Speaking of Outsourcing

The question I keep coming back to is why is the FISA procedure so inconvenient? The answer I keep arriving at is that FISA's "probable cause" threshold is the problem - not the time issue.

This administration has a history of close cooperation with conservative interest groups and PACs when they are on the campaign trail. They also work closely with these groups when forming and implementing policy. Is there really any reason to believe they aren't working with them now? Imagine a conservative interest group with a particular specialization in "monitoring" academics who's politics are insufficiently pro-American/Pro-Israel. Such a group exists. It's called "Campus Watch" and they see their mission as stamping out left-wing bias on campus. Here is the link to their survey of colleges and universities. Clicking on the links to different universities' names gives you a list of "articles" that have been approved by Campus Watch.

Now imagine that Campus Watch finds a professor who talks a lot about his Arab background and various political activities he engaged in back home in wherever. Imagine that's all they've got (a rumor from a conservative self-appointed watchdog group). Imagine they want to tap this guys phone on the assumption that if he's a Middle East Studies professor and he's an Arab and he's politically active, then he MUST be a terrorist. Just paranoid ramblings? Check this out!

Ever since I first heard about Campus Watch I've been worried that they would cooperate with an unrestrained Bush administration to illegally monitor and harass professors with whom they disagree. The pieces are now in place. Campus Watch is watching you like a hawk. The NSA, Military Intelligence and FBI are conducting secret investigations of US citizens that don't meet probable cause standards. The only thing missing is a clear link between the two. Is that what Bush is hiding by not going to FISA?

Bush says that even having hearings "helps the terrorists." He clearly does not want this looked into. Should we ASSUME he's avoiding oversight because of genuine concern for a smooth running operation? I have just one thing to say about that...Yellowcake.