January 2, 2006

This issue featured Stephen F. Hayes's profile of Vice President Dick Cheney, examining his travels and influence in the Bush administration. The cover story focused on the contentious issue of the NSA's domestic surveillance program, with William Kristol, Gary Schmitt, and David Tell mounting a defense of the Bush administration's wiretapping of suspected al Qaeda communications. The debate over executive power and civil liberties dominated the issue during a critical period of the War on Terror.