The importance of nextTuesday’s election to the security of each and every Americancan be summed up in a single thirty-second spot, called “Wiretap.”
It was written by former Clinton pollster Dick Morris, and is beingaired nationwide by Dave Bossie’s CitizensUnited, a conservativeinterest group.
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Here is the script.
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Two Arabic-speakers are discussing an imminent terrorist attack, asan NSA tape-recorder captures their conversation.
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“All is now prepared,” says the first.
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“Is everything in place?
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“It is done. When do we attack?
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“Be prompt. Plant the bomb at—“
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At that point, the screen goes blank, and the narrator delivers thecome-on: “This terrorist wiretap has been disconnected by aDemocrat-controlled Congress.”
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Referring to Democratic party opposition to the President’sterrorist-surveillance program, the narrator then says: “If theDemocrats win, the NSA won’t be allowed to listen as terroristsplot attacks.”
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Liberal commentator Alan Colmes, partner with Sean Hannity on theFoxNews channel, was beside himself with indignation on Oct. 30 whenhe grilled Dick Morris on what he called a “dishonest”bit of negative political advertising.
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The Democrats are not against the Patriot Act, he argued. “Onlyparts of it. They are against doing it without a warrant.”
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Thankfully, Morris set Colmes straight. Warrantless wiretapping hasnothing to do with the Patriot Act, but with an NSA program, launchedin utter secret shortly after the September 11 attacks, to “trollthe water front” for potential threats to the UnitedStates.
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When individuals living overseas with known terrorist connectionsphone a number in the United States, President Bush ordered the NSAto listen in – just in case.
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You would think it would be a no-brainer, but it’s not.Democrats from Nancy Pelosi to Alcee Hastings, the prospectivechairman of the House intelligence committee, have all vowed to put astop to the practice, and require the NSA to get a warrant for eachand every phone call or email or other communication they want tointercept.
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To get those warrants, the NSA will need to go to the ForeignIntelligence Surveillance court and prove “probable cause.”Hard to do, when the subject, as Dick Morris points out, is “thebridge in the Godzilla movie.”
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How do you go to a judge and say, we think this gentleman in Brooklynis potentially conspiring to commit at terrorist act because we heardhim talking about “the bridge in the Godzilla movie”?
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As it turns out, that is a real case. The terrorists were referringto the Brooklyn bridge. When the NSA figured that out, they phonedthe NYPD, who flooded the bridge with cops.
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“Then they picked up in their intercept it’s too hot towork on the Brooklyn Bridge,” Morris said. Because of theintercept, and the quick reaction by the NYPD, the terrorists wereforced to abandon the plot.
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The world of real-time intelligence moves almost as fast as theelectrons that convey messages over phone lines. The problem is notso much that the FISA court won’t approve terrorist-suspectwiretaps, but the incredible amount of time it takes to pull togetherthe application.
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FBI agents just roll their eyes when asked about FISA applications.They can take weeks, even months to compile. “The last thingyou want is to go the court and have your application turned down,”one FBI special agent told me.
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The whole process is simply not built for speed or efficiency, as theNational Review’s Byron York pointedout last year. “Itis built with an eye to keeping [investigators] in check.”
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Earlier this year, 71 House Democrats joined with independent BernieSanders (now running for U.S. Senate in Vermont) to block the NSAfrom continuing to monitor terrorist phone calls.
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Joining with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center forConstitutional rights, they filed an amicus brief in two federalcourts reviewing challenges to the warrantless wiretapping program inDetroit and New York.
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Both lawsuits demanded that the NSA terrorist surveillance program beended, pure and simple. Leading the charge was Michigan Democrat JohnConyers, in line to be the next chairman of the House Judiciarycommittee, should the Democrats win a majority of the House nextTuesday.
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"As our brief makes clear, this Congress dealt with this issueauthoritatively almost 30 years ago - warrantless spying on Americansoil is flatly prohibited,” Conyers said.
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Rep. Jane Harman, currently the ranking member of the Houseintelligence committee, sponsored legislation along with Conyers andHastings earlier this year that would require the NSA to get awarrant for each and every communication it sought to monitor.
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Called the “Lawful Intelligence and Surveillance of Terroristsin an Emergency by NSA Act, or the LISTEN Act,H..R.5371 could become lawshould Democrats win the House.
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"As one who has been briefed on this program, I strongly disagreewith (NSA Director) Gen. Alexander," Rep.Harman said in July,when Republican legislation aimed at broadening existenceeavesdropping statutes came before the House. "The numbers (oftargets requiring a warrant) are manageable, and the principle isnon-negotiable."
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The Democrats have decided to run against George W. Bush in everyrace across the nation. That puts issues such as the NSA terroristsurveillance program right on the front burner. The Democrat plan –such as it is – will gut this and other programs needed tofight terrorists, capture terrorists, and interrogate terrorists, toprevent attacks against Americans and on American soil.
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Dick Morris put a clean cap on it all. “This year, vote likeyour life depends on it,” the“Wiretap” ad winds up.
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“Because it does.”
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