Death by Lawyers, US Troops

How Many Lawyers Does it Take? Death by FISA

From the New York Post

"The intelligence community was forced to abandon our soldiers because of the law," a senior congressional staffer with access to the classified case told The Post.

"How many lawyers does it take to rescue our soldiers?" he asked. "It should be zero."

I couldn't say it any better.:

Gerald

By By Bluto at October 15, 2007 01:04 PM

From Mypetjawa

The search for SPC Alex Jimenez was held up for nearly ten hours while lawyers quibbled querulously over the ramifications of FISA:

October 15, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence officials got mired for nearly 10 hours seeking approval to use wiretaps against al Qaeda terrorists suspected of kidnapping Queens soldier Alex Jimenez in Iraq earlier this year, The Post has learned.

This week, Congress plans to vote on a bill that leaves in place the legal hurdles in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act - problems that were highlighted during the May search for a group of kidnapped U.S. soldiers.

Even though the cell phones they wanted to tap were operating within Iraq, because the conversations were shunted through US hubs, they were subject to FISA restrictions.

Alex Jimenez has not been found. Al Qaeda says they murdered him and and buried him.

Lot of good stuff at Jawa today:

Turkey Lurking or the DEMS join Insurgents?

Why Do Jihadis Become Suicide Bombers?

nshallashshaheed Outted: North Carolina Jihadi in the News (UPDATED)

Gerald
I've been very busy, this WE sorry

100 Americans, thousands overseas monitored.

National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell pulled the curtain back
on previously classified details of government surveillance and of a
secretive court whose recent rulings created new hurdles for the Bush
administration as it tries to prevent terrorism.

During an interview with the El Paso Times last week, McConnell made
comments that raised eyebrows for their frank discussion of
previously classified eavesdropping work conducted under the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA.

McConnell said it takes 200 hours to assemble a FISA warrant on a
single telephone number. "We're going backwards," he said. "We
couldn't keep up."

_ Offering never-disclosed figures, McConnell also revealed that
fewer than 100 people inside the United States are monitored under FISA warrants. However, he said, thousands of people overseas are monitored.

Even as he shed new light on the classified operations, McConnell
asserted that the current debate in Congress about whether to update
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will cost American lives
because of all the information it revealed to terrorists.

"Part of this is a classified world. The fact that we're doing it
this way means that some Americans are going to die," he said.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/08/22/ap4045204.html

Spy Chief Reveals Classified Details
By KATHERINE SHRADER 08.22.07, 4:04 PM ET