HOUSE DEMOCRATS WANT THE NSA TO INVESTIGATE EVIDENCE USED TO CONVICT AN IMAM WHO IS TIED TO THE GROUP BEHIND THE MUMBAI ATTACKS

ONCE AGAIN, THE DEMOCRATS ARE TAKING THE SIDE OF THE ENEMY:

Panel to Call for Probe Into Wiretapping of Scholar

By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES RISEN
[OF COURSE IT'S BY THEM! WHO ELSE!?]

A Congressional oversight panel plans to ask the National Security Agency to start an investigation into new evidence that the agency illegally wiretapped a Muslim scholar in Northern Virginia and concealed the eavesdropping during a 2005 trial in which the scholar was convicted on terrorism charges.

Representative Rush Holt, a New Jersey Democrat and chairman of the Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, said in an interview that he planned to ask the inspector general of the N.S.A. to open what would be the first formal investigation by the agency into whether its eavesdropping program had improperly interfered with an American’s right to a fair trial.

... The scholar, Ali al-Timimi, once a spiritual leader in Northern Virginia and described by prosecutors as a “rock star” in the Islamic fundamentalist world, is now serving a life sentence in federal prison after he was convicted in 2005 on charges of inciting his Muslim followers to commit acts of violence overseas.

Prosecutors described Mr. Timimi as the spiritual mentor to a group of young men in Northern Virginia who were convicted of giving material support in Kashmir to Lashkar-e-Taiba — the separatist group blamed by the Indian authorities for the recent attacks in Mumbai.

Several of the Northern Virginia men had received paramilitary training in Pakistan, apparently at the urging of Mr. Timimi, but there was no evidence that they had taken part in any terrorist attacks.

Mr. Timimi’s lawyers maintain that the N.S.A., without acquiring court-approved warrants, used the eavesdropping operation approved by President Bush weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks to wiretap his communications, and that the interceptions might include evidence that would point to his innocence in what they regard as a free-speech case. They charge that the government has intentionally withheld that material despite repeated requests.

The Justice Department has denied that it had any other evidence of eavesdropping against him other than what it turned over to his lawyers.

• THIS IS HOW THE LEFT OPERATES: AYERS GOT OFF ON A TECHNICALITY, TOO.

• THESE LEFTIES: THEY'RE NOT FOR PEACE OR CIVIL LIBERTIES; THEY'RE ON THE OTHER SIDE.

• THE NYTIMES HAS THE AUDACITY TO CALL THIS TERRORIST A "SCHOLAR"! HMMMM: JUST LIKE AYERS.

IF OBAMA GOES THROUGH WITH HIS PROMISED "REFORMS" - CLOSING GITMO, LIMITING NSA INTERCEPTS, AND THE LIKE - THEN WE ARE GOING TO BE MUCH MUCH LESS SAFE.

AND THE NEXT ONE HERE.... WELL, I PREDICT IT'LL MAKE MUMBAI LOOK LIKE AN AMATEUR DRESS REHEARSAL