It is very reassuring that quite a few of even the liberal / libertarian commentators are ready to embrace the assumption that tapping into foreign-foreign communications is ok, and that the problem is only when foreign-domestic / foreign-citizen communications are tapped.

Now that the Protect America Act has been passed and signed into law, I hope one of the senators or someone in the White House realizes the pot of gold we are sitting on. As part of the extensive set up needed to monitor the communications, I suggest that we add a division that will seek out contracts from foreign governments for information requests. Depending on who or what they are after, we can quote a price and make a packet. Hey, its as legal as extra-ordinary rendition is.

If we all agree then oil would be back to under a dollar and maybe we could even wipe clean the federal deficit. If not, until its leaked out, we would be trading dossiers for torturing one more of those 'unlawful enemy combatants'.

After having worked this hard to gather all this information, wouldn't it be nice to get the information to do some work for us?

Really. How do you think we pay for spies? It certainly isnt their salary.

90% of REGULAR travelers from the US to the rest of the world are doing so on business and it makes sense that these people would be making more contacts and more lasting relationships than someone just visiting their aunt or going to EuroDisney. Business is also the REAL driver of our foreign policy (quick, name a nation we spend lots of money on that isnt somehow tied to oil directly or indirectly).

Furthermore both good guys (our spies) and bad guys (terrorists and spies of other countries) dont go around advertising their real jobs, so they need to travel as business people if they travel regularly (I imagine an assassin might be going to EuroDisney on paper, but the intel guys probably need to be selling sweatsocks to Saudis or something like that). This means that just to maintain their cover, they need to get a paycheck from a company (the company-hehe). Since they have access to lots of covert data, I bet they are above average investors (the ultimate insider trading if you will). A good spy should be one hell of an investor. And best of all, that income is not being paid by the government and the government can be counted on to look the other way-if the IRS or SEC calls for an audit, the government comes back and says it has been investigated and its OK. Bingo, the spy with the mansion and the sports car is born.

But of course if all that data is used the way you describe it, we would all benefit from it and it wouldnt be a secret anymore. THAT would not work for our spook friends not would it. Needless to say, your idea will remain an intelligent but romantic dream.