http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/24/rov...g.ap/index.html

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) -- Presidential adviser Karl Rove criticized a federal judge's order for an immediate end to the government's warrantless surveillance program, saying Wednesday such a program might have prevented the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Rove said the government should be free to listen if al Qaeda is calling someone within the U.S.

"Imagine if we could have done that before 9/11. It might have been a different outcome," he said.

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit last week became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency's program, ruling it unconstitutional. (Full story)

Rove's comments came as he headlined a fundraiser for Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who is running for governor. About 50 protesters stood outside the country club where the fundraiser was held, some with signs that said "Impeach Bush."

Actually we DID intercept the phone calls, unfortunately it was mistranslated by a mole. The FBI agent who uncovered the couple dozen moles was fired and the moles were left in place (although their handler was sent back to Turkey). We even know that the coordination calls went through Baku where the al Qaeda office was finally closed in 2004. The problem wasn't lack of intercepts, it was and is betrayal of our country by the administration.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought I heard the NSA was found to have been wiretapping people before 9/11.

Maybe some enterprising reporter could ask Mr. Rove to explain what "the match is on" meant, and how we came by that phrase.

All of the wire tapping in the world won't help if the system isn't in place to interpret and fast track the information. A multi-layered burocracy inhibits this.

It actually inhibits it, the publicly stated problem is there's too much information to find items of value in a timely manner, they were admitting that in the 80s. Now records to branch out from an item of interest can be as large and complex as you want with efficient search methods.

Keeping moles known to have facilitated 9-11 in their jobs as interpretors doesn't help either.

Might want to check this out.
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/IsraeliPenInfSystems.php

The incompetent bureaucracy argument is wearing thin, Steve, and tomhye's point is a good one. There is a track record of purposefully back-logging translation instead of fast-tracking it. Do you honestly believe that if there were an important message in Farsi or some other difficult language, the intelligence community couldn't find someone in a hurry to translate it?

Did you see the list Snuffy posted some while back of the hundreds of different types of software that are in use to sort the NSA traffic? I'm sure you have some comprehension of the sheer depth and breadth of the computing power they posess.

Even the local, glacially-slow Registry of Motor Vehicles can set priorities. The President acknowledges, only begrudgingly and belatedly, that he received numerous warnings. Quite clearly the issue of intelligence on these matters was not fast-tracked, but was purposefully stalled. Yet two days after the event, we get the word that the NSA was sitting on the message "the match is on" which is used as proof. This is strikingly similar to the will left in the luggage by the suicide hijacker.

"In terms of accountability, I think this is one of the great mysteries of the last three or four years. Three thousand Americans died three years ago, and no one lost his or her job over it. A president who says that he is a strong president, and those around him say he is, did not fire anyone. Either he was misled, in which case, somebody should have been fired. Or he misled us, in which case he should be fired."

What is the budget for the intelligence community these days? Oh yes, I'm sorry, I forgot... that's classified.

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"The CIA Act of 1949 created a budget mechanism that allowed the CIA to spend as much money as it wanted “without regard to the provisions of law and regulations relating to the expenditure of government funds.” In short, the CIA has a way to fund anything –legal or illegal – behind the protection of national security law."

See Tim Weiner ((1990) Blank Check: The Pentagon’s Black Budget, Warner Publishing) and Sterling and Peggy Seagrave ((2003) Gold Warriors, Verso Press: New York). There is ample evidence that these funds were invested and have grown substantially in the years since, and are still used to further political and personal agendas.

from http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0408/S00277.htm
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How long are we going to make excuses?

The incompetent bureaucracy argument is wearing thin.

Most people prefer to believe their leaders are just and fair even in the face of evidence to the contrary, because once a citizen acknowledges that the government under which they live is lying and corrupt, the citizen has to choose what he or she will do about it. To take action in the face of a corrupt government entails risks of harm to life and loved ones. To choose to do nothing is to surrender one's self-image of standing for principles. Most people do not have the courage to face that choice. Hence, most propaganda is not designed to fool the critical thinker but only to give moral cowards an excuse not to think at all...

Rove is correct! We need more wiretaps!

If we had been tapping Bush's phone prior to 9/11 we might well have gathered enough information to stop to attack.

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh didn't even have a computer on his desk.

And he was PROUD OF IT.

Gee whiz, Scooter. Maybe if somebody did SOMETHING.......ANYTHING.........when law enforcement officials in Arizona, Minnesota, and Florida all placed calls to the Federal Government complaining of people taking flight classes who didn't want to know how to take off or land, and actually used the phrase, "the type of person who would crash a plane into a building." Maybe if somebody read their Presidential Daily Briefings every now and then. Maybe if somebody listened to Richard Clarke. Maybe if someone wasn't quite so obsessed with Missile Defense Systems. Maybe if someone weren't on vacation every other week. Maybe if someone did SOMETHING............ANYTHING...............when the hundred or so opportunities to prevent 9/11 happened, and not a single one of them had ANYTHING to do with wiretaps.

Beat me to the obvious, CB. Richard Clarke was demoted and barred from cabinet meetings and then forced out completely. The Cheney/Bush puppet show just couldn't have a hold-over from the Clinton administration telling the truth and upsetting the applecart. Hell, FISA had been in effect for years anyway. They didn't need the NSA spy network; all they had to do was be loyal Americans instead of corporate a$$-wipes.

Major curses upon them and theirs for 100 generations!!!!

Haha, that's so true. It's also well documented that Putin, Chirac and Gerhard Schroder called Bush and warned him of the pending attacks. Wiretapping isn't necessary, he just needs to dig the wax balls out of his ears.

You are all missing Karl buddy's point! If we had been tapping the phones legally pre-9/11, things may be different. Tap Gore's phone pre-2000; tap Kerry's phone pre-2004.

OK, I know that they already did that, but if it were really legal!