It's Not Illegal Unless We Say it's Illegal

General Hayden met the press to talk about state sanctioned spying. His response to the question of why not just use FISA since it lets you do pretty much whatever you want and forget about the warrant for 72 hours if you need to. And if FISA doesn't work, why not start working to amend it?

The General's response (ignoring the 2nd part of the question completely):

"There is an operational impact here. And I have two -- two paths in front of me, both of them lawful: one, FISA; one, the President's authorization. And we go down this path because our operational judgment is: It is much more effective. So we do it for that reason. "

When asked if FISA states that it will be the EXCLUSIVE means by which electronic surveillance can be done, aren't you breaking the law?

Hayden responds that he should probably let the Dept. of Justice answer (no kidding), but then goes ahead anyway with my favorite answer of the day, "I have an order whose lawfulness has been attested to by the Attorney General, an order whose lawfulness has been attested to by N.S.A. lawyers who do this for a living. No, we're not violating the law."

Yes indeed. The people on our side say we're ok, so we're ok. End of story.

Man, why didn't that excuse ever work when I was late with my homework?