ANTI-TERROR ABCS
NEW YORK POST
Editorial
February 7, 2006
Even as Zacarias Moussaoui, shouting "I am al Qaeda!" was being hauled out of a Virginia courtroom yesterday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was being grilled by skeptical senators on President Bush's warrantless eavesdropping of suspected terrorists.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter — a Republican — joined knee-jerk Bush-bashers like Ted Kennedy and Patrick Leahy in their unwillingness to understand or to accept that America is in a global war on terrorism.
"There are a lot of people who think you're wrong," intoned Specter after Gonzales had eloquently defended the program, aimed at international communications, as both necessary and lawful.
Not surprisingly, some Democrats deliberately tried to mislead the public. Leahy, for one, compared the Bush program to the 1960s-era wiretapping of Martin Luther King Jr. — a gross distortion on several levels.
Fortunately, Gonzales was more than up to the task of explaining just what it is the administration is doing to protect the security of all Americans.
Recalling complaints that the administration failed to "connect the dots" before 9/11, Gonzales said:
"We have to collect the right dots before we can 'connect
the dots.' The terrorist surveillance program allows us
to collect more information concerning al Qaeda's plans —
and, critically, it allows us to locate al Qaeda
operatives, especially those already in the United States
and poised to attack."
Indeed, said Gonzales,
"The program provides the United States with the early-
warning system we so desperately needed on Sept. 10 . . .
We cannot forget that the Sept. 11 hijackers were in our
country, living in our communities."
As Gonzales rightly noted,
"it is hard to imagine a president who would not elect to
use these tools in defense of the American people — in
fact, it would be irresponsible to do otherwise."
Irresponsibility, however, is the province of those on Capitol Hill who don't seem fully to remember what they meant when, in the wake of 9/11, they authorized the president to use "all necessary and appropriate force" to prevent another terrorist attack.
President Bush and his administration are doing their jobs, against an enemy unlike any with which previous presidents have had to contend.
Congress needs to quit trying to tie their hands.
nypost.com |
