Echelon v. NSA: A Wiretapping Story

The American Thinker has more details on how the NYT supported Echelon, which included spying on American citizens, though it had some misgivings, but harshly criticizes the NSA program under the Bush Administration where the focus is wholly on foreign terrorists who are attempting contacts in the US. And there were reports that the Clinton Administration was abusing the program by using it for political purposes:

Even as the Times defended Echelon as “a necessity” in 1999, evidence already existed that electronic surveillance had previously been misused by the Clinton Administration for political purposes. Intelligence officials told Insight Magazine in 1997 that a 1993 conference of Asian and Pacific world leaders hosted by Clinton in Seattle had been spied on by U.S. intelligence agencies. Further, the magazine reported that information obtained by the spying had been passed on to big Democrat corporate donors to use against their competitors. The Insight story added that the mis-use of the surveillance for political reasons caused the intelligence sources to reveal the operation.

Compare the relative silence and assent to the program during the Clinton years to the frenzy today during the Bush Administration.

Hat Tip: Mark Levin via his radio show on 77WABC.

AJ Strata has new polling data that suggests that the NSA wiretapping story just isn't working for opponents of the Bush Administration. Macsmind concurs.