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GWU Constitutional Law professor Jonathan Turley covered this and other civil rights issues last night on Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Turley breaks down the lawless nature of President Bush's warrantless wiretapping programs and chides Congress for lacking the spine to go after him.

Washington Post:

A former Qwest Communications International executive, appealing a conviction for insider trading, has alleged that the government withdrew opportunities for contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars after Qwest refused to participate in an unidentified National Security Agency program that the company thought might be illegal.

Former chief executive Joseph P. Nacchio, convicted in April of 19 counts of insider trading, said the NSA approached Qwest more than six months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to court documents unsealed in Denver this week. Read more...

Kagro X at DailyKos makes some great observations -- Bush has long contended that the illegal programs were undertaken in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, but this revelation would mean he had something else in mind. And if, as Nacchio contends, the Bush administration began their illegal spying operations well before the 9/11 attacks, it proves the program failed to stop the attack.