They ran every American through their algorithms, searching for targets in our phone calls and internet searches, trying to make sense of who called who, in order to find some sleeper cell inside the United States.

That is to say the Bush Administration ordered NSA turned its formidable capabilities upon Americans.

And now the Congress is set to legalize, bless and grant amnesty to this drift-net program.

There's been no real debate in Congress or in the press about whether the government should be allowed to track every Americans phone calls, emails and web browsing.

The debate shouldn't be about whether the government can wiretap purely foreign to foreign phone calls without court approval, since as we've just learned, that's never been the case.