Civil Libertarians Created ‘The Wall’ That Aided 9-11 By Heather Mac Donald, LATimes
It’s time to connect the dots: Decades of unjustified and unnecessary restrictions — pushed through by hysterical civil libertarians — paralyzed U.S. counterterrorism capacities before 9/11. And despite the terrible price we paid for it on that day, the nation appears poised to repeat those mistakes….
As the recent 9/11 commission hearings showed, no impediment to national security was more deadly or nonsensical than the ”wall” separating intelligence and criminal terrorism investigators.
The wall grew out of the post-Watergate belief that U.S. citizens face no greater enemy than their own government. …
But getting a terrorism wiretap against a U.S. citizen requires virtually the same level of evidence as a criminal wiretap. …
Before 9/11, the specter of civil-liberties violations reliably defeated sound national-security policy. We are heading in that dangerous direction again.
[Heather Mac Donald is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute.]
So, who is to blame for 9-11? Civil libertarians, that’s who! Democracy is too hard to defend; it will be easier under fascism.
The 9/11 hearings have shown no such thing about this already destroyed ‘wall.’ That was merely the contention of John Ashcroft, who went beyond shirking responsibility to putting it all on others — the craven coward was as asleep as the rest of us; once awakened, he has rushed to bar the door and blame others. By parroting AssKraft without mentioning him, Mac Donald uses a classic tactic: a lie told many times becomes the truth.
The post-Watergate fears seem to have been justified. Remember that Republican President who won re-election by campaigning on fear (and an enemies list). Remember also the shame in which he resigned.
Finally, to the lie and nonsense that terrorism wiretaps are in any way difficult to obtain, read the following piece. mjh
Use of secret surveillance warrants soars By Shannon McCaffrey, NIGHT RIDDER
The government’s use of secret surveillance warrants to track spies and terrorists surged to a record high in 2003, surpassing for the first time the number of wiretaps sought by law enforcement in traditional criminal cases. …
Federal agents sought 1,727 warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for electronic eavesdropping and physical searches last year, said a Justice Department filing with Congress. Four applications were rejected [mjh: .2%], although two of them were later revised and approved.
The number of so-called FISA warrants jumped by 500 from 2002 and has almost doubled since 2001 when 934 applications were approved.
By comparison, there were 1,442 wiretap petitions in federal and state courts for crimes related to drugs and racketeering, according to a separate report from the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts. …
Passed by Congress in 1978 [mjh: Jimmy Carter’s Democratic Presidency], the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) created a new court to oversee highly sensitive law enforcement activities related to espionage or terrorism. The Patriot Act, passed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, broadened the government’s ability to seek warrants through the secretive 11-member court by essentially knocking down the once-sacrosanct wall that divided intelligence and law enforcement.
Question: do you think there are more drug crimes or acts of terrorism going on in America at this moment? How can there be so many terrorism warrants? Fewer than a dozen Saudis (not Iraqis) perpetrated the 9-11 crimes. Are there really thousands of terrorists in the country biding their time? Well, maybe, if you call a ”terrorist” anyone who opposes this right-wing power grab. mjh