Looking For The Terrorist Surveillance Program Leaker

Two and one half years after the New York Times revealed the government's formerly secret Terrorist Surveillance Program, there is finally some evidence that the FBI is on the trail of the leaker.

Newsweek reports a team of FBI agents raided the home of a former Justice Department lawyer in connection with a criminal probe into who leaked the existence of Terrorist Surveillance Program to the news media:

The lawyer, Thomas M. Tamm, previously worked in Justice's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR)—the supersecret unit that oversees surveillance of terrorist and espionage targets. The agents seized Tamm's desktop computer, two of his children's laptops and a cache of personal files.

You may recall that the Times was accused of revealing the Terrorist Surveillance Program in order to sell a book.

Even the Washington Post took the Times to task for revealing the program.

It's way past time the Justice Department made some progress in tracking down the leaker. If we can spend who knows how much and more than two years to investigate who said what to whom to learn who revealed Plame worked for the CIA, we can damned well spend the necessary resources to determine who told the Times about the Terrorist Surveillance Program.

I still don't find the Terrorist Surveillance Program very bothersome. We are at war, even though too many pretend we are not. I like the idea that someone is keeping an eye on suspected terrorist communications. Additionally, anyone who assumes e-mail or cell phone conversations are private, needs a reality check.