Why?

The Irey campaign is asking a simple question of Jack Murtha. "Why did John Murtha vote against extending the Patriot Act?"

"As I said yesterday, the arrests in the United Kingdom, and last week's and yesterday's arrests in Pakistan, represent a significant victory in the ongoing war on terror. They couldn't have happened without the combined work of the British, American, and Pakistani intelligence and law enforcement services.
"These arrests demonstrate that enhanced intelligence collection and analysis, and enhanced international cooperation, are essential tools in the global war on terror. Giving our intelligence and law enforcement agencies greater tools, such as those contained in the provisions of the Patriot Act, the terrorist surveillance program, and sophisticated financial tracking are indispensable in our ongoing efforts to defeat those who seek our destruction.

It's indisputable that these programs played a significant role in detecting this threat. It's indisputable fact that these programs helped British intelligence thwart this threat. And make no mistake about it: This would've been a 9/11-sized attack with immense repercussions.

"Curiously, for some reason, Jack Murtha has yet to make a public comment on the foiling of this terrorist plot. Could that be because he's trying to figure out how to defend his vote against extending the provisions of the Patriot Act?
"Jack Murtha was one of a number of Democrats who voted against extending the life of the Patriot Act. On December 14, 2005, he cast a vote that would have stripped U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies of the expanded powers they'd been using to prevent terrorist attacks against us for the last several years, the kind of powers that have led to the disruption of more than 150 terrorist threats and cells around the world, and which have been used to aid in investigations which led to more than 400 individuals being charged right here in America, and led to more than 200 individuals being convicted or pleading guilty in terrorism-related cases.

I'd doubt that he's hiding because he doesn't know how to defend his vote on the Patriot Act because he knows he'll be sheltered by the Pittsburgh newspapers from serious questioning. I suspect that he isn't speaking out on this event because he knows that the TSP and the Patriot Act are popular whereas he knows that the Iraq war has significantly less support.

Technorati Tags: Murtha, Diana Irey, Patriot Act, NSA

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog