Qwest's Nacchio: NSA pushed long before 9/11

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/055870.php

It's almost as if the Bush gang, almost immediately after taking office, began a legally-dubious power grab that included warrantless-domestic spying.

I suppose some of the president's allies might be tempted to spin this as encouraging. If the administration was pressuring telecoms as far back as Feb. 2001, the president and his team were taking the terrorist threat seriously long before 9/11.

This might be more persuasive if, six months after the NSA allegedly leaned on Qwest, the president didn't blow off a certain Presidential Daily Briefing, telling his CIA briefer, "All right. You've covered your ass, now."