Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Thursday asked for answers on an obscure Pentagon agency that included reports on student anti-war protests and other peaceful civilian demonstrations in a database meant to detect terrorist activities.

"Under what circumstances can peaceful protests at universities or by anti-war groups be monitored?" Feinstein, D-Calif., wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

"What authorities, and under what regulations, do military counterintelligence units have to conduct investigations on U.S. persons?" she wrote.

The NSA story has completely snowed this one over. Instapundit posted an LA Times editorial by right winger "Max Boot" today exclaiming that it is totally irrelevant whether or not the NSA surveillance broke the law because there has been no political abuse of the surveillance system. We don't NEED laws 'cause we're the good guys! In fact, the Pentagon was caught running a program to surveil domestic political groups LAST MONTH!! Where have Glenn and Max been? Obviously somewhere with a lot of sand to stick their heads in.

AP Wire | 01/12/2006 | Senator questions Pentagon surveillance

Because of increased political partisanship, advances in communications technology and more numerous and competitive media, American government has become a sieve. No secrets concerning matters that would interest the public can be kept for long.

... so we no longer need structural checks and balances on government surveillance.... No, I'm serious, thats what this editorial offers, written by a 7th circuit justice!

Our Domestic Intelligence Crisis

A second former official said the program contributed to the apprehension of Lyman Faris, an Ohio truck driver who pleaded guilty in 2003 to charges of collaborating with al-Qaida on a plot to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge.

The DOJ has named a U.S. Citizen who was surveilled by the extra-FISA NSA program. This provides a platform for questions about Article II to actually be litigated in the court system, where they ought to be answered, rather then through impeachment of the President. This is a good thing from a technical perspective about the law.

However, the other question, which I haven't addressed, is whether or not this ought to be legally authorized. Domestic terrorism raises challenging questions. How do you deal with a situation where U.S. Citizens are involved in foreign terror plots in such a way that ensures that you succeed but prevents the system from running off of the rails and focusing on all manner of domestic political groups. One idea that I have is that instead of putting the court system between the wiretap and the wiretapper, put them between the wiretapper and the rest of the law enforcement system, ensuring that only information which is relevant to terrorism is actually passed across,

Congress demands answers about surveillance

My ultimate conclusion is that such radiation surveillance from outside the buildings should be constitutional, because what's an "unreasonable search" when looking for drugs (or even for evidence of murder) becomes reasonable when looking for radiation weapons.

This is an interesting discussion in relation to previous memestreams threads about particle privacy. I strongly reject the notion that you have no expectation of privacy in particles you emit that are not natually detectable by other humans. However, I recall hearing a rumor that the feds were monitoring all inbound roads toward DC for radiation, and I don't recall being concerned about this from a 4th amendment standpoint. Is this a slippery slope? If its effective and has a low false positive rate then I don't really think so.

The Volokh Conspiracy - Radiation Surveillance:

Of course, we want this to be solved diplomatically, and we want the Iranians to hear a unified voice.

What Bush actually said...

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Amazon.com: Visit from DHS!

The Army has approved a new, classified set of interrogation methods...

The techniques are included in a 10-page classified addendum to a new Army field manual...

Army and other Pentagon officials raised concerns that Mr. McCain would be furious at what could appear to be a back-door effort to circumvent his intentions.

"This is a stick in McCain's eye," one official.

Mr. McCain's measure, which the Senate has overwhelmingly approved, would require that only interrogation techniques authorized by the new Army field manual be used on prisoners held by the military....

New Army Rules May Snarl Talks With McCain on Detainee Issue - New York Times

Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.

Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts - New York Times

"It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong," Bush said during his fourth and final speech before Thursday's vote for Iraq's parliament. "As president I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq.

Bush's position sounds a lot stronger to me when he acknowledges its weaknesses. This is not a paradox. It shows objective consideration of alternatives.

CNN.com - Bush takes responsibility for invasion intelligence - Dec 14, 2005

Just three of 10 adults accept that Democrats are leveling criticism because they believe this will help U.S. efforts in Iraq. A majority believes the motive is really to "gain a partisan political advantage."

Sympathetic Vibrations