This Is Wire Tap

First we learned that George W. Bush was talking about invading Iraq before September 11. Then we learned that the Patriot Act was written before September 11. Now, via Americablog, we learn that the National Security Agency wanted to monitor phone calls of U.S. citizens before September 11. The U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc. to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lawyers claimed June 23 in court papers filed in New York federal court. The allegation is part of a court filing adding AT&T, the nation's largest telephone company, as a defendant in a breach of privacy case filed earlier this month on behalf of Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. customers. The suit alleges that the three carriers, the NSA and President George W. Bush violated the Telecommunications Act of 1934 and the U.S. Constitution, and seeks money damages. "The Bush Administration asserted this became necessary after 9/11," plaintiff's lawyer Carl Mayer said in a telephone interview. "This undermines that assertion." It seems that the Bush administration isn't really all that interested in defending the U.S. from terrorists. What they are interested in is a convenient excuse.