What were you doing nine hours and 38 minutes ago? What will you be doing in nine hours and 38 minutes? Those may seem like odd questions, but it took 9 hours and 38 minutes to get the paperwork in order to rescue three soldiers kidnapped by al Qaeda operatives. It was May 2007 and G.I. Alex Jimenez, a New York resident, was one of three soldiers kidnapped, but instead of beginning the search operation immediately, searchers in Iraq waited for nearly 10 hours while U.S. lawyers debated the legal issues. When surveillance finally began 10 hours later, all three kidnapped soldiers had been killed. Today the Democratic Majority had the power to permanently prevent this but instead chose to put a band aid on this for 21 more days.

While Republicans and Democrats are able to come together in the Senate and vote ‘YES’ for the new bi-partisan revisions to FISA, the House is again at a stand-still between the Democrats and Republicans. House Democrat leaders should heed the words of the 21 “Blue Dog” Democrats who wrote Speaker Pelosi in support of the Senate-passed bill. They rightly believe not passing this bill or allowing the Protect America Act to expire would “place our national security at undue risk.”

It is clear that the Democrats on the Senate side are serious about this bill, “Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which wrote the bill passed last night: “This is the right way to go, in terms of the security of the nation.” (The Washington Post, 2/13/08)”

The Democrat Majority leaders want you to forget that it took nearly four months from the time that the American people were alerted to this intelligence gap for a sensible FISA fix to come to the floor. We can not afford another FISA delay. The intelligence community needs a long-term fix to gaps in our intelligence laws – not a 21-day delay. . Let’s not let another troop die while searchers wait to get the go ahead from American lawyers.

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