"Concessions To Democrats On NSA Wiretap Program Has Ruined Intelligence Gathering"

[mzmolly]

Another perspective on the wiretapping hubub: http://www.floppingaces.net/2007/07/27/concessions-to-democrats-on-ns/

This has turned out to be an enormous mistake that has unilaterally disarmed one of our best intelligence weapons in the war on terror. To understand why, keep in mind that we live in a world of fiber optics and packet-switching. A wiretap today doesn't mean the FBI must install a bug on Abdul Terrorist's phone in Peshawar. Information now follows the path of least resistance, wherever that may lead. And because the U.S. has among the world's most efficient networks, hundreds of millions of foreign calls are routed through the U.S.

That's right: If an al Qaeda operative in Quetta calls a fellow jihadi in Peshawar, that call may well travel through a U.S. network. This ought to be a big U.S. advantage in our "asymmetrical" conflict with terrorists. But it also means that, for the purposes of FISA, a foreign call that is routed through U.S. networks becomes a domestic call. So thanks to the obligation to abide by an outdated FISA statute, U.S. intelligence is now struggling even to tap the communications of foreign-based terrorists. If this makes you furious, it gets worse.

Our understanding is that some FISA judges have been open to expediting warrants, as well as granting retroactive approval. But there are 11 judges in the FISA rotation, and some of them have been demanding that intelligence officials get permission in advance for wiretaps. This means missed opportunities and less effective intelligence. And it shows once again why the decisions of unaccountable judges shouldn't be allowed to supplant those of an elected Commander in Chief.

When the program began, certain U.S. telecom companies also cooperated with the National Security Agency. But they were sued once the program was exposed, and so some have ceased cooperating for fear of damaging liability claims. We found all of this hard to believe when we first heard it, but we've since confirmed the details with other high-level sources.

So, we've pissed off Republicans and/or those who are perpetually angry at Democrats. What else is new? I'm not going to respond to posts on this tonight as I'm not up for it, but I did want to share.

[frogcycle]

1. excerpt from a response

"A lot has been accomplished, not with the help of, but in spite of the democrats. No attacks since 9-11-01 is a fact, not fiction. Now that the dhimmi's are in charge hold your breath, the attacks are on the way. Just join in my prayer that the first attack takes out the congressional building and every slime ball (including the republicans who are scared to stand up to the democrats crazy news media slander) that is elected or employed in the buildings. A new start can't possibly be any worse than the current anti-american, terrorist supporting democrats that suck up and steal billions of dollars per year and accomplish '0' the help protect or serve the American public."

brrrrr! what a creepy site!

This dittohead is praying that the entire congress get taken out by terrorists. This dittohead thinks "attacks are on the way" because the rape of our very form of government is being slowed ever so slightly. And to top it off, this dittohead thinks the dems are the ones bleeding the country of billions of dollars a year. Try billions per month to your pals in Blackwater, Halliburton, big oil, big pharma, shit-for-brains! And you think they give a rat's ass about you?

[Old and In the Way]

4. Course, if we had been hit again, it's proof positive of their war on us

and we'd be to blame for that, too.

Funny, he doesn't count anthrax attacks or women's healthcare clinics in his acts of domestic terror.

There's a lot of RNC funded projection in this missive: "democrats that suck up and steal billions of dollars per year and accomplish '0' the help protect or serve the American public." Who's been President and majority Party the last 6 years?

No one is so ignorant as he who refuses to think. (or something like that)

[EVDebs]

2. Friggin' jolly R's were the one's who let out the fact that NSA was listening in on OBLs sat-phone

Go figure if they'll follow up on THAT.

Read James Bamford's Body of Secrets.

[FVZA_Colonel]

3. They even manage to bring in their anti-judicial garbage.

Not surprising, though this will certainly help enrage the base towards those "justices who do not respond to the will of the people" (as if they automatically should).

[mzmolly]

5. Interesting

huh?

[EVDebs]

6. Page 410, Body of Secrets by James Bamford re OBL and satphone

"According to information obtained for Body of Secrets, NSA regularly listens to unencrypted calls from suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden, in hiding in Afganistan. Bin Laden uses a portable INMARSAT phone that transmits and receives calls over spacecraft owned by the International Maritime Satellite Organization. This is the same system used by most ships and some people who travel to remote loations, such as oil explorers. According to some intelligence officials, Bin Laden is aware that the United States can evesdrop on his international communications, but he does not seem to care. To impress cleared visitors, NSA analysts occasionally play audiotapes of Bin Laden talking to his mother over an INMARSAT connection."

Only Republican blowhards and idiots trying to impress 'cleared visitors' would do something this stupid, similar to Sen Shelby's speaking too much about NSA communications intercepts immediately after 9-11, remember that ? Dems have too much to lose in the blowback that comes from such stupidity.

[truedelphi]

7. The problem as I see it is thatI have No confidence that this is used

Against those like OBL

More and more this sort of power seems to be used against us.

we could have got OBL in july 2001 when we knew that he was in a hospital in Dubai.

We could have gotten him again during one of our initial drives in Afghanistan/Pakistan, but the troops were called back. So he slipped away