The Never Ending Story: Spouting Complete Bullshit to Support the Official 9/11 Story

The US Director of National Intelligence asserts that the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, were caused by weak domestic wiretapping laws.

Vice Admiral Mike McConnell, former head of the National Security Agency who was appointed DNI in 2007 by President Bush, spoke today to a group of students in St. Mary's City, Missouri, about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a federal statute that outlines procedures for electronic surveillance by the US intelligence community.

Referencing alleged 9/11 conspirator Mohamed Atta, McConnell said Atta was trackable by US intel until he actually entered the United States. "He's now a US person," said McConnell, with all the rights and privileges of ordinary American citizens.

Inside the US, McConnell continued, Atta would be "invisible to your intelligence community. As long he doesn't break the law, law enforcement can't conduct surveillance, [because] they don't have probable cause."

Terror network al-Qaeda understood that, McConnell then said, "and that's why 9/11 happened, in my view."

There are so many things wrong here-- the major thing is that Atta from start to finish is just an intelligence legend obfuscating the ugly truth of 9/11.

The superficial problem is that McConnell seems to be saying that the authorities REALLY knew Atta was trouble but couldn't surveill him because of (silly) laws-- when there is NO evidence for this-- that they gave up on tracking him because of surveillance laws. If they had true suspicions, they could have had someone watch him to gain more evidence for a warrant. If they had any evidence on him, they still could have applied for a warrant.

McConnell seems to be arguing for spying on everyone for whom there is any hint of suspicion-- but this is illogical because there will be too many false leads for this to ever be an effective strategy (not to mention those pesky civil liberties issues). This also assumes that there are real terrorists out there, which at this point in time EVERYONE with any sense knows is a bogus assumption.

So McConnell is just spouting crap, all the way around. But, what do expect from the head of the spy agencies?

UPDATE: I think most likely, McConnell's current bullshit is because of this complete bullshit-- trying to get the FISA bill passed AND give the telecoms immunity from their lawbreaking.