Anybody here know the tune to the Horst Wessel Song?*

So, how is the Bush administration using its ability to gather records of Americans' calls? To hunt down Osama and his buddies? Whaddya think?

ABC's Brian Ross reports that the FBI (and perhaps other federal agencies) are looking into reporters' phone records as part of leak investigations.

According to Ross, an unnamed "senior federal official," said, "It used to be very hard and complicated to do this, but it no longer is in the Bush administration."

Apparently, the feds are using "national security letters," administrative subpoenas authorized by the "Patriot Act." The recipient of such a letter (a phone company, say) must comply and may not tell the subject of the letter of its receipt. In other words, the government can get your communications and you not only cannot challenge it, you won't even know it happened.

Check out Josh Marshall's very trenchant comment on this at talkingpointsmemo.com.

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*Horst Wessel was a Nazi thug who was killed in the political warfare endemic in Weimar Germany. The Horst Wessel Song became the Nazi anthem.To hearar the tune, click here.