Bush Goes on Offensive

President Bush chastised critics of his illegal surveillance program and tried to turn the spotlight on those who revealed it: "The existence of this secret program was revealed in media reports after being improperly given to news organizations," Bush said. "Unauthorized disclosure damages our national security and puts our nation at risk. "Revealing this information is illegal." Of course the New York Times went to extraordinary lengths for the administration, enabling the activity by sitting on the story for a year at the government's request. The Washington Post was just as accomodating with the CIA prison scandal. There's an emergency warrant system in place for domestic surveillance. For reasons unknown it wasn't followed. There's every indication the law was broken by the President personally, so it's no great mystery to see him shooting at the messenger. He shouldn't be angry—he should be worried. From James Bamford, a writer who was once threatened by the NSA for researching a book: "I didn't hear him specify any legal right, except his right as president, which in a democracy doesn't make much sense," Bamford said in an interview. "Today, what Bush said is he went around the law, which is a violation of the law — which is illegal."