Ill-suited for pretty much anything

I agree that the terms "electronic surveillance inside the United States" and "ill-suited for tracking al Qaeda and other militant groups" belong in the same sentence. But somehow Michael Hayden misses the target. Given his illegal domestic spying program's track record, that's probably something we should get used to.

CIA Director Michael Hayden told senators on Wednesday that the requirement of court orders to carry out electronic surveillance inside the United States was ill-suited for tracking al Qaeda and other militant groups.

In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the intelligence official who crafted President George W. Bush's domestic spying program also said international phone calls targeted by warrantless surveillance are the most valuable to protecting national security.

"Why should our laws make it more difficult to target al Qaeda communications that are most important to us -- those entering or leaving this country," said Hayden, an Air Force general who set up the administration's eavesdropping program in 2001 as director of the National Security Agency.

Of course, Hayden is a tool of an administation that considers the Constitution ill-suited as the basis for a system of government.

Listening to Hayden, you'd never know that the laws he's referring to were in place long before the domestic spying program he masterminded. I'm pretty sure that makes the domestic spying program illegal.

And for all the alleged value of his warrantless domestic surveillance program, the United States has exactly one terror conviction it can point to -- Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted of his role in the 9/11 attacks even though he was sitting in a prison cell on September 11, 2001. Or two, if you count Iyman Faris, who pleaded guilty of plotting to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge with a blowtorch.

Perhaps a look at the attacks the administration claims to have thwarted will show the program's value. Let's see, there was the one against the Brooklyn Bridge, as mentioned above; the Liberty Tower, or Library Tower, or U.S. Bank Tower, or whatever it's called, in Los Angeles; the Holland Tunnel, or some other New York transportation target, depending on whether you believe the New York Daily News or the AP; and of course the plot to destroy the Sears Tower by the celebrated "Miami 7."

Nope.

At least the program's piss-poor record should make it easy for the Senate Judiciary Committee to determine if it qualifies as "valuable," and if it's worth the damage it's doing to the Bill of Rights.

For an idea of the real value of the warrantless and therefore illegal NSA domestic spying program designed and championed by Hayden, which is supported by, you know, facts, click here.