President Bush's "obsession with eavesdropping on citizens" just went from bad to "cheesy," said The New York Times in an editorial. ABC News reports that military agents listened in on phone calls home from American soldiers, aid workers, and journalists in Iraq. The listeners were supposedly searching for terrorism leads, but the "illicit snooping degenerated into a form of amusement, with analysts swapping transcriptions of pillow talk" and phone sex.
"Radical leftists and extreme libertarians will try to make the most of the story," said the Augusta, Ga., Chronicle in an editorial, as the "exaggerated tale" is the perfect thing to fuel criticism of the Republican Bush administration before next month's election. But the truth behind "the hyperventilating headlines" is that the National Security Agency's eavesdropping on calls from the Mideast involving people suspected of terrorist ties was perfectly legal.
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