Spying on Al-Qaida

The House Republicans walked out in protest today because Democrats are refusing to bring up a bill reauthorizing the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act. The current act expires Friday at midnight. The bill allows surveillance on foreign terrorism suspects communicating with other foreigners without a warrant for up to one year. However, these communications often involve US telecom companies through their global networks. The bill also gives telecom companies immunity from lawsuits that may result from their efforts to help track terrorists. This is all terribly controversial for the MoveOn.org crowd that runs the Democrat party. It also doesn't hurt that 66 trial lawyers that have represented plaintiffs against these phone companies for turning records over to the Bush Administration have donated at least $1.5 million to 44 current Democrats (and only $4,250 to Republicans). The Senate barely passed this legislation, although 29 Democratic Senators voted against it (Obama and Hillary both opposed it though they did not vote). 24 of these Senators (including Obama and Hillary) took money from the lawyers suing telecoms. Without protection, the telecoms will be hesitant to help track down terrorists.

The Dems are always talking about special interests, only theirs don't count (labor unions, environmental wackos, trial lawyers, the Chinese) because they're not big (evil) business. Maybe if Al-Qaeda was doing steroids they would be interested.

Iraq - A Quagmire for Al-Qaida

More good news out of Iraq: the Washington Post is reporting that attacks against civilians and US troops are down 55% over the last nine months and Jack Kelly from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (ht Rush Limbaugh) makes a compelling case that Al-Qaida has suffered big losses in personnel and in their reputation in the Muslim world. After the fall of Saddam, Al-Qaida chose to make Iraq the main battle ground against the US. Now they have been driven from most populated areas and have to hide out in the mountains. Al-Qaida's attacks have killed many Iraqis and the population has largely turned against them. Where are these stories? Kelly notes:

When U.S. troop deaths hit a monthly high in April, that was front-page news in most major newspapers, Mr. Benedetto noted. But when U.S. troop deaths fell in October to their lowest levels in 17 months, that news was buried on page A-14 of The Washington Post and mentioned on Page A-12 in The New York Times.

In the same Washington Post article I linked to above, the author wonders why Bush's approval ratings remain so low, despite the improving situation in Iraq and North Korea. Could it be that whenever a Republican President is in office we get blasted with non-stop bad news? If the war is going better, it's not reported, instead we read about global warming or an income gap.