Support For Bush/NSA From Carter Guy

Jack O'Neill was Pres. Carters telecommunications guy in the White House, so he knew what the NSA, CIA and FBI were up to in the world of high tech communications monitoring. And knowing this, he thinks Pres. Bush's use of unwarranted NSA searches are a good thing.

In a WashTimes op/ed, O'Neill points to the 2002 capture of top al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah in Pakistan, which came with a treasure trove of email addresses, cell phone numbers, and personal phone directories.

Some of Zubaydah's telephone numbers and e-mail addresses are in the United States. How long do you think these domestic numbers would remain active after
Zubaydah's arrest is made public? Hours? One day? Two?

In other words, not long enough to get a warrant. The investigations would have to be completed before word of Zubaydah's capture made it over here.

As reported by the New York Times, Mr. Bush issued his executive order allowing the NSA to rapidly follow Zubaydah type contacts as they are discovered and to monitor only the international communications from Zubaydah type contacts on American soil. The FBI takes over monitoring their subsequent domestic-to-domestic communications.

The president has the ultimate responsibility for Americans' security. His executive order, as reported by the New York Times, is a reasonable assistance to our intelligence agencies.

If we want the CIA, NSA and FBI to "find the dots," they must be freed to work as a lighting-fast team.

h/t RealClearPolitics