Intellectual Property Law

Deceptive Republican Attack Ad Slams Clinton, Obama for Slowing Domestic Spying

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Harry Reid are being controlled by trial lawyers who want to blindfold the nation's terror fighters and they plan to let the Protect America Act expire, according to a new Republican National Committee YouTube attack ad.

The senators foot-dragging in handing President Bush unchecked power to install permanent spying outposts inside American telecom facilities will "open a critical gap in our nation's intelligence capabilities."

The ad features a shaking countdown timer, shots of a Humvee against the backdrop of an American flag, and the silhouette of a Muslim with an AK-47 in front of what looks to be a statehouse. The ad closes by noting that "The terrorist threat to America never expires."

THREAT LEVEL hates to nitpick, so we won't point out that using satellite dishes to intercept international radio waves isn't affected by the Protect America Act.

Nor that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) --also targeted in the ad -- continues to make it legislatively easy for the Administration-friendly bill to pass. Nor that none of the lawsuits against the telecoms were filed by the traditional plaintiff lawyers. And while the vid accuses Democrats of responding to special interests (Al Qaida?), the real special interest lobbying behind the bill comes from telecoms that knew they were breaking the law.

Also, FISA only really became important after 9/11 after the New York Times revealed that Bush had lied to the nation about warrantless wiretapping and had been sidestepping FISA for four years by 2005. And if the NSA wanted to spy on a known terrorist suspect in Pakistan who was calling someone in D.C., shouldn't the NSA be using some of its multi-billion dollar budget to place the wiretap near the phone in Pakistan, rather than inside a telephone switch in New York City? That way the NSA might catch all the phone calls from a terrorism suspect, not just the ones to people in America.

Instead of nit-picking, THREAT LEVEL instead would like to dedicate the following clip as a chaser to the RNC's stiff shot.

Remember, Don't Suspect a Friend. Report Him.

See Also:

• Sen. Rockefeller Lets Slip the Spying Truth: Drift Nets To Be Legalized
• Senate Set to Re-Up Bush Warrantless Spying Powers in US
• Immunity and Wide Spy Powers Set to Pass in Senate
• Surveillance Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means
• Top Spy Pushed Congress For Wider Powers, Citing High Summer Threat Level
• Homeland Security Threat Level Raised to Chicago Dog With Everything

Full post as published by Threat Level on February 07, 2008 (boomark / email).