Andy McCarthy – former Federal Prosecutor caught something in Judge Agenda’s ruling that I missed:

“Remember back when the New York Times first disclosed the existence of the NSA’s Terrorist Surveillance Program. A number of us contended that this should be grounds for a prosecution because it alerted the enemy to our signals intelligence efforts in wartime.

“NONSENSE!” replied the Times and its allies. You see, they explained, al Qaeda well knew that we were using every means in our arsenal to penetrate its communications. Telling terrorists about the NSA program didn’t alert them to anything they weren’t already well aware of.

Well, apparently the ACLU, CAIR, Greenpeace and the other “public interest” ogranizations who sued the government did not get the memo.

In order to convince Judge Anna Diggs Taylor to invalidate the NSA program, these plaintiffs had to establish that they had “standing” to sue ‚Äî meaning that they had suffered some kind of individualized harm, something that was unique because it is not enough for standing purposes to simply claim a general objection to government policies.

So how did these plaintiffs claim to have been harmed? They are journalists, lawyers and scholars who do research and other work in the Middle East. But now, according to Judge Taylor’s opinion, they have sworn in affidavits that “Persons abroad who before the program [became pubic knowledge] spoke with them by telephone or internet no longer do so.” They are, she says, “stifled in their ability to vigorously conduct research, interact with sources, talk to clients,” because people suddenly think the U.S. government is listening.

So which is it? Is the TSP leak a big nothing that changed no one’s behavior, or a bombshell that changed everyone’s behavior? Evidently, it depends on which scenario the Left believes will damage the Bush administration more on any given day.”

Boy I’ll tell you, if the left was an Army it’s the worst ever assembled. Some “teamwork”. Judge Agenda essentially screwed the Democrats out of any chance EVER of running on National Security. Of course the assertion that Al Qaeda “knew” about NSA tactics is preposterous. If they were all that knowledgeable it didn’t do them any good as we’ve been able to thwart their plans ever since 9-11.

The fact is that the leak DID damage National Security, which is why that Grand Jury – remember, the one MSNBC’s Harball Chief Leak Correspondent Russell Tice was called to appear before? – was convened. It is still meeting and prosecutors are still presenting their evidence, and, if you have noticed, so many of the “usual suspects” are essentially keeping their – hiterto – diarrhea at the mouth in check.

Oh and by the way, the real fun of that is about to begin.

H/t to Jeff at Protein Wisdom – who also has a great post on Judge Agenda’s ‘Kos blog post’.

UPDATE: Also Patterico with similar thoughts.

iraq Politics News bush war on terror spying patriot act nsa CIA mary O. mcCarthy porter goss kappes negroponte hayden