604

You may have missed this story that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published on Christmas Eve. It explains the mystery of why the Bush administration sidestepped the FISA court, which virtually never saw a warrant application it didn't like or approve:

Government records show that the administration was encountering unprecedented second-guessing by the secret federal surveillance court when President Bush decided to bypass the panel and order surveillance of U.S.-based terror suspects without the court's approval.

A review of Justice Department reports to Congress shows that the 26-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court modified more wiretap requests from the Bush administration than from the four previous presidential administrations combined.

When it comes to granting warrants, the FISA court reminds me of what they used to call the most popular girls at school — easy. Since 1978, the court has rejected just five of about 19,000 requests for wiretaps or search warrants. Nevertheless, this administration apparently couldn't have its way with the court as often as it liked, so it simply took matters in its own hands.