“We are extending Fourth Amendment (constitutional) rights to a terrorist foreigner . . . who’s captured a U.S. soldier.”

Clifford D May writes on National Review.com about the possibility of a nuclear weapon being detonated on American soil, and the inability of our intelligence services to find the information needed to prevent it:

Gary Anthony Ackerman, research director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, also recently told Congress that “the prospect of terrorists detonating a nuclear device on American soil sometime within the next quarter-century is real and growing.”

And Cham D. Dallas, who directs the Institute for Health Management and Mass Destruction Defense at the University of Georgia, says flatly: “It’s inevitable.” Testifying before a Senate hearing this month, he added: “I think it’s wistful to think that it won’t happen by 20 years.”

Fear-mongering, right? Not so much. The tactic of terrorism will be used to try to defeat the United States, and the stakes will be raised to do it. Detonating a nuclear weapon on American soil would be devastating. So what is being done to prevent it?

According to the article, the intel is difficult to come by due to far-left political influence and trial lawyers looking for a payday:

Could the intelligence community be more certain? Yes, our spies could do more to increase our chances of detecting — and preventing — terrorist attacks of all varieties. But they are being denied the tools. The most notable example: The law that gave America’s intelligence agencies the authority to freely monitor the communications of foreign terrorists abroad expired in February.

A bill to restore that authority passed the Senate by a solidly bipartisan 68-to-29 majority. A bipartisan majority in the House would almost certainly vote in favor of the same measure but Speaker Nancy Pelosi — for more than two months — has used the power of her office to stop members from casting their votes yea or nay.

Why would she do something so irresponsible? Groups on the Left, important to the Democrats in this election season, demand that foreign terrorists abroad be given the same privacy protections enjoyed by American citizens here at home.

So rather than let the democratic process go forward, she shelves a very important part of our counter-terrorism toolchest. And it may have already cost American lives:

In at least one instance, U.S. officials labored for nearly ten hours to get legal approval necessary to conduct wiretaps to help them locate three American soldiers kidnapped by al-Qaeda combatants in Iraq. The soldiers were not successfully rescued.

“We are extending Fourth Amendment (constitutional) rights to a terrorist foreigner . . . who’s captured a U.S. soldier,” Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell complained to a congressional committee during a legislative battle over this same issue last year.

It would seem that Nancy is more interested in securing her legacy as a San Francisco liberal than she is about the security of American. The idea that this bill is not being heard and voted on is pitiful. If the bill is bad, then rewrite it. If it is good, then vote on it. But to let it sit while our enemies prepare in our blindness is irresponsible.

Vote on the bill and let our intel folks keep us safe.