SubscribeWiretap Delay Hurt Search For Missing Soldiers
A surprising admission from the terrorist enablers at Reuters:
Iraqi Special Operations Forces and coalition forces conduct a search and rescue mission in an attempt to find three U.S. Army soldiers missing in action, May 13, 2007, in Baghdad, Iraq.
U.S. details wiretap delays in Iraq kidnap case
By Randall Mikkelsen
U.S. authorities racing to find three kidnapped American soldiers in Iraq last May labored for nearly 10 hours to get legal authority for wiretaps to help in the hunt, an intelligence official told Congress on Thursday.
The top U.S. spy agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, sent Congress a timeline detailing the wiretap effort as the Bush administration makes its case to wary Democrats for a permanent expansion of its authority to eavesdrop on the foreign communications of terrorism suspects.
“In order to comply with the law, the government was required to spend valuable time obtaining an emergency authorization … to engage in collection related to the kidnapping,” Ronald Burgess, principle deputy director to McConnell, said in a letter to U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes.
Reyes, a Texas Democrat, is chairman of the House of Representatives intelligence committee…
The timeline shows that at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) on May 15, after three days of developing leads on the whereabouts of the three soldiers who went missing south of Baghdad, U.S. agencies met to discuss ways of obtaining more intelligence.
Concluding at 12:53 p.m. EDT (1653 GMT) that requirements for emergency eavesdropping approval had been met, officials spent more than four hours debating “novel and complicated issues” in the case. They spent about more two hours to obtain final approval from then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who was traveling.
The wiretap began at 7:38 p.m. (2138 GMT). Authorities then had 72 hours to obtain a special court’s endorsement of the emergency authority, which was granted, a U.S. official said.
McConnell told the committee last week that an outdated provision in the eavesdropping law made the approval necessary because the targeted foreign communications were carried in part on a wire inside the United States.
“We are extending Fourth Amendment (constitutional) rights to a terrorist foreigner … who’s captured U.S. soldier,” he said, arguing that this was unnecessary and burdensome.
Congress temporarily broadened the law in August so such approval would no longer be required, but that legislation expires in February and U.S. President George W. Bush wants a permanent law enacted.
An al Qaeda-led group in June said it had killed the three soldiers, and showed pictured of ID cards of two of the men.
To sum up, our troops on the ground couldn’t monitor phone calls in Iraq because they were routed through the United States. (Of course with cell phones, satellites and microwave transmissions, most phone calls are at some point routed through the US.)
But our side has been restricted by this insane provision from January until August, before the Solons in our Congress decided to remove this ban — and then only temporarily.
We must not deny the murderous enemy their rights.
What a despicable outrage.
And notice how this is finally coming out, though it’s been known for months.
Note too, that true to form, this news is being leaked out on a Friday in the hopes that nobody will notice or remember.
7 Responses to “Wiretap Delay Hurt Search For Missing Soldiers”
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September 28th, 2007 at 9:59 am
“We are extending Fourth Amendment (constitutional) rights to a terrorist foreigner … who’s captured U.S. soldier,” he [McConnell] said, arguing that this was unnecessary and burdensome.
“Unnecessary and burdensome” is the strongest statement McConnell can come up with? 3 men were murdered and the tracking of their captors was delayed by hours because of an “unnecessary and burdensome” clause. Terrific.
September 28th, 2007 at 10:07 am
Hurrah for our side. See how much our feckless leaders really care for the troops?
Tom Clancy wrote it in Patriot Games: you can play cop or you can play soldier. Don’t try to do both. War fighting and law enforcement are not the same game. The terrorist already have proven that the ‘ruels’ don’t apply to them. There are rules in warfighting, too.
The number one rule: win. Looks like the bad guys are actually playing by the rules, and the “good guys” in Congress are cheating. Either Congress is cheating–or they are the bad guys. When found out, perhaps we will have a janitorial crew for Three Mile Island clean-up?
September 28th, 2007 at 10:18 am
The real fun is when all terrorist organizations simply make sure to route all traffic through equipment owned by a US citizen, something that according to the ACLU makes any interception of such traffic a violation of the Constitution.
The hell with it - let’s just shut down the CIA, NSA and NRO and use the money to fund universal health care; that’s what “the people” say they want anyway.
September 28th, 2007 at 11:19 am
And in addition to this - two soldiers (SPC Jiminez and PFC Fouty) are still missing - I wonder if that idiotic, stupid and unConstitutional (Congress has no War powers other than funding or de-funding) ‘law’ - would have also helped in getting those young men back before they became POWs . . .(in otherwords while still listed as MIA).
Where is a good treason trial when you need one - they could start with someone like Cindy Sheehan - don’t need to start with Kerry, Reyes or Pelosi - start small and get the moonbats used to it.
Sad to say these people are going to keep going until someone is killed live on the 5 o’clock news and then America will scream ENOUGH.
By then however, a number of our fine young men and women in uniform will have been unnecessarily killed too but hey - it’s all about free speech and Constitutional rights - especially for people who aren’t even citizens.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Thus is treason turned into patriotism.
September 28th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
This article should be read on the floors of the US House & Senate.
Note to Congressmen & women!
We The People don’t have the special privileges that you enjoy. If it were your son who was kidnapped BY TERRORISTS for cryin’ out loud, you’d authorize Satan himself to get them back not to mention what ever American asset that you’d be willing to buy in exchange for your political soul.
If you don’t mind, you authorized this war (didn’t have the guts to declare it did you). Would you mind terribly if we tried to win it without disregard to those who are fighting the damn thing?!!!
September 29th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Sure a couple of soldiers died and their murderers got away, but thankfully no terrorist’s civil rights or rights to privacy were “trampled on” (to use a favorite liberal overstatement).
Bin Laden said he would use our own freedoms and laws against us and he’s sure doing a fine job. What’s that old line about capitalists selling you the rope you’ll use to hang them? This kind of story about our government getting in our military’s way reminds me of that line.
No war was ever won in Washington DC. And if we don’t figure out how to keep the political nincompoops who reside there from aiding our enemies with their lawyering, we’ll never win another one.