Want to bet this ever-so-significant detail changes nothing for those with Bush Derangement Syndrome?

Two judges on the secretive court that approves warrants for intelligence surveillance were told of the broad monitoring programs that have raised recent controversy, a Republican senator said Tuesday, connecting a court to knowledge of the collecting of millions of phone records for the first time.

President Bush, meanwhile, insisted the government does not listen in on domestic telephone conversations among ordinary Americans. But he declined to specifically discuss the compiling of phone records, or whether that would amount to an invasion of privacy.

USA Today reported last week that three of the four major telephone companies had provided information about millions of Americans' calls to the National Security Agency. However, Verizon Communications Inc. denied on Tuesday that it had been asked by the agency for customer information, one day after BellSouth said the same thing.

Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said that at least two of the chief judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had been informed since 2001 of White House-approved National Security Agency monitoring operations.

"None raised any objections, as far as I know," said Hatch, a member of a special Intelligence Committee panel appointed to oversee the NSA's work.

So the FISA court was in on this from the beginning. That should be enough to lay to rest the "illegal spying meme" -- if truth is a consideration for those propagating it.

But, as we have seen time and again, truth is not a factor for those seeking to undermine Bush by undermining the war against jihadi Muslims.

Posted by: Greg at 10:34 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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