DNI McConnell Caught Fudging the Facts Again

In our last episode you may remember that our valiant Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell was hanging off a cliff after being caught in 'a bit of obfuscation'* maintaining that the FISA law expansion passed by Congress just recently had been instrumental in breaking up a German terrorist plot on which the CIA had been collecting information on under the old FISA law for "a year or so".

Now Mr. Director is caught in a truth trap after over-hyping claims that the old FISA restrictions hampered the ability to find kidnapped soldiers in Iraq.*  Will our brave DNI once again rescue his reputation.

Excerpt Washington Post report "Iraq Wiretap Delay Not Quite as Presented ":  

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told Congress last week that a May wiretap that targeted Iraqi insurgents was delayed for 12 hours by attempts to comply with onerous surveillance laws, which slowed an effort to locate three U.S. soldiers who had been captured south of Baghdad.

But new details released this week portray a more complicated picture of the delay, which actually lasted about 9 1/2 hours and was caused primarily by legal wrangling between the Justice Department and intelligence officials over whether authorities had probable cause to begin the surveillance.

Justice officials also spent nearly two hours trying to reach then-Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to authorize the emergency wiretap. He was in Texas appearing before a gathering of U.S. attorneys.

Read rest at source. 

* If this were the administration of a Democratic president, of course, this could all be called "lying" by the mainstream news media.  But since it isn't we have to make up blithe euphemisms. 

tags: iraq  war  mcconell  fisa act  surveillance  wiretap  kidnap  

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