Hobbling Our Intelligence

By Hugh Hewitt
Beyond the News

The president's decision to authorize electronic surveillance of terrorists communicating with their agents in the United States without getting a warrant continues to cause a great uproar on the left and among Democrats like John Kerry. The increasingly shrill tones and the wild charges that have been made would lead people to believe that the program is aimed at anti-war dissenters or is broad and ominous.

Apparently, the left believes that conversations or e-mails from terrorists like Zawahiri, Zarqawi or even Osama bin Laden with their agents in the United States require a warrant. That is constitutional nonsense, and of a high order. The courts have never held that such surveillance requires a warrant. In fact, the courts have carefully articulated that the president's Article 2 power in this area is broad.

When Americans vote in November, they should remember how the Democratic party is committed to hobbling the nation's intelligence gathering directed at terrorists at a time when the global threat from terrorism is arguably at its greatest.