Did New Spy Law Help Foil Terror Plot?

(CBS)  The Skinny is Keach Hagey's take on the top news of the day and the best of the Internet.

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The three Islamic militants arrested last week and charged with planning bomb attacks in Germany were nabbed with help from U.S. intelligence gathered through a controversial new eavesdropping law, the national intelligence director Mike McConnell told senators yesterday, according to the New York Times.

But the Times reports that another government official is challenging that assertion, suggesting that McConnell "might have misspoken."

McConnell claimed the information was obtained under a newly updated and highly contentious wiretapping law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The anonymous official "who has been briefed on eavesdropping laws and the information given to the Germans" said the intercepts were actually recovered last year under the old law.

The previous law required officials to seek warrants to monitor at least some phone calls and e-mail message between foreign locations when they were collected through fiber-optic cable running through the United States. The new law waives the requirement - and is scheduled to expire in about five months.

The Bush administration is in the midst of "an intensifying effort" to make the law permanent, the Times reports, while Democrats want more civil liberties built in.

No one - at least not the Times reporter - was able to get to the definitive bottom yesterday of how the useful intel was obtained. When told that McConnell's testimony was being disputed, a spokesman for the intelligence director declined to comment.

The Germans have said American intercepts of e-mails and phone calls between Germany and Pakistan and Turkey tipped them off to the plot last year.

Tighter Security For Private Planes

The Homeland Security Department will use the sixth anniversary of 9/11 to announce new security restrictions on private airplanes flying into the United States, USA Today reports.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the paper on the eve of the anniversary that the lack of new rules rules was a "major gap" - though apparently not major enough to require action during the past six years.

Under the new rules, private pilots coming from overseas will have to send U.S. officials the names, birth dates and "other information" about passengers one hour before takeoff. They currently provide this information just before landing. The idea is to give Customs agents time to check names against terrorists watchlists.

A Homeland Security spokesman said there is "no information indicating a specific or immanent threat" from private planes. Apparently it's just hard for Homeland Security officials to get into the 9/11 spirit without tightening the restrictions on something.

Aborting New York's Primary Day - Again

Heavy rain splattered New York City's sidewalks this morning, a stark contrast to that eerily clear, sunny morning six years ago when the World Trade Center was attacked. Yet there is one aspect of this 9/11 anniversary that makes it more like the day it commemorates than any other anniversary so far: It's Tuesday.

Specifically, it's the second Tuesday in September, which, according to New York tradition, is usually Primary Day. But this year, the New York Times columnist Clyde Haberman writes that "in May, barely noticed by most New Yorkers, the Legislature and the governor delayed the primaries until next Tuesday, Sept. 18."

The politicians reached the decision in virtual "lock step," according to Haberman. Political consultant Jerry Skurnik explains: "We should vote on Sept. 11, but the problem is that people are going to attack candidates for campaigning."

Haberman wonders if, on an anniversary on which banks are open and sports teams play, it's really appropriate to bar New Yorkers from exercising democracy normally.

"Couldn't we remember and vote at the same time?" he asks.

Apparently not.

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[gramto7]

You are an idiot and your opinion is based on absolutely stupidity. THE ARTICLE JUST STATED THAT IT WAS HELPFUL!!! What''''s even more shocking is your ignorant position on a day like 9 11. Saving thousands of lives is NOT irrelevant. Seriously, how actually stupid are you? 3000 people lost there freedom. THEY ARE DEAD because our intelligence community was stripped and degraded for years by Clinton.
Posted by bizzzz

This is a pile of bovine fecal material!! Clinton and his administration tried to pass on information that there was impending problems, but Bush and his national security adviser, Condi, couldn''t be bothered. They didn''t want to hear about it and when it did happen just sat like lumps in a classroom reading "My Pet Goat"!

[feelfree1]

Re: "Did New Spy Law Help Foil Terror Plot?"

Very doubtful, but irrelevant.

The important thing is that those who authorized and those who implement this law should be posecuted for such a gross violation of our Constitution.

Without our Constitution, we stand for nothing, and we surrender anything worth fighting for.

[lars008-2009]

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature, and has no chance of being free unless made or kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. John Stuart Mill

It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it. Robert E. Lee

A self-respecting nation is ready for anything, including war, except for a renunciation of its option to make war. Simone Weil

If there must be trouble let it be in my day, that my child may have peace. Thomas Paine

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Winston Churchill

One ought never to turn one''s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Winston Churchill

[pepperp1]

Lies and Lies folks lies......






You are being lied to again by Bushs lackeys, Bush is not listening to the Generals, that is false, he is listening to one who agrees and parrots his words his political agenda.

A separate internal report being prepared by a Pentagon working group will %u201Cdiffer substantially%u201D from Petraeus%u2019s recommendations,


The Pentagon will %u201Crecommend a very rapid reduction in American forces: as much as two-thirds of the existing force very quickly, while keeping the remainder there.%u201D The strategy will involve unwinding the still large U.S. presence in big forward operation bases and putting smaller teams in outposts.




