PAT: Oh you made such a strong case for that argument....not. WTF are you talking about 4-6 hundred people?

DB: Well, there were at minimum three NOC level agents at Brewster Jennings. All were blown by the Plame leak. An NOC agent is the most covert of covert agents--they operate with No Official Cover, hence their acronym. They are very long term--at least fifteen years to allow them to really burrow their way into whatever theyre intended to burrow into. A lifetime of contacts, colleagues, etc..., all built up to monitor a particular area that the powers that be consider important enough to justify funding such an elaborate machine. (In the case of Brewster Jennings, the area was WMDs.)

Over the course of those years, the NOC will be expected to cultivate contacts--either innocent dupes or paid contractors. These will be likely to number at least 150 to 200 people over the career of a senior NOC. Once blown, all useless to whatever effort they were initially recruited for. In this case, a network for monitoring WMDs, particularly the large numbers of WMDs that were potentially put into play with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Suitcase nukes, bio bombs, etc... Kind of important stuff.

And regarding my "paranoia", clearly Bush was using the NSA's gadgets to run spy campaigns against political opponents. Otherwise, why not use FISA? All he gains by bypassing FISA is less of a paper trail. He can move just as quickly staying within the law, because the warrant works retroactively, as long as you can provide good reason witrhin 72 hours after placing the wire. Plus, it's clear that he authorized spy operations against both foreigners and Americans at the UN leading up to the invasion of Iraq. Not much of a stretch to extend the notion to other political enemies, particularly with all those little birds flying around. Believe what you want.