February 16, 2008

When al Qaeda Attacks, Thank Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party (Updated)

Will the bombs begin falling at 12:00 a.m. tonight when the current stopgap FISA legislation runs out thanks to Democrats in the House? No. But as of tonight terrorists will be free to send messages over the internet to each other without fear that we will be intercepting them. Let that go on for very long and plans will be made and people will die.

Look, it's no secret that I hang out at terrorist websites. What I'm telling you is publicly available information, occasionally reported in the media, but it's also information that I can verify.

Terrorists on those websites often have back rooms, and other methods, in which they communicate with each other. If Terrorist A is in Morocco, Terrorist B is in France, and the website by which they communicate with each other is in Sweden, then you'd assume that the federal law enforcement agents trying to prevent an attack on American interests here or abroad would be free to monitor their communications since there are no domestic concerns. You'd be wrong.

Because the internet uses switches and transmission through the U.S., as of late tonight when FISA expires the FBI will need a warrant to monitor what is being said. In fact, it's even worse than that since once the current temporary law expires the warrant will have to specify the individual the feds wish to monitor.

So, even though a website might be well known as a place that al Qaeda sympathizers and operatives congregate, the feds weren't allowed to monitor much of the "back room" non-public activity without a warrant specifying the individual they wish to monitor since such places are considered "private". When FISA expires tonight, we go back to pre-9/11 law enforcement mode.

Why? Because the radical left wing of the Democratic party--which includes Barrack Obama--thinks that we should go back to a pre-9/11 stance when intelligence gathering was something that the FBI was forbidden from engaging in. Which is exactly why 9/11 happened, because concerns over civil liberties led to a legal scheme in which those in intelligence were discouraged from sharing information with law enforcement.

No, the next 9/11 won't happen at the stroke of midnight tonight. But if the new FISA law doesn't pass soon, eventually it will. And when people are dead, this time it really will be the Democratic party responsible.

UPDATE: See also: When the Clock Strikes Midnight, We Will Be Significantly Less Safe. The Democrats’ FISA talking points are nonsense, who writes:

The July 2007 National Intelligence Estimate stated:

globalization trends and recent technological advances will continue to enable even small numbers of alienated people to find and connect with one another, justify and intensify their anger, and mobilize resources to attack — all without requiring a centralized terrorist organization, training camp, or leader.

Translation: There are ever larger numbers of potentially hostile operatives who are galvanized by jihadist ideology without necessarily being connected to a known terrorist organization. Casting a broad surveillance net to collect intelligence overseas is how we detect and thwart any threat they may pose. It’s how we protect Americans in the homeland and on the battlefield.

As of midnight, that net is gone.