The Last Defenders of the NSA

TechStage / Flickr

As more information emerges about the bulk collection of phone records, the remaining arguments in its favor fall one by one.

The NSA program that logs the phone records of innocent Americans has reached a turning point. A federal appeals court has ruled that it was never authorized by Congress. The Patriot Act provision wrongly said to authorize it is also about to expire. And the House of Representatives passed a bill that would shutter the program.

Its defenders are therefore pressed, as never before, to make their case.

One of their best efforts appeared last week in  National Review. Its author, Fred Fleitz, is a retired 25-year veteran of the national-security bureaucracy. He is now  the senior vice president for policy and programs at the Center for Security Policy.

And even his best-in-class effort fell well short.