An open letter to Andrew ‘Gribbit’ Richardson

Andrew:

It is said that ignorance is curable, but one would not know it to look at you. You are ignorant, happy to be ignorant, and determined to stay ignorant.

In your latest puddle of linguistic vomit, you ask the following question about the NSA warrantless wiretapping program:

What makes this illegal? Because they [the ACLU] say so?

No, you deliberate ignoramus. It’s illegal because it violates the law. That’s the definition of illegal.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, regulates the collection of foreign intelligence information in furtherance of U.S. counterintelligence. FISA requires that there must be probable cause to believe that a U.S. person’s activities “may” or “are about to” involve a violation of the criminal statutes of the United States before wiretapping that person’s communications (§ 1801(b)(2)(A),(B)).

FISA establishes a special court to review and approve requests for surveillance warrants, and the determination of probable cause, and thus the authorization for the warrant, is made by a judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). The NSA wiretapping program is illegal because no requests for these taps were made to the FISC. According to Section 1809 of FISA, an offense is committed if any person "engages in electronic surveillance under color of law except as authorized by statute" — that is, unless the wiretap is conducted in accordance with FISA. The Bush administration has already admitted that it has violated FISA.

So I think your question has been answered, Andrew. The NSA program isn’t illegal because anyone in the ACLU says so. It’s illegal because it violates the law. As Ed Brayton has noted, there are other problems with your asinine bleatings. But I sure hope this little lesson has cleared up the question of legality for you, because I don’t think this can be made any simpler.

Sincerely…

meatbrain