Why we need NSA surveillance: Underwear bomb 2

[Valin]

AEIdes:

Marc Thiessen

July 22, 2013

 

Wonder why we still need a robust NSA terrorist surveillance program? At the 2013 Aspen Security Forum, Transportation Security Administration Chief John Pistole gave chilling details about the efforts of a master al Qaeda bomb maker to penetrate our defenses and detonate a new type of underwear bomb on planes headed for the United States.

 

Time magazine reports:

 

Speaking in unusual detail, Pistole offered specifics about an underwear bomb devised by a master al Qaeda bomb-maker in Yemen meant to be exploded in an airliner over the United States last year.

(Snip)

Nothing to worry about here. Weve dismantled our terrorist interrogation program. Weve exposed the double agent inside al Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula, forcing his withdrawal. Were scaling back drone strikes. And now (if panicked members of Congress have their way) well soon be hamstringing our signals intelligence efforts against al Qaeda.

 

(Snip)

 

[Valin]

Been waiting for this one to come along.

 

House to weigh legislation to limit surveillance programs

7/23/13

 

The House will consider legislation that would cut off funds for the National Security Agency's surveillance programs and imposes limits on the operations.

 

The Rules Committee voted late Monday to allow the NSA amendments to the $598.3 billion defense bill to be voted on after the House begins consideration of the sweeping measure on Tuesday.

 

One amendment would bar the NSA from collecting records, including telephone call records, unless the individual is subject of an ongoing investigation.

 

(Snip)

 

Well Justin I must admit, as ideas go, this is one.

[Valin]

Why we need NSA surveillance: RAND study finds al Qaeda expanding

Marc Thiessen

July 23, 2013

 

The Christian Science Monitor reports:

 

 

Al Qaeda not only remains a threat to the United States, but its capabilities and scope are expanding, a new analysis from a respected think tank has concluded.

 

There has been a net expansion in the number and geographic scope of Al Qaeda affiliates and allies over the past decade, indicating that Al Qaeda and its brand are far from defeated, argues Seth Jones, an analyst at the RAND Corporation and the studys author.

The good news, according to the * RAND study, is that these groups are (supposedly) not so into us.

 

[W]ithin this disparate movement, most Al Qaeda affiliates and allies are not actively plotting attacks against the US homeland, according to the RAND analysis.

(snip)

(Snip)

 

Of course, this was precisely the intelligence communitys view back in 2009 of al Qaedas new affiliate in Yemen that it was focused on regional attacks and had no interest in America. That is, until it sent a terrorist with an underwear bomb to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight over Detroit on Christmas Day. Disaster was averted only because the bomb malfunctioned.

 

(Snip)

 

* Re-Examining the Al Qaida Threat to the United States