That’s what we can call subsequent terrorist attacks. Don’t I mean intelligence failure? No, because by all accounts intel is doing everything it can to keep us safe without imposing the “papers please” environment fear-mongers would have you believe we are marching towards. By its own admission there is nothing wrong or illegal about the Swift program; there are no debatable points like the NSA intercept program yet exposure of what has been a successful program is for some reason worth rendering useless.
Eisenhower told reporters when D-Day was going to happen. Shocked, they asked him why he did it. His response was something along the lines of, “I know you’re responsible and will do the right thing.” My how things have changed. I don’t think reporters today are any less intrepid than their predecessors (though I don’t believe Ernie Pyle let stringers do his work), but I do firmly believe that they do not believe that we are in as valid, significant and deadly a war as was WW II. That’s why stories like these are going to continue and that is why victory is going to be that much more difficult.
More at Instapundit, Power Line, Michelle Malkin, Mac’s (with addt’l insights).
Update I: Former colleague TN weighs in:
Inadvertently they are making it both harder for the terrorists to operate and easier for us to find them. Hawala use will become even more prevalent, but eventually the accounts have to be balanced and cash has to flow. This means more guys with bulging suitcases and more Green Quest activity. You remember how it works, right? Drive them to use a means that you have more control over.
Andrew McCarthy says it better than most:
The blunt reality here is that there is a war against the war. It is the jihad of privacy fetishists whose self-absorption knows no bounds. Pleas rooted in the well-being of our community hold no sway.
