ret. FBI agent's op-ed on FISA changes. No Paper would print

[annm4peace]

FULL DISCLOSURE: I wrote the following op-ed almost two weeks ago when an abundance of wishful thinking and the importance and timeliness of the push for FISA changes, investigation of the administration's out-of-control, error-laced terror watch list and other national security-civil liberty issues deluded me into thinking there was a chance of publication in the main stream media. Although one newspaper did apparently give it serious consideration, the op-ed got turned down in the ensuing two weeks by a succession of three different newspapers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/coleen-rowley/skirting-the-law-does-not_b_94126.html

But since the president seems incapable of admitting a mistake (or certainly his own illegal actions), he still falsely seeks to blame the law itself as being the problem. That's what the president's men have done in castigating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), forcing Congress to pass the "Protect America Act" and in seeking immunity for telecommunications companies who followed their illegal orders. Additionally, by dismantling the Intelligence Oversight Board that's been in place since the FISA became law and refusing to appoint qualified persons to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board recommended by the 9/11 Commission, Bush and Cheney hope US citizens will remain none the wiser.

By and large, human errors, not the law, and certainly not lack of pertinent intelligence, were the problem to begin with. It's too bad the American people are being so misled because it is certainly not making them any safer.