Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell just had a brain fart when he told Congress that America helped crack down on a German terrorist attack thanks to the broadened surveillance powers of the Protect America Act.
"Information contributing to the recent arrests was not collected under authorities provided by the Protect America Act," National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell said in a statement issued Wednesday.
McConnell had told the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Monday that powers granted by the new law helped stop the planned attacks. (International Herald Tribune)
"The temporary measure, signed into law by President Bush on Aug. 5, gave the U.S. intelligence community broad new powers to eavesdrop on telephone and e-mail communications overseas without seeking warrants from the surveillance court." But McConnell's statement did not make sense "since it seemed to contradict public statements by American and German officials about how the plot was exposed. About 10 months ago—long before the new law was put into effect—guards at a U.S. military base near Frankfurt noted a suspicious individual conducting surveillance outside the facility. U.S. military officials tipped off German authorities, who quickly identified the individual and several accomplices as militants affiliated with the Islamic Jihad Union, a violent Al Qaeda-linked group." (Newsweek)
What's worse: the fact that our Director of National Intelligence cannot properly engage a yes-or-no issue...or that he was dumb (or bullied enough) to make a lie that does not make chronological sense?
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