We have, as a country, had the ability to quickly subject people to warrantless wiretapping orders since soon after 9/11 so that we could prevent other such occurrences and terrorist activities in general. Apparently this, in conjunction with other things, has worked because we've been remarkably safe and protected here in our homeland.
The FISA mechanism was too slow to properly enable us to defend against the use of throw-away cell phones, etc., and this approach was the solution to the changing techniques used by the 'bad guys'.
Nancy Pelosi and her radical left-wing friends were not at all satisfied with that. Neither were the trial lawyers since they saw this as very fertile ground that could lead to major paydays. Pelosi's House of Representatives failed to do its job of renewing and extending the protection measures for U.S. telecommunications companies that engage in these taps before it closed and went home.
The telecommunications companies were voluntarily conducting the taps since they had been given protection against lawsuits resulting from the activities. Ms. Pelosi has made sure that the lawyers can now unleash the hounds.
So, now, telecommunications companies are without protection, and they are uniformly advising that they'll no longer be able to provide the taps.
This sounds pretty much like 'inside the beltway' political jibber-jabber, but it has a very significant impact on the country's safety. Intelligence Committee Chairman, Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat, said this on the Senate floor last week: "What people have to understand around here is that the quality of the intelligence we are going to be receiving is going to be degraded. It is already going to be degraded as telecommunications companies lose interest". These companies were doing this as a service to the country. They made nothing on this service. And without protection from lawsuits, they're simply not going to remain involved.
The Democrats who wanted to kill the wiretap program couldn't come up with enough votes to make that happen, so they've found a back-door approach. The Senate passed the extension by a vote of 68-29. Incidentally, Barack Obama voted against it, and Hillary Clinton was absent for the vote. That gives us all a very good idea of what is in store if the liberal Democrats gain control of the White House and both houses of Congress.
The real fear is that this move will have the effect of making the question "When" rather than "If" on the issue of another terrorist attack here.
