"We only wiretap Al Q members." This really bothers me...logically...

[Atman]

...if they KNOW they're ONLY wiretapping communications involving Al Q, then they MUST know enough about the wire-tapee to know that they are Al Q. If Al Q is the "ememy," and Bush can detain them at Gitmo and torture them at Abu Ghraib, why can't they just round up the Al Q members instead of all this bullshit wiretapping? I mean, the have to know something about the general whereabouts, etc, to be able to say conclusively that they are tapping an Al Q's phone, right? Wouldn't their time be better spent just arresting/detaining/blowing up/imprisoning/water-boarding, etc, instead of just wiretapping friends and family?

Isn't this part of the reason the WTC was allowed to be blown up, because we had FBI agents rooming with Al Q members and watching them, instead of busting their fucking asses?

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. This has always been my problem. How do you know?

How Do We Know more importantly.

[liberal N proud]

2. More repuke bull shit.

[LynnTheDem]

3. The sec of Homeland Security testified this is BULLSHIT.

THOUSANDS of INNOCENT AMERICANS were caught up in bush's illegal data-mining.

[EFerrari]

4. Then why do they have access to MY records? Bull. n/t

[stillcool]

5. Here's something that messes with my...

mind...If NSA already has the whole Echelon thing...and then you add in the Patriot Act,... who can't they listen to? Whatever there is there, is not being addressed...

[gilpo]

6. Uhh....Because they are LYING?

They are tapping the phones of political enemies and the press. Gotta keep 'ur eye on them subversives.....

[JohnnyRingo]

7. "Only Al Qada members"......Then where are they?

Why aren't they under arrest?
Why are they allowed to continue their lives here?

No arrests to date, and no progress to be shown.
Am I supposed to believe that, with Buxh's numbers in the gutter, he doesn't want to tout the good work he's done to keep our country safe?

Four and a half years of wiretapping anyone they want and they haven't arrested one terrorist?
But I'm led to believe that thousands of suspects have been surveiled and every one of them has "ties to Al Qada".
Every one of them!

[Avalux]

8. No kidding. I want to see evidence.

They ought to be able to produce results - if they were successful in catching Al Qaeda members and keeping us 'safer' through wiretapping, where are the arrests?

Because it's a big lie. This whole terrorism thing is being used as an excuse to do whatever the hell the bastards want and I'm sick of it.

[johnnydrama]

9. there is no answer

This is the one aspect that they can't squrim out of.

Either you are spying only on Al Quaeda, or you are spying on innocent Americans.

If 1 innocent American is caught in their program, than they've broken the law without question.

Where are the arrests. If you are a member of Al Quaeda, or talking to a member of Al Quaeda, then you
should be arrested.

How dumb do you have to be to not realize that?

[Marie26]

14. Also...

since these wiretaps aren't approved through FISA, they can't use the evidence for any criminal prosecution. It'd be tossed out of court. Plus, any evidence they eventually gather as a result of these illegal wiretaps is also excluded. That's why there's no way the government would use this program for actual targets of criminal investigation. If they go through FISA instead, they could use this evidence for criminal trials. So.. if the government is using these illegal wiretaps, it is because they have no intention of actually bringing the targeted people to trial. That's why they can't come up w/any examples of successful arrests from this program. So why are they doing it? Beats me.

But when Gonzales says they are doing this to arrest members of Al-Qaeda, he is lying. That couldn't be true.

[0rganism]

10. And that's exactly the rationale they'll use to take the next step

Of course, we'll have plenty of time to discuss it in the camps...

[Roland99]

11. There are thousands of Al Qaeda in the US? Why aren't they on trial??

[gratuitous]

12. Oh sure, there you go again, using logic

Don't you know that the war on terror is a different kind of war? Why, you can use facts and logic to prove anything that's even remotely true, but in the war on terror, the Super Administration of George W. Bush has no need for them!

Why do you hate America so much as to resort to the last refuge of the scoundrel -- facts and logic?

[SalmonChantedEvening]

13. If that were true....

Then the 72 window allowed by FISA would have been an easily met requirement of the law.

Logic (DAMN YOU LOGIC) would then dictate that people othe than Al-Q were being looked into.


You are filthy lying lawbreakers. Period.

[jazzjunkysue]

15. Who said, "We only prosecute the guilty?" Give up? Cardassians

And everyone who is prosecuted is declared guilty immediately. "Why waste money on a trial when you already know they're guilty? It's wrong to prosecute an innocent man."

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine