Relax: The terrorists have given up. America can go back to its pre-9/11 snooze.
Or so much of Congress seems to think, as lawmakers of both parties get set to let key provisions of the Patriot Act expire Sunday.
Except the jihadis haven’t quit. Al Qaeda’s still out there, and ISIS is on the rise. If US counter-terror agents are stripped of these vital Patriot Act weapons, Americans will become sitting ducks. Again.
With New York City, as ever, Target No. 1.
At stake: authorities’ ability to quickly access records that connect the dots and uncover terror plots. That includes not only phone-use data, but also a terror-linked suspect’s business records and info from court-OK’d wiretaps of suspects who switch phones.
Putting agents in the dark would be one vast unilateral US disarmament — against not just “organized” terrorists, but also lone wolves, like those who hit Charlie Hebdo. No wonder France just expanded its domestic-surveillance program.
But Congress is all heads-in-the-sand.
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Last week, the Senate couldn’t even pass a House-OK’d extension of these tools. And that was itself too watered-down, with rules that would slow agents’ access to phone data and let records be destroyed after just 18 months, rather than the current five years.
Sunday, with just hours ’til the laws expire, senators will try again. But they’re still at odds — and some, like Sen. Rand Paul, want to scrap the anti-terror laws altogether.
Distortions about the program abound. In fact, none of this is about “the feds listening in on everyone’s calls.” They need a warrant to listen — all that gets collected is “metadata” on what number is calling what other number and for how long. They even need warrants to put names to the numbers.
Since 9/11, the worst terror America has suffered at home was the attacks at Fort Hood and on the Boston Marathon. That’s no coincidence: You don’t hear much about the program’s successes because the details would tip off the bad guys.
Memo to Washington: The war’s not over. America needs tools, like those about to expire, to protect itself.
Now, maybe even more than pre-9/11.