The NSA Story Fizzles Out

When is a story not a story? When the big media outlets slowly come to the realization that the rest of the nation still has its eyes on the prize - winning the war against the Islamic terrorists and sets aside the petty political panderings of the leading lights of the Democratic Party.

Osama's reappearance via an audiotape only reinforces the fact that the federal government has to take steps to protect this nation from attack. Some of those steps include directing the NSA and CIA to eavesdrop on communications from regions known to be inhabited by Islamic terrorists to sources within the US.

This isn't domestic spying as some of the big media outlets still misstate. It is playing offense in a counterterrorism operation, but one that has been seriously compromised by James Risen and the folks at the New York Times in a partisan political moment. The NYT is struggling to come to grips with this reality. And it's doing so poorly.

We're seeing the Democrats starting to make haste towards the emergency exits on the NSA wiretapping story, as noted by The Jawa Report. They realize that if there's a problem with the FISA courts and the law, they should fix it so that whatever the Administration is doing, they can continue doing it without worrying about the legal bases for it (not that it was stopping the Administration, but it will give them the legal and political cover that was blown when the NYT decided to preempt Risen's own book release).

As per Senator John Kerry (D-MA):

"We're prepared to eavesdrop wherever and whenever necessary in order to make America safer."

Got that? He's proposing taking the limited eavesdropping measures on foreign intercepts into the US by the Bush Administration and pushing them into areas that weren't even contemplated. True domestic wiretapping. Between sources that were entirely within the US. Think about that for a moment. For all those civil liberties folks who were complaining about the Bush Administration's efforts, I wonder whether they'll raise a voice to oppose Kerry's efforts to eavesdrop on whoever it is necessary to make America safer. Safer from who, Senator Kerry? Political opponents perhaps?

Call me a cynic, but Senator Kerry isn't exactly someone I'd trust on this issue.

Of course, the real problem is that the damage is already done, and there's not much that can be done to rebuild the capability - the terrorists know of our capabilities and may have already shifted resources and communications to other more difficult means to intercept.

Others blogging: Stop the ACLU and Flopping Aces

UPDATE:
Added the link to the CNN story that carried Kerry's comments. The story was picked up by numerous publications. The context may also help:

Kerry insisted, "We're prepared to eavesdrop wherever and whenever necessary in order to make America safer. But we put a procedure in place to protect the constitutional rights of Americans."

That tempers the original text, but not that much. The fact is that Kerry thinks that he's better suited to protecting American constitutional rights, whereas his thoughts on the subject are decidedly mixed - especially when seen as starting first and foremost with the right to keep the nation safe from further terrorist attacks.