"Spy Effort No Longer Secret"

[freeplessinseattle]

That is the actual title of an article in today's Seattle PI, I can't believe the PI is printing such rubbish. If anyone is inspired to write a LTTE I encourage you to, this spin is outrageous.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/259258_spying13.html

Spy effort no longer secret
Lawmaker doubts surveillance is as effective anymore

By NEDRA PICKLER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- Al-Qaida has had plenty of time to figure out how to avoid government prying into its communications with associates in the United States, says a congressman overseeing U.S. intelligence, and that probably means the eavesdropping is no longer effective.

"Does anyone really believe that, after 50 days of having this program on the front page of our newspapers, across talk shows across America, that al-Qaida has not changed the way that it communicates?" asked Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. It's time to face the truth: We never had problems collecting the

information. It was the translating and the sharing of the information with other agencies where we failed miserably during the Bush years. So, maybe we should ask questions like:

(1) Why did the Bush Administration move to deplete the translators before 9/11? How did he know to target that particular group?

(2) Why did they demote Richard Clarke so quickly and interfere with a process that worked under the Clinton Administration? Remember, even though they put Condoleeza Rice in charge, everything was delegated to Dick Cheney.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Who Says The Press is Left?

This is scurrilous.

Bush's executive order did absolutely nothing to change spying on bad guys. The ONLY thing that it did was to evade the Judiciary, making it easier to spy on non-bad guys.

IIRC, the PI is usually a good paper - Seattlites should let them know of their naughtiness.

[liveoaktx]

3. VIDEO of Hoekstra saying that

On CanOFun

But Harman points out that Bush is the one that outed it

[lvx35]

4. dumb.

I hate when the media attacks itself for giving the people too much information. You just want to slap all of them. It is not the fucking media's responsibility to keep classified information secret. Secondly, the idea that AQ had no idea that their phone lines were being tapped before this is absurd too. I though my phone lines were tapped since 2001, and just because I'm a peace activist/civil rights proponent.

[justabob]

5. What really gets me

...is that they act like 'terrorists' didn't know Big Brother might be listening/reading communications before this story broke. :eyes: