POST SCRIPTS

I'm in LA on business and during the drive in I saw a billboard again for KTLK 1150 "Progressive Newstalk" which rebroadcasts "Air America".

Listening to this over two hours, it was nonstop Bush bash...no mention of anything else...in the period of an hour, I counted over 30 pointed putdowns of "Bush Administration" "W", "Herr President", "that lying usurper of the White House" and 3 different juvenile voice parody skits of President Bush talking...all over this money transaction intelligence program...all anger, no substance. Just the same message over and over again.."Bush is bad". No mention of Al-Quaeda. Want to hear the whining firsthand? You can listen with streaming audio at http://www.progressivetalk1150.com

Never mind that there's already a law on the books that Banks have to report to the Feds any private money transfers of over $10,000....no this intelligence gathering is apparently a whole "new" thing. Besides, the IRS already knows all about your Bank account.

They are welcome to look at mine anytime. Besides, this intelligence program is a data sifting algorithm, they look for patterns of transactions, like $100,000 from Yemen wired to Brooklyn once a month...then they get a warrant to actually look at the account. Its the same for the phone call number logs they are in a tizzy over. The Feds don't PERSONALLY look at everbody's private info...there's not enough actual time for all government employees in the USA to even scratch the surface of the entire nations phone or bank records. Its a physical impossibility! The computer algorithm looks for data patterns, and if your data floats to the top, you then become a "person or business of interest" and then the warrant is issued to look deeper. Probable cause.

This NY Times take is flawed. Its a political smear at the expense of national security. And a few other newspapers are saying exactly that in editorials. Now Al-Quaeda will just go further underground. No wire transfers anymore, just cash brought by couriers that slip in from Canada or Mexico.

If this were WWII I'm pretty certain FDR or Truman would have the Times editors on both coasts worrying about a few things. Like whether or not publishing national defense intelligence is a violation of the law in this case. I seem to recall FDR may have briefly jailed an editor as a warning for publishing things that aided the enemy.

Freedom of the press must be protected, but the security of the United States trumps that on occasion.

Of course there will be those that claim that the war powers act doesn't apply, that we are not at war. The fact is we are, except this war, unlike all others we fought before doesn't have an enemy that wears uniforms, nor pays attention to the Geneva convention, nor takes prisoners then houses them "humanely", but rather preferring to use them as pawns for the world media stage by killng them on-camera.

The USA's and world's laws on waging war (such as the WPA and Geneva Convention) haven't caught up with this war of Jihadic lunacy yet.

Mr. Watts, that last statement sums up a huge portion of our problems in Iraq.

I love the "excuse" that this story wasn't reporting anything new! If that's the case then it wasn't a story. The only reason for publishing it was to smear the administration. If they wanted to do something for the country they could have let the administration know who leaked...now that would be support for the mission!

I agree with Nick,Anthony, your last sentence says it all. I suppose these issues will be addressed later but I can't in the moment imagine what kind of "rules" could be imposed on terrorist activities since terrorism is about being outside the rules. It's rather like dealing with a rabid animal except that an animal doesn't have cunning and smarts.

If the front-runners on the Left had a brain between them they should have jumped all over this story with indignation the second it came out.
Clinton and Kerry and the other halfwits from the Left are always telling us how they "support the troop's but not the war". This would have been a grand opportunity to prove that and solidify some of those middle of the road votes they are going to need but as yet, do not have.
They should have pounded the press for printing this story, LOL too bad they can't do that!
The Left is owned, lock, stock and baby killing machine by the liberal media, they have sold what integrity they ever had long ago to that media and can't speak out against it if they want to get reelected.
The liberal media on the other hand has nothing at risk because they are scum and this is what they do.
LOL, the Left say they know what is best for our nation!

And now the "Supremes" have let us (as a nation)down as well with their wacky ruling on the residents of Gitmo...might as well call it Gitmo Glenn now, they are more like American apartment dwellers with their new citizen status...I expect the kind and caring left will find a way to build them a weight room complete with spa to make up for their terrible ordeal. Arghhhhh!

It isn't as if President Bush is gathering up all the Arab-Americans in this Country and putting them in camps or anything like that. Could you imagine what the Left would say if a President ever did something like that? I bet There would be screams from the Left for 60 years, or maybe not.

Toby, You may be on to something! do you suppose we could gather up the left and put them in Gitmo....naw! But I can dream can't I?