Bush briefs Congress on NSA surveillance program..and details how it derailed an al-Qaeda attack on Los Angeles

Today, we were treated to the spectacle of a sitting President, in wartime, having to brief what has proven to be a fairly leaky Congress on the details of the NSA surveillance program targeting conversations between known al-Qaeda operatives and the affiliates here in the USA.

Jane Harmon (d-CA), one of the more sensible Democrats and the ranking Democratic member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence stated after the briefing that `the ice is melting' and that Congress was closer to a more bi-partisan concensus on the program with the Bush Administration..though that didn't stop the usual suspects from weighing in.

Both Harman and Senator Lindsay Graham went public with the fact that the leaks from Congress and the New York Times have damaged the effectiveness of the program.

One of the details that surfaced and was released for public consumption was that the program prevented an al Qaeda attack using shoe bombs and a domestic airliner that originated in Southeast Asia and was masterminded by Shek Khalid Mohammed.Bloomberg.com: Top Worldwide