US Attorney General claims purely domestic spying ok too

[Hurin_Rules]

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez made some interesting comments a little while ago that didn't get much press but were somewhat disturbing to me. In response to interview questions about the 'domestic spying program' or, if you like Bushspeak, the 'terrorist surveillance program', in which communications were secretly monitored by the government if one of the correspondents was in another country, Gonzalez had some revealing things to say:

In congressional hearings earlier this month, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales suggested the president could order the NSA to listen in on purely domestic calls without first obtaining a warrant from a secret court established nearly 30 years ago to consider such issues.

Gonzales said the administration, assuming the conversation related to al-Qaida, would have to determine if the surveillance were crucial to the nation’s fight against terrorism, as authorized by Congress following the Sept. 11 attacks."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12543642/

So now, it seems, all the goverment has to have to listen in on purely domestic phone calls or emails between Americans is the suspicion that the communication might be about al-Qaeda?

I know we have deep disagreements on these boards about whether the goverment's actions in monitoring 'foreign' communications were illegal or not, but can we at least agree that, if the Bush administration is doing this for purely domestic communications, it is deeply disturbing and/or illegal?

[solypsist]

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=63756

for the backstory

[Tribesman]

I know we have deep disagreements on these boards about whether the goverment's actions in monitoring 'foreign' communications were illegal or not, but can we at least agree that, if the Bush administration is doing this for purely domestic communications, it is deeply disturbing and/or illegal?
Forign communications were legal , domestic tapping was an error an oversight , a mistake , a glitch , but now it is not an error it is OK .
Oh say can you see ..... forget the following parts.