The NSA spying story has just gotten worse:

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 – In the anxious months after the Sept. 11 attacks,
the National Security Agency began sending a steady stream of telephone
numbers, e-mail addresses and names to the F.B.I. in search of terrorists.
The stream soon became a flood, requiring hundreds of agents to check out
thousands of tips a month.

But virtually all of them, current and former officials say, led to dead
ends or innocent Americans.

F.B.I. officials repeatedly complained to the spy agency that the
unfiltered information was swamping investigators. The spy agency was
collecting much of the data by eavesdropping on some Americans’
international communications and conducting computer searches of phone and
Internet traffic. Some F.B.I. officials and prosecutors also thought the
checks, which sometimes involved interviews by agents, were pointless
intrusions on Americans’ privacy.

As the bureau was running down those leads, its director, Robert S.
Mueller III, raised concerns about the legal rationale for a program of
eavesdropping without warrants, one government official said. Mr. Mueller
asked senior administration officials about “whether the program had a
proper legal foundation,” but deferred to Justice Department legal opinions,
the official said.

View complete article

here.

This really gives us a look into how big the NSA wiretapping program is. For
them to be monitoring enough calls that it was bogging down the F.B.I. that
means they were listening in on thousands of Americans.

The argument of the legalities of this program are now heading to court, or
actually two courts:

NEW YORK – Civil liberties groups filed lawsuits in two cities Tuesday
seeking to block President Bush’s domestic eavesdropping program, arguing
the electronic surveillance of American citizens was unconstitutional.

The U.S. District Court lawsuits were filed in New York by the Center for
Constitutional Rights and in Detroit by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The New York suit, filed on behalf of the center and individuals, names
President Bush, the head of the National Security Agency, and the heads of
the other major security agencies, challenging the NSA’s surveillance of
persons within the United States without judicial approval or statutory
authorization.

It seeks an injunction that would prohibit the government from conducting
surveillance of communications in the United States without warrants.

The Detroit suit, which also names the NSA, was filed with the ACLU along
with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Greenpeace and several
individuals.

Article continues
here.

This at least gets the ball in motion for judges to rule on the wiretapping.
If they rule it illegal then we know Bush broke the law. Of course they will
appeal all the way up to the Supreme Court and who knows what will be decided
there once Alito is sitting on the bench.

Considering the fact Bush had his smear machine out in full force yesterday
to try and rebuke the comments of Al Gore, they must be really worried.
Think
Progress has more on that.