It’s a shame that Jimmy Carter-appointee Anna Diggs Taylor saw fit to rule against a tool for defending citizens that has repeatedly proven successful… including this past week when thousands of innocent men, women and children were spared “The Big One“.

Let’s remember who the plaintiffs are in this case:

They include Noel Saleh, a man who has proudly admitted funding Hezbollah, Mohammed Abdrabboh, a Palestinian attorney who admits in this very lawsuit that he represents terrorism suspects (despite having sworn prior to the contrary), Nabih Ayad, whose friends “openly donated millions to HAMAS and privately raised money for Iraqi insurgents at a Los Angeles area fundraiser,” and Nazih Hassan, a member of a group founded with HAMAS money.

It’s interesting what these plaintiffs claimed about the surveillance program, too:

The ACLU filed the lawsuit in January on behalf of journalists, scholars and lawyers who say the program has made it difficult for them to do their jobs. They believe many of their overseas contacts are likely targets of the program, which monitors international phone calls and e-mails to or from the U.S. involving people the government suspects have terrorist links.

They “believe many of their overseas contacts are likely targets” of a program which monitors communications with people outside the U.S. suspected of having “terrorist links”? Well, no wonder they don’t want the government to know what they’re saying or plotting.

The ACLU says the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which set up a secret court to grant warrants for such surveillance, gave the government enough tools to monitor suspected terrorists.

In 1978, the 32-bit VAX systems were the industry standard (only being used by large institutions), and cell phones were used by less than 500 people around the world. A law established in that year to regulate the “electronic surveillance and physical search of persons engaged in espionage or international terrorism against the United States on behalf of a foreign power” is outdated in this day and age of instant messaging, disposable cell phones and an enemy who’s repeatedly tried to exploit our security gaps in furtherance of their declared goal to kill us all. Asking investigators to jump through hoops that could take hours or days when a lead could go cold in less than an hour is dangerous.

Opponents of this security program (which is supported by over 60% of Americans) paint it as a system designed by George W. Bush and a few buddies on the golf course in an attempt to install a fascist dictatorship in America. What they fail to acknowledge is the oversight of this system includes it being periodically reviewed by Congress (including Democrats like Nancy Pelosi).

To say nothing of what 5 former FISA judges have said about the program:

…a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act does not override the president’s constitutional authority to spy on suspected international agents under executive order.

“If a court refuses a FISA application and there is not sufficient time for the president to go to the court of review, the president can under executive order act unilaterally, which he is doing now,” said Judge Allan Kornblum, magistrate judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida and an author of the 1978 FISA Act. “I think that the president would be remiss exercising his constitutional authority by giving all of that power over to a statute.”

So bottom line, this case is about Carter appointee incorrectly ruling on an ACLU-concocted lawsuit on behalf of admitted anti-American terrorist sympathizers challenging a type of program that has succeeded in thwarting massive terror plots on multiple occasions, claiming the President is wilfully breaking the law, despite the program having Congressional oversight and overwhelming support in the Justice Department, the legal community and the American public.

While our minimum wage airport security officials are focusing on shaving cream and toothpaste, the terrorists are being handed a gaping loophole in security by the liberal Left and their terror-loving “plaintiffs”.

Thanks.

Others:
Old Soldier wants to thank the ACLU for being so helpful… to terrorists.
Confederate Yankee correctly identifies one of the ACLU’s tactics in securing this bad judgment… forum shopping.
“The Great One” weighs in.
Volokh analyzes the decision.

1. […] First, the Texas Rainmaker tells us of a “gift that keeps on giving,” as Carter-appointed federal judge Anna Diggs Taylor decided that President Bush’s beleaguered phone-monitoring program was illegal. …[B]ottom line, this case is about [a] Carter appointee incorrectly ruling on an ACLU-concocted lawsuit on behalf of admitted anti-American terrorist sympathizers challenging a type of program that has succeeded in thwarting massive terror plots on multiple occasions, claiming the President is wilfully breaking the law, despite the program having Congressional oversight and overwhelming support in the Justice Department, the legal community and the American public. […]

   Pingback by Lone Star Pundit » Blog Archive » Jimmy Cracked Corn and He Don’t Care — 7:41 am
   

2. I wantta know when we are gonna start a class action law suit against the ACLU and some of this idiots that are working overtime to get us all killed.
   I bet we could keep them tied up for years in court.

