The Clandestine Bitch & Moan Society

Porter Goss has an opinion peace in today's New York Times. He's once again singing the refrain of "When the American people find out information about the activities of their government, the terrorists win."

The Daily Show did a pretty good job lampooning (video) this same argument when it was delivered by the Attorney General Gonzales. And it's just as much a non-sequitor coming from the head of the CIA.

Yes, the terrorists (whoever they may be -- Al-Qaeda's brand manager is a genius!) are viscious killers intent on killing americans and causing... er... terror. Yes they do not balk at torture, kidnapping, killing civilians, using weapons of mass destruction.

But we do. We do not want our military/intelligence services running secret torture centers out of former eastern block nations. We do not want our government abducting people and flying them around the world so that they can be tortured. We do not want our government listening in on our phone calls randomly and without a warrant just in case a terrorist decides to call his mom and say:

"Hi mom. I hope you don't mind me speaking English, _well_known_international_terrorist_ says we should practice all the time. Me and my friends _friends'_names_and_addresses_ are going to blow up the pentagon in a month. Seriously, on March _day_ at _time_, we're all going to get together at _leader_of_the_terrorist_cell_'s house and put on our bomb-_article_of_clothing_(Plural)_. Then we are going to hang out there for a couple hours and watch _left-leaning_tv_news_channel_. Yes, we are going to perform a terrorist attack on america. Yes we are. There can be no doubt. Thankfully,as far as I know, the _inept_US_intelligence_agency_(Acronym)_ doesn't have the technology to listen in on our conversations."

Which, if we're relying on the NSA/FBI to figure it out, is about the level of detail they'd need to divulge.

Look, CIA/NSA/FBI/ETC... You have a difficult job. That's why we give you billions of dollars every year to perform your clandestine operations. Their advantage is that they are not constrained by any rules. Your advantage is that you have way more people, technology, training, experience, and resources along with the cooperation of 90 percent of the world's governments.

You know, I'm just guessing, but I would think that would give you a pretty significant edge.

So please stop bitching about how every time you break the rules someone goes and tells on you.