Reigniting an old fire

Clearly, the issues surrounding wiretapping terrorism suspects and using the FISA court are still not resolved. The Wall Street Journal reports that New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly recently exchanged a series of angry correspondence with US Attorney General Michael Mukasey where he accuses the Department of Justice delays and flawed standards in giving non-federal law enforcement agencies access to the FISA court.

Of course, there are all kinds of things we do not know about these cases, but what I believe we can, at least, discern that Kelly believes there is a credible threat of terrorist related activity in New York City's jurisdiction that neither New York City nor, presumably, the federal government is acting against. It is this very kind of scenerio that led me to be skeptical of the changes made to the FISA laws in its latest amendment, and which lead me to believe the potential continues to exist for terrorists operating in the United States to use our own laws against us in the prosecution of their cause.

I agree that there has to be a balance between the Constitutional concerns of the use of powers like warrantless wiretapping and security, but as the recent events in Mumbai showed everyone, the enemies of freedom are still intent on causing harm through their very effective means of terrorism. If we are not going to actively pursue the ongoing threat by using such means, then what is the answer? Doing nothing cannot be the answer we choose.