Posted on 10/15/2007 9:32:09 AM PDT by Truth29
'WIRE' LAW FAILED LOST GI
10-HOUR DELAY AS FEDS SOUGHT TAP TO TRACK JIMENEZ CAPTORS IN IRAQ
October 15, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence officials got mired for nearly 10 hours seeking approval to use wiretaps against al Qaeda terrorists suspected of kidnapping Queens soldier Alex Jimenez in Iraq earlier this year, The Post has learned.
(snip)
Sometime before dawn, heavily armed al Qaeda gunmen quietly cut through the tangles of concertina wire surrounding the outpost of two Humvees and made a massive and coordinated surprise attack. Four of the soldiers were killed on the spot and three others were taken hostage.
A search to rescue the men was quickly launched. But it soon ground to a halt as lawyers - obeying strict U.S. laws about surveillance - cobbled together the legal grounds for wiretapping the suspected kidnappers. Starting at 10 a.m. on May 15, according to a timeline provided to Congress by the director of national intelligence, lawyers for the National Security Agency met and determined that special approval from the attorney general would be required first. For an excruciating nine hours and 38 minutes, searchers in Iraq waited as U.S. lawyers discussed legal issues and hammered out the "probable cause" necessary for the attorney general to grant such "emergency" permission. Finally, approval was granted and, at 7:38 that night, surveillance began.
"The intelligence community was forced to abandon our soldiers because of the law," a senior congressional staffer with access to the classified case told The Post.
(snip)
The body of one was found a few weeks later in the Euphrates River and the terror group Islamic State of Iraq - an al Qaeda offshoot - later claimed in a video that Jimenez and the third soldier had been executed and buried.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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No, we don't. This article is a hit piece... They focus on the one case where the intel community chose to tap hubs in the US, which is domestic surveillance and requires a warrant, as it always has and should since espionage agencies are forbidden by numerous laws from collecting domestic intelligence. Why they did not choose to monitor transmissions locally or alternately through one of our allies (Britain) hubs as is typically done in such situations is the question that should be focused on, but is instead totally avoided.
Seems to me to be sufficient justification to pick them up pending arraignment, maybe for the duration.
The Pentagon lawyers who failed to lie (possibly the only time in their lives they didn't) should quickly commit seppuku.
No warrants are needed for combat surveillance, not in the US, not in Iraq, not anywhere we have a livefire, hot LZ (even if the law can be read to require them).
PING
Unfortunately, I am sure the families can’t sue congress for this stupidity. The elites have amply protected themselves from the consequences of their legislative actions. We need to vote them out and we need widespread reporting of instances such as this so the average citizen knows what this and similar laws are doing to us.
Well, I hope Nanct Pelosi sleeps good at night, considering she was one of the hubs behind the fracas.
Surely there is someone the family can sue.
The MSM are also to blame in this one.
Agreed.
bump
Why should we have to worry about a warrant for messages or calls that are from a foreign source to a foreign source which happen to route electronically through a domestic US hub or server?
As a resident of New York, Jimenez was a constituent of Schumer and the Beast with Massive Legs. Any chance a “journalist” will confront them in the manner that one did the Congresswoman from Tennesses recently, challenging her to name the soldier killed in Iraq who was allegedly from her district?
This is absolutely maddening.
There,... fixed for the real story.
Thanks for the ping, deb. Bumpin’ you, rlmorel.
No you do not need lawyers - but they run the war. You can not take a dump in Iraq with out legal approval.
How is it that this thread about this outrage has so few comments?
This legal crap is just making me crazy.
I am currently listening to an audiobook called “Lone Survivor” about Lt. Michael Murphy who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Afghanistan, and there is a great deal to do with the perception that the deaths of the three Navy SEALs (including LT Murphy) was a direct result of their fear of legal action due to the influence of the MSM on the conduct of war.
They came across a couple of goat herders (one was 14 years old) while in surveillance of a HVT in a village. They discussed amongst themselves whether to kill the pair, and eventually voted to let them go. Part of it was due to the fact that they knew they would possibly be tried for murder, because the Taliban would most certainly have gone straight to Al Jazeera when they found the bodies. They were in a tough spot.
They could not hide the bodies, because there was no way to bury them (they did not have entrenching tools, and the terrain was too rocky anyway)
When the two did not show back up in the village, the people would definitely have gone out looking for them and found them.
And they could do nothing about the large herd of goats. So even if they had killed the pair, it would not likely have gained them much since they couldn’t dispose of the herd of goats which would have led the Taliban right to the guys who were in an extremely exposed and indefensible area.
Personally, the surviving SEAL who wrote the book is berating himself visciously and vigorously for not killing the two in cold blood, but...I think he is too hard on himself. It was simply a no-win situation. And killing two unarmed people, one a child in cold blood to save your own skin would have had a price of its own. It is disturbing to hear this poor guy just tear his decision to pieces and berate himself for making it.
I bring this up, because it is just another example of how the shadow of liberalism and the MSM has fallen over our men in combat and the way they make decisions. I think this guy is blaming it on the MSM, but I wonder if he is doing it partially because he cannot blame himself enough. It is extraordinarily sad to hear. And hearing about this legal crap is just the negative icing on the cake for me today.
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