The New York Times sat on a story for an entire year about the NSA monitoring electronic communications between people suspected of having ties to Al-Qaida, and then released the story, to the detriment of our governments abilities to prevent future 9/11 style attacks by terrorists.
The revelation that the NSA was doing this - legally, I might add - has been decried far and wide by Dems and the leftist defeatists as 1) a trampling on the civil liberties of US citizens, and 2) a scandal of the highest order because of the supposed trampling of the civil liberties of US citizens, and 3) violations of FISA. (For an excellent recap of FISA, and Presidential authority under FISA, see this article on this same subject by Ed Morrissey, aka The Captain of Captain's Quarters blog.)
First of all, #1 and #3 are linked here, in that, no US citizens were targeted by the activities of the NSA without obtaining the proper warrants from proper authorities, so the "trampling of civil liberties" never happened.
Second, those persons targeted for which no warrants were obtained are not US citizens, or lawful alien residents (US persons), and therefore the protections of FISA do not apply.
Third, because what the NSA did was properly authorized by President Bush, there is nothing scandalous involved with the NSA. However, the real scandal, in my opinion, rests with the NY Times printing this story, giving information to the enemies to our country and way of life, allowing them to know that they are being monitored, and allowing them to change their method of communications, making it more difficult for anti-terrorism forces to ferret them out. I believe that this action by the NY Times constitutes treason of the highest order, and those responsible need to be held accountable.
No comments:
Post a Comment