Last night, Countdown With Keith Olbermann on MSNBC had excellent coverage of and commentary on the Obama DOJ's radical new arguments in Jewel v. NSA, the EFF's lawsuit against the NSA for illegal surveillance. Here are the videos:

play
Privacy info. This embed will serve content from msn.com

play
Privacy info. This embed will serve content from msn.com

Olbermann's second guest, GWU Law Professor Jonathan Turley, aptly summarizes why the new ruling is so disappointing:

"I think right now, the Bush people are bringing out their mission-accomplished sign, because they've not only gotten Obama to protect Bush and Cheney and others from any criminal investigation on torture, but he's now gone even further than they did in the protection of unlawful surveillance. This is the ultimate victory for the Bush officials. They have Barack Obama adopting the same extremist arguments, and in fact exceeding the extremist arguments made by President Bush...

"You cannot any longer suggest that President Obama is advancing the civil liberties and the privacy interests that he promised to advance. This is a terrible roll-back. It's a terrible decision.

Updated, 10:55am PT: EFF's Kevin Bankston will be on Countdown With Keith Olbermann tonight.

Related Issues