Eavesdropping Didn't Help Uncover Terrorist Plot

Posted by kdawson on Thursday September 13, 2007 @12:43AM from the on-second-thought dept.

crymeph0 writes "Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell asserted that the 'Protect America Act,' which frees the intelligence community from pesky things like judicial oversight while they eavesdrop on international conversations, was used to good effect in exposing the recently foiled terrorist plot to bomb US military facilities in Germany. Not so, according to other, anonymous, intelligence community officials. McConnell was forced to admit his errors in a phone call to Sen. Joe Lieberman. Turns out the military got wise to the bad guys months before the law was passed, simply due to alert military guards noticing odd behavior by some passers-by, a.k.a. good old fashioned police work."

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Re:So what are you trying to say? by BadAnalogyGuy · 2007-09-13 01:00 · Score: 0, Redundant

I'd actually rather have them watching the bad guys' every move.

Tell me something. How would they be able to know who the "bad guys" were in the first place? How would they be able to decide that you or I am not worth monitoring because we don't pose a threat, but that Ahmed and Yasir and their connections are worth investigating?