warrentless wiretapping

Some instances of government secrecy are genuinely malign, but most are frivolous. The cardinal example there is the intelligence budget. For reasons no one has ever compellingly explained, the annual budget of the 16-agency intelligence community was for decades a guarded secret.
Yes, this is taxpayer money, but the thinking went that if the figure became [...]

The Justice Dept. inspectors general recently released two reports on the department’s illegal politicization under former Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales. Today’s IG report (pdf) finds that Gonzales broke the law in a different way– bringing home “top secret” classified notes about warrantless wiretapping. Gonzales’s careless behavior involves a March 2004 White House meeting that [...]