Three months later, in December of 2001, Baker was finally briefed on the clandestine eavesdropping program that the FBI official had warned him about on the street. Bush had personally authorized a secret program, code-named “Stellar Wind,” that authorized the NSA to eavesdrop on calls between Al Qaeda members and individuals in the United States without the approval of the FISA Court. The program went beyond any of the legal measures authorized by Congress in the PATRIOT Act. The FISA Court and Congress were not notified of the program’s existence. It was illegal, unconstitutional, and, in
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