Was the NSA Spying on Journalists?

That’s what AMERICAblog’s John Aravosis thinks, and, although it’s pure conjecture, I think it’s a good theory, specifically because it answers the question I raised earlier regarding how, exactly, the public being made aware that the government is evading official oversight of its spying alerts terrorists that they might be under scrutiny. John muses:

Bush says that revealing the details of his spy program would tell Al Qaeda what we were doing and stop the program from being effective. ... Al Qaeda already knows we're monitoring phone calls and emails, we've been doing that for years. They also know that the Patriot Act lets Bush spy on Americans (with the appropriate court orders). So what about the revelation of this domestic spying program could possibly tip off Al Qaeda to something they already know we're doing? There has to be a new wrinkle to the program, something Al Qaeda never thought we'd do. Spy on US journalists.

If terrorists knew that Bush was monitoring every communication US journalists were having a lot of their foreign sources would dry up. As much as "the terrorists" think that the US is monitoring everything, they'd be more willing to trust a US journalist since they know we don't spy on our journalists in this country. Until now.

…Bush spying on US journalists would explain everything UNEXPLAINED about this entire story. Bush refusing to follow the law, Bush refusing to go to court, Bush refusing to tell more members of Congress, Bush's concern that the terrorists, if they knew we were doing this, would be tipped off, and Bush's desire to keep this from the public. It all makes sense that the target of the domestic spying could be US journalists.

Considering this administration’s (and Bush’s quite personal) contempt for the media, I don’t think it’s an unreasonable guess at all, and it most certainly does answer some nagging questions. Granted, this theory is, in part, predicated on assuming the White House’s statements about the program are remotely truthful, which I admit is a big leap of faith. Nonetheless, it’s an angle worth pursuing.

What do you think?