HometownSource Blogs

UPDATE: Thankfully, the horrible provisions that led to the circumstance discussed below have been pulled, thanks to the Blue Dog Democrats. The Washington Times explains why we should all be greatly relieved.

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The new FISA rules were unnecessary in the first place since FISA approval was not needed to monitor international calls. Now, the rules call for FISA approval to monitor a cell phone call between two parties in a country in which we are at war. What was simply silly got deadly serious this spring, when hysteria over wiretapping caused something that should never happen:

In the early hours of May 12, seven U.S. soldiers - including Spc. Jimenez - were on lookout near a patrol base in the al Qaeda-controlled area of Iraq called the “Triangle of Death.”

Sometime before dawn, heavily armed al Qaeda gunmen quietly cut through the tangles of concertina wire surrounding the outpost of two Humvees and made a massive and coordinated surprise attack.

Four of the soldiers were killed on the spot and three others were taken hostage.

A search to rescue the men was quickly launched. But it soon ground to a halt as lawyers - obeying strict U.S. laws about surveillance - cobbled together the legal grounds for wiretapping the suspected kidnappers.

Ultimately, the hostages were all killed, according to al Qaeda, while lawyers diddled for 10 hours. Read the whole thing.

If you aren’t angered by this story than you either aren’t paying attention or don’t care. NSA wiretapping was dishonestly framed as having to do with domestic surveillance, even though that was never the case. In fact, to my memory no one ever produced a single example of domestic spying. Nevertheless, that framing was used and supported wholeheartedly by publications like the NY Times to embarrass and cripple the Bush administration.

Along the way, it was the administration’s contention that FISA was too slow a process to have any value in an ever changing war front.

TEN HOURS to get LAWYER APPROVAL to spy on terrorists who took American soldiers hostage in a war zone. It’s not the Bush administration that was crippled, it was our ability to protect the country and those on the front lines every day.