I sometimes wish I had a TV. I have heard the audiotapes of Bill O'Reilly's insinuation that the recent terror arrests vindicated the actions of the NSA, and I would have been interested in seeing the smug satisfaction that this Bush shill had in this.

But Bill O'Reilly's satisfaction wasn't as justified as he thought it was.

Yes, the NSA DID obtain information about the terror plot through its surveillance techniques. But while the process of data mining was somewhat vindicated, the process of warrantless wiretaps was not. In fact, the latter practice may have been dealt a crushing blow.

You see, lost in all of this shuffle was the fact that warrants WERE obtained. And they were obtained through (drumroll please...) the FISA courts. The very courts that were established for this very reason: to give law enforcement the secrecy it needed and yet still provide a safeguard for the Constitutional rigths of Americans. The demand that it is impossible to intercept communications aong terrorists unless we are given the right to disregard the 4th amendment was dealt a crushing blow as this incident proved definitively that the system DOES work.

Many in the Bush camp would have you believe that there is no possible way they can protect you without stripping you of your liberties; liberties which were won through hard struggle, and which, oddly enough, many Americans are all too willing to surrender. But the recent terror arrests, brought about by working WITHIN legal channels, would seem to indicate otherwise.