Ever:
The controversy over President Bush’s warrantless surveillance program took another surprise turn last week when a team of FBI agents, armed with a classified search warrant, raided the suburban Washington home of a former Justice Department lawyer. The lawyer, Thomas M. Tamm, previously worked in Justice’s Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR)—the supersecret unit that oversees surveillance of terrorist and espionage targets. The agents seized Tamm’s desktop computer, two of his children’s laptops and a cache of personal files. Tamm and his lawyer, Paul Kemp, declined any comment. So did the FBI. But two legal sources who asked not to be identified talking about an ongoing case told NEWSWEEK the raid was related to a Justice criminal probe into who leaked details of the warrantless eavesdropping program to the news media. The raid appears to be the first significant development in the probe since The New York Times reported in December 2005 that Bush had authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on the international phone calls and e-mails of U.S. residents without court warrants. (At the time, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said of the leak: “This is really hurting national security; this has really hurt our country.”)
Now that Tommy Chong is locked up, that will send the message our priorities are straight.
Cain
Yes, the dark hand of Cheney is reaching out.. Run for your lives!!
cain
myiq2xu
This last couple of weeks makes me wonder if the Republicans and the Democrats are having a contest to see which party can self-destruct first.
jake
They took his kid’s laptops? Dude, that’s weak.
Oh well, It’s nice to see they’re going after this leaker as vigorously as they went after the ne’er do well who blew Valerie Plame’s cover and buggered up a CIA operation in the process. I’m sure the Feeb is closing in on John Boehner as I type.
John Redworth
I thought AG Gonzo and his wild crew were too busy chasing down magazine shops that sold Hustlers to 17 year olds or looking for a way to throw Angela Jolie in prison for not doing an interview with FNC.
TenguPhule
And all I can think is “Congress folded to this guy anyway?”
Every passing day, I understand the Germans in the 1920s a little bit more.
Sirkowski
Did they lock up Tommy Chong again??
Eural
Absolutely spot on. Sadly.
Redhand
With the POS Bush has for an AG, nothing this Administration does surprises me.
Ditch Digger
Never take sides against the Family. Ever.
taodon
Yes, protecting our civil liberties DOES hurt America!
Joe Max
Naw, Tommy Chong is out. He did a great interview on MSNBC during the Paris Hilton sleezefest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYZJVnFP2CY
He hasn’t lost his edge.
ThymeZone
OT, but has anyone noticed that the full story of the “intolerant moderator” incident at YKos the other day is quite different from the nonsense version related here and discussed on another thread?
It looks like BJ, along with a lot of others, was pwned.
The Other Steve
It always is when you rely on Michelle Malkin for your facts.
TenguPhule
Corrected.
Tulkinghorn
As has been said before, “A little Anthrax goes a long way.”
jenniebee
Anybody else here see The Bourne Ultimatum over the weekend? The backlash has begun.
Wilfred
An investigation into the leak is a waste of taxpayer money. Just waterboard the guy’s kids until he confesses. There’s a war on, people, Homeland is threatened.
cleek
now that the political blogosphere has nothing left to offer but inter-blog skirmishes over meta-issues, it’s safe to say that it has jumped the shark.
taodon
No, I think it’s safe to say the phrase “jump the shark” has outlived it’s kitsch.
cleek
then by all means, feel free to substitute the preferred and officially-sanctioned equivalent phrase.
The Other Steve
It totally rocked. The action was outstanding, and the way the plot moved was cool.
Although, my girlfriend got sick watching the camera bounce around so much. So she didn’t much enjoy it.
BIRDZILLA
BIG BOTHER IS WATCHING YOU BIG BROTHER IS LISTENING TO YOU
Andrew
I haven’t seen it yet, but if I ever meet Paul Greengrass, I am going to shove a steadicam up his arse.
Hyperion
i guess someone forgot to wait until all the facts were known before deciding that the moderator…
BTW due to the limited blog roll here, i got a little crazy and visited LGFootballs for the first time in years (OK, 2 years) and every post on the front page was about this story…the original version.
John Cole
The information I was working with was from Ezra Klein.
I havn’t read LGF in a long while.
Paul L.
Just checking
So investigating the Plame “leak” was a good thing but investigating the NSA wiretap leak is bad?
HyperIon
yeah. so what.
WTF? me neither. which i stated explicitly.
but will you speak to what seems NOW to be at the core of the incident? which is: the prohibition against political activity while in uniform.
(i emphasize NOW because MAYBE there is still more context to be revealed. however, TZ’s link did flesh out the original snippet that Ezra Klein supplied.)
Zifnab
Jackalopes! They’re everywhere!
I don’t think anyone ever said investigating was bad, Paul. Feel free to quote where you read this, if I’m wrong. If the NSA wiretapping leaker is definitively outed (and we don’t even know if this is the guy, or if he’s just getting the rough treatment from the FBI on a suspicion), he should be granted whistle blower protection, because the wiretapping was illegal to begin with. That’s the difference between Plame and the wiretapping story. Plame wasn’t outed because she was committing a felony. The NSA was.
Don
Paul L:
Accepting for the moment your implied version of the double standard, it goes to motive, and ‘good’ leaks vs. ‘bad’. On one hand is a federal employee who leaked information on a program (or programs) whose details 8 senior DoJ officials were ready to resign over, and whose revelation embarrassed the White House. On the other we have the exposure by the White House of a senior CIA official (and by extension any related assets) in political retaliation, because of an embarassing revelation. Worse, a senior agent working WMD counter-proliferation. Keep that in mind the next time an administration shill goes on TV to scare the electorate with talk of dirty bombs and mushroom clouds over US cities.
But then, if both were leaks that potentially damaged national security, the FBI should have been duty-bound to investigate both with equal determination. I don’t remember hearing of any White House computers being seized or raids on Rove’s or Cheney’s offices or homes. Tamm will be roasted by the administration’s proxies over the allegations, while Scooter, found guilty by a jury of his peers of obstructing the Plame investigation, skated without jail time. The buck these days stops at the White House gates. Double standard, indeed.
Speaking of good and bad leaks, in this article on the investigation of Risen & Lichtblau’s anonymous source(s):
I love the smell of irony in the morning as much as the next political wonk, but the skeptic in me wonders for a moment whose leakers these are and if Tamm actually is being investigated for the Times leak, or if that’s just the message someone wants sent.
Perry Como
If you do cross the family, they may use strappado on you.
No joke, the US is using “enhanced interrogation” techniques common in the middle ages.
Wilfred
With plenty of new tricks, too – New Yorker full treatment of secret prisons
Crust
IIRC, it is legal to leak classified information if it concerns illegal activity by the government. So that would make an interesting case: it might force a judge to rule whether the warrantless surveillance was illegal (which it apparently was).