(1) So the Justice Department has been doing its job by looking into the (il)legalities of the NSA wiretapping.  In fact, the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility has specifically been looking into it.

So far, so good.  Until….

Security issue kills domestic spying inquiry

NSA won’t grant Justice Department lawyers required security clearance

The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers the necessary security clearance to probe the matter.

Geez.

(2)  Meanwhile, USA Today gives a stunning report on how the NSA has been attempting to get cellular phone companies to cooperate with them. 

The first revelation — and this is a biggie– is that the NSA is maintaining a comprehensive data base of every call made by every American – both internationally and domestically – whether they have anything to do with terrorism or not, obviously all of this without warrants or oversight of any kind.

Remember how Bush and Bush-bots were constitently saying that the NSA programs always involved phone calls where one person on the line who was not in the United States?  Throw that out the window.  This data-mining involves domestic calls — your calls.

The rules for collecting data about phone calls are different from the rules about listening in on the content of phone calls, so it’s a little difficult to assess (without research) the legality of this.  That doesn’t stop a whole host of Bush apologists (and non-lawyers) from automatically arguing (in knee-jerk fashion) that it is legal.

Which gets us to the the second revelation, buried low in the article, about how Qwest Communications is not cooperating with NSA.  Qwest is simply refusing to turn over its customer database and other information about its customers. In fact, of all the major telecommunications companies, Qwest is the "lone holdout".

Trying to put pressure on Qwest, NSA representatives pointedly told Qwest that it was the lone holdout among the big telecommunications companies. It also tried appealing to Qwest’s patriotic side: In one meeting, an NSA representative suggested that Qwest’s refusal to contribute to the database could compromise national security, one person recalled.

In addition, the agency suggested that Qwest’s foot-dragging might affect its ability to get future classified work with the government. Like other big telecommunications companies, Qwest already had classified contracts and hoped to get more.

Unable to get comfortable with what NSA was proposing, Qwest’s lawyers asked NSA to take its proposal to the FISA court. According to the sources, the agency refused.

The NSA’s explanation did little to satisfy Qwest’s lawyers. "They told (Qwest) they didn’t want to do that because FISA might not agree with them," one person recalled. For similar reasons, this person said, NSA rejected Qwest’s suggestion of getting a letter of authorization from the U.S. attorney general’s office. A second person confirmed this version of events.

Odd, isn’t it?  The Bush Administration keeps insisting that the NSA wiretapping program is legal, yet whenever they are asked to bring it in front of a bunch of judges, they avoid it.  In fact, the NSA is reluctant to run it by the Justice Department.

Clearly, the Qwest lawyers looked into this, and were either uncomfortable or unsure with the legalities of this, which is why they recommended a court ruling.  Interesting.  One wonders how the Bush supporters on the right side of the blogosphere, non-lawyers like Michelle Malkin, can be so sure so quickly that the progam is okay.

Professor Kerr has some preliminary thoughts on the legality of this.

UPDATE:  Bush says he’s not breaking the law.  Yeah, right.  "Move along folks.  Nothing to see here."