Politicized Intelligence Gathering

NationalReview online's Andrew McCarthy calls the blogosphere's attention to the following:

"Had [President Bush's Warrantless Surveillance Program]" been in place before the [9/11] attacks, hijackers Khalid Almidhar and Nawaf Alhazmi almost certainly would have been identified and located."

Another Friday night, another dump by the Obama administration of a report underscoring the vital importance of President Bush's post-9/11 national security tactics.

The above quote about Midhar and Hazmi and is from Gen. Michael Hayden, the former CIA director who was director of the NSA when that agency ran Bush's "Terrorist Surveillance Program." It is a bombshell mentioned in passing on page 31 of the 38-page report filed by five executive-branch inspectors general (from DOJ, DOD, CIA, NSA, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence) pursuant to Congress's 2008 overhaul of FISA (the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act).

The full report can be found here. In the meantime, AG Holder floats a trial balloon:

Contrary to White House wishes, Attorney General Eric Holder may push forward with a criminal investigation into the Bush administration's harsh interrogation practices used on suspected terrorists.

Holder is considering whether to appoint a prosecutor and will make a final decision within the next few weeks, a Justice Department official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on a pending matter.

A move to appoint a criminal prosecutor is certain to stir partisan bickering that could create a distraction to President Barack Obama's efforts to push ambitious health care and energy reform.

As we have asked on this blog repeatedly, what is the end game here? This witch hunt/show trial--a stimulus package for lawyers and bureaucrats--will make America safer and stronger how? To some extent, this potential inquiry, and trotting out tired allegations against Cheney, seems like a feeble way to distract the American people away from the Obama administration's failed economic policies. This is a swerve: In general, no one other than the out-of-touch beltway pundits and law school professors cares about any of this.

Memo to Holder and other Obama functionaries: The average American living in the real world cares about whether he or she is going to get pink slipped at work, or how much it costs to fill up their gas tank, or sadly, what's the latest with Paris, Britney, or Lindsay. Actually, spending billions of taxpayer money on a so-called stimulus--that seems to call for an criminal investigation.