So much of this comes from the constant fetishizing of the President as the Supreme Leader, “our” Commander-in-Chief, rather than – as the Constitution explicitly states – “commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States.” In the U.S., private actors don’t have government “commanders” who can “order” or “direct” them to do anything. Even soldiers, for whom the President is actually the Commander-in-Chief, are prohibited from obeying unlawful orders. Yet here is Nancy Soderberg – in tandem with the rest of the political establishment – claiming that private telecoms were justified, even compelled, to obey unlawful “orders” from the President, and are therefore entitled to be immunized from consequences

Glenn Greenwald, commenting on an Orwellian piece of legislation now before Congress that would grant immunity to telecom's that broke countless privacy laws in the name of Bush's bogus war against terror. (#)