Washington Times
by Nat Hentoff

01/09/06

As Congress begins to look into the president's authorization of the National Security Agency's warrantless searches of e-mails and phone calls into -- and out of -- the United States, a question many Americans are asking was posed to the president at a Dec. 19 press conference by Peter Baker of The Washington Post: 'If the global war on terrorism is to last for decades ... does that mean we're going to see ... a more or less permanent expansion of the unchecked power of the executive branch in American society?' The president had no direct answer, but he did say it was 'shameful' of the New York Times to break this story. However, the more we know about the porous nature of the president's defense of his authorization of the NSA's bypassing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court, it's becoming clearer that the New York Times should not have held the story for a year at the Bush administration's request...

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20060108-102309-6546r.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp