We see again and again examples of why the FISA prudes, who will not allow NSA detected leads discovered while LEGALLY surveying international terrorists to be followed up by FBI investigations PRIOR to a FISA court ruling (which would enable electronic surveillance on those leads specifically – and not before hand). Today we see another example from Europe – the supposed enlightened side of “The Pond”:

olice around Europe arrested at least 14 suspected Islamic extremists yesterday in an operation targeting an Italy-based network that allegedly trained and dispatched suicide bombers from Europe to battle zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, authorities said.

…

During a wiretapped conversation in a moving car in Italy, a chief suspect explained how to carry out a vehicle-bomb attack, Italian antiterror officials said. Raids in Milan, Bergamo, and Reggio Emilia turned up manuals with instructions on poisons, long-distance detonating systems, and bomb-making, officials said.

Although investigators found no signs of plans for an attack in Europe, the Milan cell grew out of a network dismantled in 2005 that allegedly plotted bombings in France and Italy, Italian counterterrorism officials said.

For some reason the lousy socialistic medicine system from Europe is OK for America but not much more aggressive European security processes (even more aggressive than those now being used by the Bush administration). Go figure. Under the liberal suicide pact pushed by Democrats in Congress, if this phone call had been detected by the NSA (which it probably could have been) but in the US the Democrats would rather the FBI run to a judge and explain the obvious (“this is an important lead”) before investigating. The ability to change phones, switch to internet based communications (including IP phones) and other factors make time to act critical. And no, 72 hours is not enough time to focus on this event and start identifying all the related targets and beginning to act.

The fact is we can trust our national defense army (and it is an army) to use their powers judiciously and not allow one person to exploit it. There are too many people in the loop on these things. Liberal paranoia of a possible second coming of Richard Nixon is not a good reason to NOT protect free and innocent people from mad jihadists.