Much of the political news in the US for the past couple of weeks has focused on the controversy (*) over the program to allow the use of the NSA to intercept cell phone calls between the continental US and suspected Al Qaeda and their supporters overseas. First came the revelation – on the eve of the Congressional vote to renew the Patriot Act – that the program existed. Shortly after this, it was revealed that the NY Times employee pushing the story was going to be releasing a book about the program. After that, more information came to light...