   Comment by Patty — 8:05 am
   

3. Everyone should be sleeping better at night knowing that the ACLU is looking out for our best national interests and security. They were even willing to go to bat for four Arabs who think their ability to do business (with terrorists) might be somewhat hampered by our mean old NSA program. And the stellar judge was even able to find another ‘right’ within this case - the right to absolute privacy within which our enemies can plot and plan to kill thousands of our people. It just astounds me the compassion these liberals have for the little guys.

   If these ACLU bastards would commit as much energy to helping secure this country from our declared enemy, perhaps we wouldn’t have to worry about the next 9-11 or 8-16.

   Jason, God bless you for resisting the dark side.

   Comment by Old Soldier — 9:33 am
   

4. Hamas and Hezhollah are Israel’s problem… Israel is our problem… We need to abandon them…

   And you have to be stupid to believe this program is necessary or proper - to believe the administration needs to keep this secrect from the secret court to carry out necessary activities.

   You have to be stupider to believe the full scope of the program has been revealed…

   But you have to be stupider still to believe this won’t be abused or expanded in the future… Like when Hillary is President… Do you want Mrs. Co-President FBI files Clinton wielding this?

   And you have to be ultimately stupid to believe this power will ever be relinquished. This un-war will never end and neither will the expansions of authority it creates.

   Stupid, and Un-American… A good description of the remains of the neocons…

   We must return the Congress to the Democrats; impeach and convict Bush. Not because he’s Repub or because he’s Bush but because of the precident. We stop this now or degenerate into a police state. And if that happens, we should be destroyed.

   Comment by Playin Possum — 7:36 pm
   

5. playin possum, and you have to be supremely stupid to believe that garbage you just spewed! You really should have that BDS seen about before it becomes terminal.

   Comment by Old Soldier — 7:56 pm
   

6. […] Well, a judge has ruled against the program, despite some of the obvious precedents and reasons for it. Bush will be taking it to a higher court, and I pretty much expect it to be fought all the way up the line. What gets me is that some of the political vampires in the senate are still acting like they never heard of the program before it was publicised, even though they were being briefed on it the whole time! […]

   Pingback by Tai-Chi Policy » The NSA wiretapping program — 8:42 pm
   

7. #4. You are positive proof that man descended from MONKEY!

   Comment by Judith — 8:42 pm
   

8. Based upon recent rulings against big tobacco, I’m confident that the ACLU can be taken apart under RICO statutes and their assets seized.

   http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/17/health/main1907353.shtml?CMP=ILC-SearchStories

   The money quote:

   “This is the first time they’ve been found to violate the racketeering statute. For crying out loud that’s significant. They’re racketeers.” -Sharon Eubanks, former head of the government’s tobacco team

   If a legitimate business like this could be ruled a racket…

   We’re close to breaking our enemies, men.

   Comment by A. Truman North — 8:40 am
   

9. Red the full opinion on my site, Conservative Digest

   http://condig.blogspot.com/

   Before a liberal takes it down with a DoS attack…

   Comment by A. Truman North — 8:52 am
   

10. […] Looks like the Carter-appointed judge was just a little too cozy with one of the plaintiffs. According to her 2003 and 2004 financial disclosure statements, Judge Diggs Taylor served as Secretary and Trustee for the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan (CFSEM). She was reelected to this position in June 2005. The official CFSEM website states that the foundation made a “recent grant” of $45,000 over two years to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan, a plaintiff in the wiretapping case. Judge Diggs Taylor sided with the ACLU of Michigan in her recent decision. […]

    Pingback by Texas Rainmaker » About That NSA Ruling… — 12:04 pm
    

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