In The News - Feb. 05

Eavesdropping targets only al Qaeda: US official (Reuters) - 5 Feb 2006 at 1:49pm - Reuters - A U.S. domestic eavesdropping program targets only people suspected of ties to al Qaeda and there is no broad net cast over Americans' communications overseas, the architect of the effort said on Sunday.

So there should be no problem getting a FISA approval, since apparantly there is such good reason to suspect these people of having ties to al Qaida? In my view, it will be crucial to have those testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee explain in detail the criteria for establishing "suspicion of ties to al Qaida" for purposes of inclusion in the formerly-secret program. It will be a good thing if the process is more rigorous than that used to decide to which WMD intelligence to give credence.

Specter Believes Spy Program Violates Law (AP) - 5 Feb 2006 at 12:39pm - AP - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' explanations so far for the Bush administration's failure to obtain warrants for its domestic surveillance program are "strained" and "unrealistic," the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman said Sunday.

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Michelle Malkin, on the U.S.S.-Cole-attackers jailbreak in Yemen: "I'm just wondering, in advance of the Senate hearings tomorrow on the NSA terrorist surveillance program: If Badawi has access to a cell phone, and calls an al Qaeda operative here in the U.S. to give the go-ahead on a mass terrorist plot, and that plot is executed killing thousands of innocent people on American soil, who will the NYTimes editors and Democrat leaders blame? Hmmm?"

Hmmm, indeed. Well, I expect they would blame Badawi and the al Qaida operative. Maybe Michelle thinks they would blame someone else. Bush? I have no idea. Is she suggesting that NY Times editors and Democrat leaders would object to having such a call monitored? Presumably the FISA court would approve of eavesdropping on phone conversations between Jamal Ahmed Badawi, convicted mastermind of the 2000 attack on the American destroyer Cole, and anyone inside the United States, whether or not war has been declared on the perpetrators of the Sep-2001 attacks in the United States. I don't know the FISA court would approve; that's why it's advisable to actually go to the court and seek approval.