Much has been written lately about Bush not going through the FISA courts to obtain some wiretaps, and whether it was legal or not. Indeed, until all the facts are in, no one can say with any certainty whether it was or was not legal. However, this article will not re-open that issue. Instead it will focus on a court that perhaps got too big for its britches.
Apparently, 4 weeks before 9-11-01, Zacarias Moussaoui was detained and questioned by the FBI based upon a tip from this flight school. The FBI, being good law abiding citizens they are, went to the FISA to obtain a search warrant for Zacarias Moussaoui's laptop. The court not only rejected the request, they even reprimanded Michael Resnick, the FBI officer in charge!
Now some may say that it is unfortunate, but we must protect our civil liberties. And then some of those same people have also yelled about connecting the dots, a very hypocritical stance and one that only can be supported if they feign ignorance of the facts.
But one must realize that Moussaoui is not an American Citizen, and indeed as has now been learned, was technically a spy. And spies are not and must not be afforded the protection of our constitution, since their sworn mission is to subvert it! Yet this court that is supposed to help expedite these issues, not only denied law enforcement access to the evidence, they slapped the agent in charge!
And as the article indicates, it meant that many other tips, that should have been brought to the court probably were not for fear of getting slapped again! So when the brouhaha came out about Bush wiretapping transatlantic calls, we had one judge "resign in protest". Or did he? Perhaps he resigned in shame, and just used an excuse to cover his own incompetence? And after you have been burned by a judge before, and are now trying to prevent the very thing that might have been prevented with a simple court order, why would anyone trust a bunch of pontificating self serving blow hards again? If they tried another 9-11, and succeeded, would Bush then turn to the American people and say "We Tried, but the court...."?
Do you think the very same people who are howling now would buy that excuse? No, they would want his head on a platter, and rightly so. For he would have failed. But he has not failed, yet.
And remember one more thing. While one end of the conversation originated in the US, the other end was not in the US. And the Security agencies of the US must be given sufficient power to find and capture spies! We may not be in a cold war any longer, but we are in a hot one, and the enemies are even more evil than before. For they do not confront armed militias. NO, they cower behind the skirts of women and bibs of babies!
So get up on your soap box, and rend your clothing at how bad and evil Bush is! But the reason you can do that, is that you are alive, and what he did may have saved your life along with thousands of other Americans. Saved a life so you could then trash him again.