The playbook for the Republican FISA fear-fest is out, and can you guess what kind of bull they have cooked up this time?
Subscription-only Roll Call sez:
Republicans are planning to use the kidnapping and subsequent murder of three U.S. soldiers in Iraq earlier this year to put a "human face" on the issue, the House staffer explained. According to this aide, while Democrats' arguments about privacy may resonate with some voters, Republicans believe using real-world examples of how a weak FISA has put U.S. troops in danger will help galvanize public support for their position.
FISA put U.S. troops in danger? For the "story" on that, we have to turn to the incomparably stupid and in-the-tank NY Post:
In the early hours of May 12, seven U.S. soldiers - including Spc. Jimenez - were on lookout near a patrol base in the al Qaeda-controlled area of Iraq called the "Triangle of Death."
Sometime before dawn, heavily armed al Qaeda gunmen quietly cut through the tangles of concertina wire surrounding the outpost of two Humvees and made a massive and coordinated surprise attack.
Four of the soldiers were killed on the spot and three others were taken hostage.
A search to rescue the men was quickly launched. But it soon ground to a halt as lawyers - obeying strict U.S. laws about surveillance - cobbled together the legal grounds for wiretapping the suspected kidnappers.
Thank God they had the presence of mind to preserve the integrity of the evidence! We look forward to the suspects' trial on federal kidnapping charges!
Meanwhile, look at Post's own timeline, which says the incident took place:
In the early hours of May 12
...but that the legal wrangling began:
Starting at 10 a.m. on May 15, according to a timeline provided to Congress by the director of national intelligence
And when it finally did begin, look what really happened:
"[I]nternal bureaucratic wrangling," and not court-based restrictions, were responsible for the lag time. "To get an emergency warrant, you just have to believe the facts support the application that someone is an agent of a foreign power," the source says. "That takes approximately five seconds to establish if you're going after an Iraqi insurgent."
Why did so much time elapse before the surveillance? Top Justice Department officials needed to approve the emergency order. But according to the source, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was out of town; Deputy AG Paul McNulty had resigned already; Solicitor General Paul Clement "had left the building"; and the other responsible official, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein was not yet authorized to approve the emergency order.
That's right, everyone. It was the unprecedented level of corruption and idiocy in the United States Department of Justice that ground things to a halt. Everyone who hadn't yet been drummed out of government for their crookedness was just plain AWOL. And George W. Bush wants you to believe what was at fault was the only arm of government still at its post: the law itself. (Though they're trying to kidnap that in the pre-dawn hours, too.)
That's yer tuff-on-terrah pretzelnit for ya, ladies and gents. Unitary executivin' to th' max! Unless a lawyer shows up. Yikes!
And so, yet again on the FISA issue, total b.s. that has nothing to do with anything will be used to try to wrangle out a spineless surrender of everything the rule of law is supposed to mean.
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