NY Times Bombshell: Bush Authorized Secret Wiretaps

“Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.(Registration Required)

Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the intelligence agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an effort to track possible “dirty numbers” linked to Al Qaeda, the officials said. The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications. “

Here is a link to a yahoo story on the issue.

TheStateOf . . . Government Power. The NY Times withheld this article for one year after a request from the White House. The White House claimed the story could damage national security.