Mar 03 2008
Saudis Round Up Lots Of al-Qaeda – NSA At Work?
The NSA is renowned the world over for its ability to surveillance just about anyone anywhere in the world. So I am curious if the Saudi actions this month and last to round up al-Qaeda operatives – who they claim are in contact with the al-Qaeda leadership hiding out in Pakistan or Afghanistan (or both) – is a product of our surveillance efforts and ability to coordinate with partner states in the Middle East:
Saudi Arabia said on Monday it has rounded up 28 more Al-Qaeda suspects after arresting an equal number in December who plotted “terrorist” attacks and were in contact with the group’s number two Ayman al-Zawahiri.
This brings to 56 the total number of members of the same group who have been detained and are linked to the Al-Qaeda leadership abroad, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the state SPA news agency.
The group had been instructed by the Al-Qaeda leadership to launch a “terrorist campaign” inside the kingdom, it said.
Interrogation of the first batch held in December, whose arrest was announced following an alleged plot to carry out a “terrorist” attack during the annual Muslim pilgrimage, showed they “belong to the deviant group (official terminology for Al-Qaeda) and were in contact with leaders of the Al-Qaeda organisation abroad,” the ministry said.
“They were instructed to rebuild the deviant organisation and launch a terrorist campaign inside Saudi Arabia. Preparations for these criminal plans had reached advanced stages,” it said.
Or it could simply be due to Saudi interrogation techniques. Either way, al-Qaeda is taking some major blows in their efforts to demonstrate their waning viability and ability to carry out bloody carnage. My guess is some of these folks with known, recent contact with Zawahiri, AQ’s second in command, will be providing clues on where to send the next round of predator missiles.
And this is just another possible example of why the fanciful fretting by the leftwing who keep worrying about the coming of Nixon’s ghost and unsubstantiated fear over rights abuses is not reason to blind our national defense apparatus. The people trying to protect this country have no time or desire to listen into the rantings from the far left. Let them do their jobs. There are plenty of rules and laws and checks and oversight to make sure no one abuses their authorities or loses focus of our enemies.
AJ,
You said: “There are plenty of rules and laws and checks and oversight to make sure no one abuses their authorities or loses focus of our enemies. ” Can you please provide some examples.
Start reading dude – you have a lot of catching up to do.
AJ,
The President gave a speech yesterday talking about that stalled
surveillance bill, reminded me I haven’t heard anything about it
since the House got back in session.
What is happening about this?
Dave M,
It’s going through an agreement to get it passed. The Dems in the House will split the bill into two parts (telecom immunity and reauthorization of the current rules). Somehow they feel that will make their loss better.
Have been holding off posting on it – maybe later today.
AJ,
That is what I expected – you can’t provide a single example of the so-called protections or checks in place. Rather than own up to it, you provide a link to the archive of all of your FISA posts and pretend like they contain the answer. I’ve read your FISA posts regularly and you never address this question – that is why I asked it here. Is it that hard to acknowledge that your wrong on this particular point (it doesn’t mean you have to acknowledge you are wrong about FISA generally)? Why do you feel the need to keep pretending like there are protections and checks in place if you don’t believe that they are necessary?
As I’ve said before, the difference between you and I on this issue is simple – you completely trust the government not to abuse its powers while I don’t. I agree that we need to change our surveillence laws to account for new times, but I think we can do so without adopting a system that has absolutely no protections or checks. Your claim that the government will not abuse these powers ignores the fact that Bush has been violating FISA since 2001 (this latest FISA amendment is an effort to legalize these activities after the NSA program became public) and the FBI’s admission in 2007 that it violated the Patroit Act requirements in numerous instances. So we really don’t need to go as far back to Nixon’s massive abuses that led to FISA – we have proof of abuses today. While I recognize that your fear of terrorism trumps everything else for you on policy issues, I’m truly baffled that so-called conservatives such as yourself have now become the “trust government” movement.
Don’t get too excited about any of those so called friendly Middle Eastern countries rounding up militants and jihadists. They will hold them for a few weeks and then turn them loose. It’s a dog and pony show to keep the US aid dollars flowing.
Conman,
LOL! Dude – I can do the homework for you – but you will dismiss it out of hand. So why waste my time? The links are there. Not my problem if you are too lazy to educate yourself.
Nice try though. Your determination to stay ignorant is my fault….
Interesting.
AJ,
That is the same line you use every time I or someone else calls BS on you – ” I can spend the time to write multiple responses to your comments calling you ignorant and uneducated, but I don’t have time to provide you a single example to support my position.” Do you honestly think that other people will buy that line? It is so transparent I don’t know who you think you are fooling.
Conman, that dodge you are trying to hide behind is one of the oldest and lamest tricks in the book. You refuse to make any effort to educate yourself and instead demand that others do all your work for you, which you then will dismiss as “irrelevant” or some such nonsense,. It’s just a game you and people like you play to try and waste the time and effort of people who are far more talented and informed than you.
Yeah I guess the poor soul missed all the testimony in congress about the audits and the cross checks and the independent second checks of valid usage of the tapping capability.
He just happened to miss the bipartisan fact finding committee from the Senate Intel Committee that worked through the AG to plus another independent on that also had a review they did.
And the plan of cross checks was approved and reviewed by the FISA court.
Just all those minor points he missed.
Nah, like others said. He already knows and just wants someone to waste their time refreshing it for him again.
Thanks god for the cross-checks and audits! I wish you guys would have mentioned that earlier so that I could stop making such a big deal out of nothing.
While we are on the topic, what does everyone thing of FBI Director Mulluer’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee today? You know, the one where he admitted that the FBI abused the national security letter powers under the Patriot Act by improperly accessing Americans’ telephone records, credit reports and internet traffic in 2006, making it four straight year of such privacy abuses that the FBI has admitted (2003-2006). The funny thing is that they promised us there would be no privacy abuses when the Patriot Act was passed – you know, because we have this great system of cross-checks and audits.
Conman: It gets a big yawn from me. I know folks like you would prefer the terrorists to be able to plan nuclear terrorism in the open, but most of us prefer to at least do the minimum to prevent it.
Vince,
You’re right. There is one, and only one way, to protect us from nuclear annihilation by the terrorists – give the government unfettered surveillance powers with no checks or balances. Anything short of that and we will all be be killed! Oh my god, I don’t want to die – please do whatever you need to do to keep me safe. Hey chickenlittle, why don’t you have another cup of cool aid.
conman: great response. I see it right here in “Standard Hyperbolic Response 1.4.2(a)”