How the Democrats politicized national security

By Ethel C. Fenig

While the Democrats were busy endangering the safety of American citizens by politicizing intelligence policies and practices after 9/11, Andy McCarthy of National Review Online's The Corner highlights a "bombshell" quote 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).

And just what is that bombshell quote?

"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."

McCarthy also mentions other disgraceful Democratic tactics about national security and Bush's warrantless surveillance program concluding

In sum, congressional Democrats knew about the program and knew that the dissent of the Justice Department's senior leadership in 2004 was not about warrantless surveillance. They knew that if they postured that the dissent was about warrantless surveillance, Gonzales - not an adept communicator - would not be able to rebut them in a public hearing because the details of the dispute were classified.

(snip)

The politicizing of the nation's security that went on here was shameful.

Stronger terms could also be used.