surprise reversal, said on Wednesday that it had agreed to give a secret court jurisdiction over the National Security AgencyÂ’s wiretapping program and would end its practice of eavesdropping without warrants on Americans suspected of ties to terrorists.

The Justice Department said it had worked out an “innovative” arrangement with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that provided the “necessary speed and agility” to provide court approval to monitor international communications of people inside the United States without jeopardizing national security.

The decision capped 13 months of bruising national debate over the reach of the presidentÂ’s wartime authorities and his claims of executive power, and it came as the administration faced legal and political hurdles in its effort to continue the surveillance program.

None of this is going to mollify Administration critics -- but it is going to look like the Administration is conceding their arguments. Wrong move at the wrong time -- which seems to be the story of the Bush Administration over the last year or so.

Posted by: Greg at 11:16 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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