Since President Bush’s warrantless domestic spying program was made public, White House officials have justified their violation of federal FISA law by arguing that the program had made our country safer. A report in this morning’s New York Times may help put this to rest. Below, we lay out the spin and provide the facts:

SPIN – NSA SPYING STOPPED POSSIBLE TERRORIST ATTACKS IN THE UNITED STATES: “The activities I have authorized make it more likely that killers like these 9/11 hijackers will be identified and located in time. And the activities conducted under this authorization have helped detect and prevent possible terrorist attacks in the United States and abroad.” [President Bush, 12/17/05]

FACT – PROGRAM HAS UNCOVERED “NO IMMINENT PLOTS…INSIDE THE UNITED STATES”: “The law enforcement and counterterrorism officials said the program had uncovered no active Qaeda networks inside the United States planning attacks. ‘There were no imminent plots – not inside the United States,’ the former F.B.I. official said.” [New York Times, 1/17/06] Read more

Two days ago, the LA Times reported that Saudi Arabia has still failed to crack down seriously on terrorism:

[T]he kingdom has not met its promises to help prevent the spread of terrorism or curb the flow of money from Saudis to terrorist cells around the world, U.S. intelligence, diplomatic and other officials say.

And millions of dollars continue to flow from wealthy Saudis through Saudi-based Islamic charitable and relief organizations to Al Qaeda and other suspected terrorist groups abroad, aided by what the U.S. officials call Riyadh’s failure to set up a government commission to police such groups as promised, senior U.S. officials from several counter-terrorism agencies said in interviews.

Even as “countless young terrorism suspects” from Saudi Arabia flee across the “porous border into Iraq,” Saudi King Abdullah broke bread last week with radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr (Abdullah is on the left, al-Sadr on the far right):

For these same faults, countries like Syria are harshly criticized by the Bush administration, threatened with sanctions and cut off from diplomatic relations.

Saudi Arabia’s punishment? A visit today from Vice President Dick Cheney.