Advantage: Terrorists — Still
Posted 02/26/2008 ET Updated 02/26/2008 ET
Terrorists Still Have the Advantage
America, by the inaction of the U.S. House of Representatives, has been weakened substantially in fighting terrorism.
As I reported last week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) and her left-wing allies decided to leave Washington without voting on the bipartisan Senate bill that would have extended key provisions of the Protect America Act, a bill that is essential for America’s ability to quickly and deftly track terrorist communications overseas.
This abdication of responsibility by such a high-ranking member of our government has been the most amazing anti-national security action by Congress in decades.
This is not a partisan analysis.
The vote in the House Democratic caucus reportedly had some 20 moderate votes opposed to leaving without voting on the Senate bipartisan anti-terrorism bill.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.), the Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has said this failure to act has weakened our ability to intercept and stop terrorists.
Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell (a career military officer) and Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey, in a letter to Rep. Silvestre Reyes (Tex.), the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, stated plainly, “We have lost intelligence information this past week as a direct result of the uncertainty created by Congress’ failure to act.” (View the complete letter at PowerlineBlog.)
I urge you to call your representative today and demand that they pass the Senate bipartisan Protect America Act bill (which got a filibuster-proof 68 votes in the Senate) immediately. Every day that passes is a day that America is more vulnerable.
