Habitual line-steppers

Gonzales has acknowledged that Al-Qaeda to Al-Qaeda phone conversations that originate and end within the United States are not monitored by the 'terrorist surveillance program' but has just stated that they are using 'all other methods' to monitor solely domestic conversations. Gonzales acknowledges that the NSA wiretapping is still constrained by the Fourth Amendment which requires that searches and seizures be "reasonable." As obtuse as that may sound, reasonable means that a fair amount of the searches and seizures must be captures of illegal activity. Yesterday's WashPo uses internal documents and sources to prove that this argument no longer holds water. A "fair amount" would be roughly 1 in every 2 seizures. The electronic monitoring methods being used are nowhere near that standard and would thus be considered "unreasonable" and therefore unconstitutional.

Gonzales has now acknowledged that there was no Congressional declaration of war

§ 1811. Authorization during time of war:
Notwithstanding any other law, the President, through the Attorney General, may authorize electronic surveillance without a court order under this subchapter to acquire foreign intelligence information for a period not to exceed fifteen calendar days following a declaration of war by the Congress.

Bush has said he will do whatever it takes, without Congressional authorization, but for some reason is drawing the line at international communications? They can use special wartime executive powers to ignore FISA and they can compile databases on domestic peace activist organizations, but we're just supposed to trust that they won't connect the dots?