How Many Lawyers Does it Take?

From the New York Post

"The intelligence community was forced to abandon our soldiers because of the law," a senior congressional staffer with access to the classified case told The Post.

"How many lawyers does it take to rescue our soldiers?" he asked. "It should be zero."

The search for SPC Alex Jimenez was held up for nearly ten hours while lawyers quibbled querulously over the ramifications of FISA:

October 15, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence officials got mired for nearly 10 hours seeking approval to use wiretaps against al Qaeda terrorists suspected of kidnapping Queens soldier Alex Jimenez in Iraq earlier this year, The Post has learned.

This week, Congress plans to vote on a bill that leaves in place the legal hurdles in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act - problems that were highlighted during the May search for a group of kidnapped U.S. soldiers.

Even though the cell phones they wanted to tap were operating within Iraq, because the conversations were shunted through US hubs, they were subject to FISA restrictions.

Alex Jimenez has not been found. Al Qaeda says they murdered him and and buried him.

Update: DailyKos diarist "Kagro X" predictably responds with a screw them* political diatribe: it's all a Republican plot. The Kos diarist and commenters can't even bring themselves to mention Specialist Jimenez by name.

Apparently Kagros X and her commenters didn't read the entire Post story, because they don't understand why FISA applies in Iraq (see above).

*Markos Moulitsas Zuniga himself reveals his true feelings about fellow Americans killed in the War on Terror.