This is why such wiretapping programs are necessary.

The governmentÂ’s ability to eavesdrop on terrorism suspects overseas allowed the United States to obtain information that helped lead to the arrests last week of three Islamic militants accused of planning bomb attacks in Germany, Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, told senators on Monday.

But another government official said Mr. McConnell might have misspoken. Mr. McConnell said the information had been obtained under a newly updated and highly contentious wiretapping law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. But the official, who has been briefed on the eavesdropping laws and the information given to the Germans, said that those intercepts were recovered last year under the old law. The official asked for anonymity because the information is classified.

The previous law required officials to seek warrants to monitor at least some phone calls and e-mail messages between foreign locations when they were collected from fiber-optic cable in the United States; the new law waived that requirement.

In my book, it doesn't matter which version of the FISA law was used to get the intelligence that stopped attacks on Americans abroad. They key thing is that these jihadis were prevented from carrying out their own 9/11 commemoration by spilling American blood.

Ultimately, we must decide as a nation whether we are going to treat the jihadi terrorists as criminals to be prosecuted or a military enemy to be rooted out and destroyed. I vote for the latter, and believe that we need to use all necessary means to defeat them, just as we did with the Nazis in WWII. The only question is, are we serious about stopping this enemy -- and what it will take to make us serious if we aren't.

Posted by: Greg at 09:53 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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