Sunday, January 20, 2008

In early 2002 President Bush issued a secret executive order authorizing the National Security Agency to engage in electronic eavesdropping, without judicial warrant, on phone calls between Americans and foreign nationals.

The president's action was dubious legality: He had failed to abide by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which provides a court to oversee government domestic spying in the name of national security.