THIS IS WHY WE WORRY ABOUT LEGALITY

It's not because we don't care about the "Islamo-fascist" threat, it's because we do care about the 4th Amendment.

FBI says warrantless wiretapping lasted until 2006
Director Robert S. Mueller says reforms intended to curb the use of national security letters to gather data have started working.
By Richard B. Schmitt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer March 6, 2008

WASHINGTON -- -- The FBI indicated Wednesday that widespread irregularities in a program to gather confidential data on people in the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks continued into at least 2006. The bureau's use of national security letters to gather phone, Internet and credit records in terrorism and espionage investigations -- a power magnified by the Patriot Act -- first came under attack last March in a report by Justice Department
Inspector General Glenn A. Fine. In a study covering 2003 to 2005, Fine reported numerous instances of FBI personnel violating internal guidelines and procedures in how they obtained and used national security letters, which are a form of administrative subpoena.