The NY Times and Washington Post are using leaked documents from Nancy Pelosi to spread supposition and innuendo. First from the NY Times:

The National Security Agency acted on its own authority, without a formal directive from President Bush, to expand its domestic surveillance operations in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to declassified documents released Tuesday.

The N.S.A. operation prompted questions from a leading Democrat, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, who said in an Oct. 11, 2001, letter to a top intelligence official that she was concerned about the agency’s legal authority to expand its domestic operations, the documents showed.

Emphasis mine. See, it is a fact the NSA proceeded without Presidential authority (doing what they were already doing?) because Nancy Pelosi was concerned they had not been given authorization. She had no proof, she asked. Therefore the NSA did not have authorization! Oh so simple for simple minds. What was the answer to dear Nancy’s concern for terrorists civil rights, days after 3000 Americans were killed..

Ms. Pelosi’s letter, which was declassified at her request, showed much earlier concerns among lawmakers about the agency’s domestic surveillance operations than had been previously known. Similar objections were expressed by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia, in a secret letter to Vice President Dick Cheney nearly two years later.

Hmmm. Seems nothing major was wrong if two years later Rockefeller was only questioning how we could protect Al Qaeda agents here in the US from our efforts to stop them. Actually, was there any indication at all the NSA was acting unilaterally has the headline says? No. The paranoid conspiracy idiots in the press are simply doing the DNC’s bidding since Pelosi had to get this letter declassified and into the media’s hands. At least we do know congressional democrats are involved and supportive of leaking classified information so they can win elections and impeach Bush. Glad that was cleared up.

The congresswoman wrote to Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, then head of the N.S.A., to express her concerns after she and other members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees received a classified briefing from General Hayden on Oct. 1, 2001, about the agency’s operations.

Ms. Pelosi, then the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said, “I am concerned whether, and to what extent, the National Security Agency has received specific presidential authorization for the operations you are conducting.”

The answer, General Hayden suggested in his response to Ms. Pelosi a week later, was that it had not. “In my briefing,” he wrote, “I was attempting to emphasize that I used my authorities to adjust N.S.A.’s collection and reporting.”

Anyone doubt Hayden did not report his adjustments up his chain of command between 9-11 and 10-1?? If so you are quite naive. Generals had latitude in times of war. But is this about NSA snooping on Al Qaeda contacts here in the US? Nope. it is about a future leak – bet on it

It is not clear whether General Hayden referred at the briefing to the idea of warrantless eavesdropping. Parts of the letters from Ms. Pelosi and General Hayden concerning other specific aspects of the spy agency’s domestic operation were blacked out because they remain classified. But officials familiar with the uncensored letters said they referred to other aspects of the domestic eavesdropping program.

And the story is an out-and-out lie. The NSA was under Presidential authorization that was part of its normal mission. Folks, we don’t wait for Congress to mobilize our defenses. And we do not need their permission to either. Is this what the liberals are going to hang their existence on? Good luck. Listen to the liberal outrage because the NSA – god forbid – was doing its job!

General Hayden’s October 2001 briefing was one of the first glimpses into the expanded but largely hidden role that the N.S.A. would assume in combating terrorism over the last four years.

How dare they protect us from another 9-11!! Well, I guess it is also clear the liberal democrats would FIX THIS as soon as they regain power. They will make sure no agency protects us from terrorists in any manner that allows the terrorists to sue us in court.

Liberals look to be trial lawyers run amok.

And Pelosi is upset the NSA was sending potential leads on terrorist to the FBI – get this – without the FBI ASKING!

One step that the agency took immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, Ms. Pelosi wrote in her letter, was to begin forwarding information from foreign intelligence intercepts to the F.B.I. for investigation without first receiving a specific request from the bureau for “identifying information.”

How dare they! The NSA provided leads on terrorists the FBI did not know about to make a request… The fiends! The treasonous bastards! What do the Republicans think they are doing here? Who heard of telling the FBI of potential terrorists in the US weeks after 9-11! Have they now morals or priorities!

It gets worse. Much, much worse

In the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, the agency began monitoring telephone calls and e-mail messages between the United States and Afghanistan to track possible terror suspects.

The unmitigated gall of these people. How dare they monitor Taliban and Al Qaeda contacts in the US right after 9-11.

OK, I have to ask this, since this is so pathetic anyway. Is the NY Times a plant for the RNC? Is Nancy Pelosi a RNC mole? Are these liberals really this dumb!!!

So right after 9-11, the NSA began to focus on Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists in America and pass leads onto the FBI. And within a month they were briefing Congress. And this is why we need an investigation? Someone needs to ask the democrats what they would have done differently – I suspect it might include the strong possibility they would have allowed another attack on our shores as they debated civil rights.

The best line from the left comes from the end of the Washington Post Story this silly story on Pelosi’s PR campaign

Said Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert with the Federation of American Scientists: “It does seem that the NSA is doing something different and in a different way than what it has done before.”

Yep. Notice we have not had a successful attack in over four years? They sure are doing something different!