Trial Lawyers, Fighting for YOU

During a summer when we have heard of heightened threats, our intelligence capabilites have been downgraded by more than two-thirds since September 11th. After losing 3,000 lives, we tore down the overlawyered see-no-evil wall which the 9/11 commission found had kept us from connecting the dots.

But now the Democrats in Congress have forgotten that lesson, leaving us vulnerable on the home front. They and their trial lawyer buddies are refusing to allow our intelligence services to continue to monitor terrorist phone calls in a timely manner, one of our strongest and most incisively targeted weapons against terror at home. WSJ:

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 So thanks to the obligation to abide by an outdated FISA statute, U.S. intelligence is now struggling even to tap the communications of foreign-based terrorists.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.[snip]

The Administration wants Congress to modernize FISA in two crucial ways: First, by allowing NSA to track on a real-time basis these foreign calls that may be routed through the U.S., and in some cases allowing warrants to be sought after the fact. Our spooks would still be accountable, but they'd also be able to act quickly to defend the country. Second, the White House is requesting liability protection for telecom companies that cooperate with the wiretap program. Neither of these changes should be at all controversial -- and we're confident they'd have overwhelming public support if the issues were understood.

Yet for six months Senate Democrats have resisted these legal changes to make Americans safer. Incredibly, they are fronting for their trial lawyer campaign donors in blocking liability protection. Their counteroffer is to have the federal government supplant the companies as the defendants in any wiretapping lawsuits, as if any such lawsuits were justified. Why are Democrats letting trial lawyers interfere with a vital intelligence operation?

More on this in today's WSJ, which details that Congressional leaders were well aware and expressly in the loop on this entire intelligence matter and approved of it at the time, but choose to demagogue it today.

Perhaps we need a few lawyers and lawyer-Congressmen on the front lines. Trial Lawyers, Fighting for YOU. A very insecure homeland security, depending on this Dem bunch.

Remember, Democrats, you are in charge now. You are responsible.

One more note to Dimmicrats: Terror Gangs Using US Web Providers. LGF.

Related posts: Now You Have to Get It, Terror Dry Runs, Taking on Al Qaeda,