I am a strong supporter of FISA and the recent arrest in NY illustrates why we need it. This nation is at war by the choice of others, but it will only win it by our choice. There is a warped mentality in a segment of the Democrat Party which believes that liberty can only exist when security is compromised. I believe that liberty and security are partners who coexist when there is a healthy balance. When Chris Dodd and Russ Feingold dedicate themselves to taking away sensible tools to monitor real threats, there is something wrong. No one’s liberty is undermined by FISA. Our security is undermined by weakening it or making Telecoms to nervous about lawsuits to participate. This is another issue on which we need to contact our Congressional Delegation especially Senator Kaufman.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Zazi flew to Pakistan in August 2008 to receive bomb-making instructions, returned to use the Internet and nine pages of handwritten bomb-making notes he had e-mailed himself from Pakistan to purchase and mix triacetone triperoxide (TATP) — the explosive used in the 2005 London transit bombings that killed 52 commuters.
Prosecutors have announced that they will use communications obtained under the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act that allows for secret wiretapping for national security reasons. The New York Daily News reported that authorities had been watching Zazi for more than a year after a “lucky hit” wiretap caught Zazi communicating with Osama bin Laden’s followers.
Meanwhile, in Washington, a group of Democratic senators are working to undermine FISA. Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.; Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; Russ Feingold, D-Wis.; and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; introduced the Retroactive Immunity Repeal Act that would make the country free again for lawyers who want to sue telephone companies for cooperating with the federal government.
As Dodd said in a news release: “We make our nation safer when we eliminate the false choice between liberty and security.”
Update: Some want me to make perfectly clear that I am not criticizing all Democrats, just those who agree with those positions.
Chris “show me the money by giving me a sweetheart mortgage deal” Dodd is now the expert on security????
Puuuuhlease!!! why are Democrats in New England such dunces as to keep sending this legacy crook back to the Senate. Based on the Kennedy and Dodd examples it is obvious that New England Dems love paying higher taxes and having their pockets picked in the private sector by crooks like Dodd.
Nonsense!
But back on topic, my position on security is simply to focus our resources on homeland security, you know, the borders, shipping, intel, technology tools, …, rather than fighting our wars on the lands of other sovereign nations.
Terrorists can congregate and organize in a multitude of places globally. Assuming we prevail in Afghanistan, what about Pakistan, what about Somalia, what about Yemen, what about Iran, just to name a few of many locations. We cannot go on fighting and occupying every country where terrorists might organize. So homeland security is the key to the key to providing the security we need.
I have some agreement with both of you. Homeland Security has to be the foundation for our national security, but it cannot be the entire building. If we can disrupt threats, monitor threats abroad, and take the fight to them, we have too. The problem is that Dodd and Feingold seem to have a problem with either approach. That is where Senator Carper is head and shoulders above some of his colleagues in the Democrat Party. He is a vet and understands national security.
Socialist-Democrats hate America- why should they want to defend her? BO gets a Nobel Prize for his apology tour- maybe the next time there’s a world catastrophe, the U.S. should tell the world to panhandle in Venezuela. Dictator Chavez is flush with cash. Of course BO, being a fellow traveller, wouldn’t do that.