How Can We Prevent The Next 9/11?

Syndicated New York Times columnist David Brooks blends wisdom, common sense and clear writing skills to present significant issues to the American public. The Times would greatly benefit if their editors would pay closer attention to Brooks when formulating the Times' editorial positions.

The Bush Administration and the American people may have already lost the media war over the National Security Agency's (NSA) preemptive electronic search for terrorist communications.

The media battle began when James Risen and Eric Lightblau of the New York Times tipped off the entire world (and all the terrorist networks) that the United States was effectively intercepting their communications (and as a consequence was successfully derailing terrorist plots for future attacks on the U.S.).

Many in the media (and several Congressional leaders who certainly should know better) began a determined and concentrated assault both upon the Bush Administration and upon the NSA. They unleashed a blizzard of television and radio talk show appearances, editorials, "news analyses" and "op-ed" pieces in which they asked loaded questions (such as: "Is the government listening in on your phone calls?"; "Does Presidential snooping damage our nation?"; "Has Bush put himself above the law?"; "Do the NSA eavesdropping programs endanger the liberties of American citizens?"; etc.). They then proceeded to answer their own questions with strongly aggressive negative answers, freely employing misleading buzzwords and phrases (such as: "snooping"; "domestic spying"; "warrantless wiretapping"; "deliberately spying on American citizens"; "disregard of Constitutional safeguards"; etc.).

Brooks cuts through much of this clutter. Brooks' column, December 27, 2005, asks: "It's your call: Do you snoop or do you stand back?" Brooks' column, "Bring Back the Gang of 14", February 12, 2006, urges Senate moderates to strike a deal based on a series of truths including the need for the Executive to run aggressive intelligence programs to head off attacks and the need for Congress to responsibly oversee (rather than attack and tear down) these programs. Brooks emphasizes that it is the joint responsibility of both the Executive and Congress to protect the U.S. and that the public must hold both the Executive and Congress accountable for doing so.

Other thoughtful articles on this subject include: "Our Right To Security" by Debra Burlingame, (sister of Charles Burlingame III, pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 which was crashed by hi-jackers into the Pentagon on 9/11), Wall Street Journal (WSJ), January 30, 2006; "A New Surveillance Act", by Richard Posner, judge on the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and a senior lecturer in law at the University of Chicago Law School, WSJ, February 15, 2006; "If al Qaeda phones, tell them we can't take the call." by Daniel Henninger, WSJ deputy editorial page editor, WSJ, February 10, 2006.