How Warrentless Wiretapping Won

Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus at the Post offer a narrative on page one this morning of how the White House convinced Congress to give up the Fourth Amendment for six months.

In sum, the White House employed lies and fear-mongering to cow enough congressional democrats into caving, though democrats were able to get a six-month sunset clause into the bill, the "Protect America Act of 2007."

As is the wont of the Post news editors, you have to read between the lines of its neutered, neutral language to see the duplicity of the administration. The piece is similar in that respect to the Times August 7 analysis by Jim Rutenberg, "Bush Still Wields the Threat of Terrorism."

Some highlights from the Post:

How the Spying Fight Was Won
White House used terror threat to resurrect Cold War-era wiretap powers over Democrat objections.

Yet both sides acknowledge that the administration's resurrection of virtually unchecked Cold War-era power to surveil foreign targets without warrants may be only temporary. The law expires in 180 days, and Democrats, smarting from their political defeat, have promised to alter it with new legislation to be prepared next month, when Congress returns from its recess.

"The real train wreck happens in September," said a senior administration official involved in the negotiations with Congress. He was referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's declaration hours after the bill's passage that portions are "unacceptable" and that the public will not want to wait six months "before corrective action is taken."

Until September -- and possibly for much longer -- the new law will enable the high-tech collection of foreign communications without judicial scrutiny on a vastly larger scale than previously possible, allowing billions of phone calls and e-mails inside as well as outside the United States to be routinely screened for possible links to terrorism and other security threats.

Congressional, administration and intelligence officials last week described the events leading up to the approval of this surveillance, including a remarkable series of confrontations that ended with McConnell and the White House outmaneuvering the Democratic-controlled Congress, partly by capitalizing on fresh reports of a growing terrorism threat.
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