WHY?

It still doesn't make sense that the Bush administraiton would do this wiretapping activity around the FISA court when there really is no impediment to getting these warrants.

The best I can figure there are five reasons for the Bush admin to do these wiretaps secretly and illegally:

1) they just wanted to flout their wartime powers-- an exercise of raw power and perhaps test how people would respond

2) they really were targeting political opponents, under the cover of going after terrorists, and wanted to keep this secret because it is extremely illegal

3) interestingly, is it possible that he's tipping off that the terrorists are in the government itself, and therefore the court system can't be trusted?

4) as I mentioned earlier, they were probing to see who knew what about 9/11, and didn't want to tell the court what they were up to

5) were they targeting journalists?

Any other possibilities? What makes the most sense?

Probably a combination of number one, two and four, I would guess.