[Paul Ross]

Bill Michael, who coordinated terrorism cases at the U.S. attorney's office in Minneapolis until 2000, said he doubted the evidence would have been enough to obtain a criminal warrant, but that it should have been enough for a FISA warrant.

Indeed, it should have.

And now we know who the kludge was, this Michael Maltbie. This guy is toast.

[Drango]

I'm more inclined to blame the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the rest of the media for 20 years of sniviling about the size/scope of the FBI/CIA/NSA.

[Alberta's Child]

I heard a prominent (well-respected) legal expert on the radio a couple of weeks ago who made the exact opposite point -- he said that in this particular case it would have been much harder to obtain an FISA warrant than a criminal warrant.

[miamimark]

After watching her testimony, God help us if she is one of the top agents.

[Alberta's Child]

"The French would have done it without blinking," Revell said. "They don't require warrants for their national security activities."

The French also have no qualms about sending agents to a foreign country to engage in acts of terrorism against a third party. I'm not sure we should be using tham as a standard for anything.

[tictoc]

What was on Moussaoui's computer?

[Steve_Seattle]

The other day Maureen Dowd predictably wrote a woman smart/men dumb column, contrasting the brilliant Rowley with the dumb-ass good-old-boys club. This article makes it clear that there was far more to it than that, that there were LAWS whose criteria had to be met in order to gain a warrant, and it was not at all clear that the FBI had sufficient evidence to obtain a warrant. The position vacancies - not mentioned in any other reports I have seen - were apparently also a major factor in the intelligence not getting more attention.

[VRWC_minion]

Coulda, woulda, shoulda.

This is worthless. Just set things up correctly going forward. All the analysing is a waste of time.

[nutmeg]

bump

[kimosabe31]

This is pathetic. Anyone know where Michael Maltbie is. Compare this pathetic response with FBI actions at Ruby Ridge and Waco where killing innocent US citizens for reasons of "political incorrectness" was the agenda. Heaven help us!!