Okay, the new Attorney General Mukasey said this the other day...
Attorney General Mukasey, in an emotional plea for broad surveillance authority in the war on terror, is warning that the price for failing to empower the government would be paid in American lives. Officials "shouldn't need a warrant when somebody with a phone in Iraq picks up a phone and calls somebody in the United States because that's the call that we may really want to know about. And before 9/11, that's the call that we didn't know about," Mr. Mukasey said yesterday as he took questions from the audience following a speech to a public affairs forum, the Commonwealth Club. "We knew that there has been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn't know precisely where it went."
At that point in his answer, Mr. Mukasey grimaced, swallowed hard, and seemed to tear up as he reflected on the weaknesses in America's anti-terrorism strategy prior to the 2001 attacks. "We got three thousand. ... We've got three thousand people who went to work that day and didn't come home to show for that," he said, struggling to maintain his composure
But this is an untruth.
You see we have now, and had before 9/11/2001 the ability to intercept ANY call from outside the United States to inside the United States. You then had 72 hours to get a retroactive search warrent. A request that has NEVER BEEN DENIED.
So, what our new Attorney General is either
- a) a Lying Bastard USING images and memories of death to pass a law or
- b) part of a government that could have legally and effectively stopped 9/11 - but they blew it.
I prefer to think that he is a lying bastard, but if it is option "b", then a new law won't make our government any smarter.