Gonzales Speaks

The Attorney General came out with his justification of the NSA domestic spying program today. $Q: "Our position is that the authorization to use military force which was passed by the Congress shortly after Sept. 11 constitutes that authority," said Gonzales. It will be interesting to see if he can get more specific. The resolution was not a Declaration of War, and there's nothing in it that gives the Commander in Chief the power to break domestic law as he sees fit. More ... Gonzales defended Bush's decision not to seek warrants from the secretive Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court, saying that "we don't have the speed and the agility that we need in all circumstances to deal with this new kind of enemy." FISC was created specifically to address this urgency—its mandate requires at least one of its judges to be based in D.C. for this very reason. The administration is going to have to put some more substance into their defense if they expect to stem the growing chorus of criticism over the NSA affair.