Wire Taps

The President said this ...
"It has been effective in disrupting the enemy while safeguarding our civil liberties,"
in regard to wire taps. How exactly does spying safeguard our civil liberties? This goes along with the secret laws stuff. I have yet to see any proof from anyone that creating a barrier of mistrust between the executive office and the people of a country is a good thing anywhere but the 3rd world. Just like it doesn't make sense to have laws that can't be read, it makes no sense to have the ability to wire tap conversations when no one has written reasons that prove why. We're talking about preventing violent attacks right? Then to make it a legitimate source for intelligence, a wire tap should have approval from the judiciary, otherwise it falls under illegal search and seizure. While there was a time when the President was given the benefit of the doubt on this, I don't believe this president deserves the benefit of the doubt on anything.

UPDATE:Americablog notes that the secret wire taps could be on journalists.
UPDATE II: DKos has some tidbits of constitutional law that are interesting.