Now, on to wiretapping!

Glenn Greenwald from Salon and Ryan Singel from Wired's Threat Level blog take Time columnist (and pseudonymous author of Primary Colors) Joe Klein to the cleaners.

Klein, in a recent column published in the print edition of Time, makes ridiculous assertions about propsed updates to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, including the assertion that the government is required by FISA to get warrants for wholly foreign communications. As Greenwald and Singel point out, FISA has never required this, and will never require this, because it doesn't even make sense. The government doesn't need permission from U.S. courts to spy abroad on nationals of other countries. Klein makes several other stupid statements, which only cause problems for those of us on the left who want to be credible. It's hard to be credible when people associated with you are making statements that aren't true, especially if those statements are out of ignorance. How, then, can we be trusted?

Greenwald correctly lambasts Klein for saying, regarding immunity for telecom companies that capitulated to the Bush administration and illegally gave away subscriber information without a warrant, that he favors "selective immunity to those telecoms who can provide written proof that they were acting in response to a direct order from the government."

Greenwald responds with an appropriate level of outrage:

Seriously, in what country does Joe Klein live? Can someone please explain to him that in the United States, the President doesn't have the power to give "direct orders" to violate the law? And what kind of person who isn't in the military runs around talking about "direct orders" from the American President at all? That isn't how our country works. Presidents obviously don't have the power to give "direct orders" to anyone to break the law, let alone civilians and private companies. Why does that even need to be explained?

That a supposed Democrat like Joe Klein would say that the president should be allowed to give "direct orders" is indeed frightening. But, if you read the rest of Greenwald's piece, you'll see that it comes to no surprise, as Klein is more than willing to compromise on individual liberty if it comes up against national security.

Incidentally, the government never ordered telecoms to give away information. You'll recall that Qwest Communications refused to comply with the government's request after its lawyers determined, correctly, that giving confidential subscriber information without a warrant was against the law. The rest of them capitulated for reasons that remain unknown (a desire to appear patriotic? Back-room promises of tax breaks or favorable legislation?). AT&T even famously created a secret room in its downtown San Francisco office for the sole purpose of allowing the NSA to monitor AT&T phone calls.

Happy thanksgiving!