Do not be distracted the facts are simple the math just as simple, the guilty sacrificing our soldiers and their lives unnecessary are the Republicans in the Senate Bush and Petraeus can not keep our troops in Iraq if 17 Republican Senators switch their vote for America and our Troops to change the mission.



CHOOSE LIFE FOR OUR TROOPS call your Senator and tell him 5 years later, 4,000 dead, 34,000 wounded, tens of thousands of Iraqi dead, and 2 Trillion is too much CHANGE THE MISSION.



28 Soldiers dead in 6 days since Bush declared we are kicking arse in IRAQ. Are soldiers are not to be sacrificed for there political stunts.

[phone] for the Senate, and [phone] for the House

[pepperp1]

Lies and Lies folks lies......






You are being lied to again by Bushs lackeys, Bush is not listening to the Generals, that is false, he is listening to one who agrees and parrots his words his political agenda.

A separate internal report being prepared by a Pentagon working group will %u201Cdiffer substantially%u201D from Petraeus%u2019s recommendations,


The Pentagon will %u201Crecommend a very rapid reduction in American forces: as much as two-thirds of the existing force very quickly, while keeping the remainder there.%u201D The strategy will involve unwinding the still large U.S. presence in big forward operation bases and putting smaller teams in outposts.




Do not be distracted the facts are simple the math just as simple, the guilty sacrificing our soldiers and their lives unnecessary are the Republicans in the Senate Bush and Petraeus can not keep our troops in Iraq if 17 Republican Senators switch their vote for America and our Troops to change the mission.



CHOOSE LIFE FOR OUR TROOPS call your Senator and tell him 5 years later, 4,000 dead, 34,000 wounded, tens of thousands of Iraqi dead, and 2 Trillion is too much CHANGE THE MISSION.



28 Soldiers dead in 6 days since Bush declared we are kicking arse in IRAQ. Are soldiers are not to be sacrificed for there political stunts.

[phone] for the Senate, and [phone] for the House

[pepperp1]

Lies and Lies folks lies......






You are being lied to again by Bushs lackeys, Bush is not listening to the Generals, that is false, he is listening to one who agrees and parrots his words his political agenda.

A separate internal report being prepared by a Pentagon working group will %u201Cdiffer substantially%u201D from Petraeus%u2019s recommendations,


The Pentagon will %u201Crecommend a very rapid reduction in American forces: as much as two-thirds of the existing force very quickly, while keeping the remainder there.%u201D The strategy will involve unwinding the still large U.S. presence in big forward operation bases and putting smaller teams in outposts.




Do not be distracted the facts are simple the math just as simple, the guilty sacrificing our soldiers and their lives unnecessary are the Republicans in the Senate Bush and Petraeus can not keep our troops in Iraq if 17 Republican Senators switch their vote for America and our Troops to change the mission.



CHOOSE LIFE FOR OUR TROOPS call your Senator and tell him 5 years later, 4,000 dead, 34,000 wounded, tens of thousands of Iraqi dead, and 2 Trillion is too much CHANGE THE MISSION.



28 Soldiers dead in 6 days since Bush declared we are kicking arse in IRAQ. Are soldiers are not to be sacrificed for there political stunts.

[phone] for the Senate, and [phone] for the House

[lmb02]

All the foreign terrorists have to do is produce videos. This administration is doing a much better job of disassembling the Constitution and our moral standing than anything terrorists could do. A majority of Americans want to wind down Iraq. A minority of GOP ChickenHawks tell them to sit on it. Yup, that''s the new American ideal. Now, of course, was this happening 6 years ago, all you supporters of Bush would be screaming at how Clinton was trampling our rights...

[lars008-2009]

We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately. Ben Franklin

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Ben Franklin

We make war that we may live in peace. Aristotle

It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war. John F. Kennedy

There''s a graveyard in northern France where all the dead boys from D-Day are buried. The white crosses reach from one horizon to the other. I remember looking it over and thinking it was a forest of graves. But the rows were like this, dizzying, diagonal, perfectly straight, so after all it wasn''t a forest but an orchard of graves. Nothing to do with nature, unless you count human nature. Barbara Kingsolver

They have not wanted Peace at all; they have wanted to be spared war -- as though the absence of war was the same as peace. Dorothy Thompson

There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy. George Washington

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain. John Adams

[lars008-2009]

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! March 23, 1775 Patrick Henry

USA''s PLEDGE 2 THE WORLD GIVEN BY JFK!!

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty." - John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1961

One ought never to turn one''s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Winston Churchill

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." Albert Einstein

[lars008-2009]

Franklin D. Roosevelt''s Infamy Speech
December 8, 1941/September 12, 2001
The facts of yesterday speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense.

Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounded determination of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God.