Eric Schmitt in The New York Times:

The government’s ability to eavesdrop on potential terrorists helped the United States obtain information that led to the arrests last week of three Islamic militants accused of planning bomb attacks in Germany, the nation’s top spy official said today. This surveillance ability was temporarily restricted earlier this year by a special court, and then restored by Congress last month.

Hey, guys. Come on. These people spent several years lying about all their (formerly) illegal surveillance. Like, I remember how right after the illegal NSA surveillance scandal broke, The Daily Show played all these video clips of Bush talking about how important FISA is and how they always get warrants to spy on terrorists and stuff. Maybe the real news media played those clips too? Ha ha, no, probably not. Anyway, these people like to lie all the time, right? Now they say it’s a good thing they have their (formerly) illegal surveillance programs, since look, they caught some would-be terrorists! I wonder if they might lie about something like that to make it look like their (formerly) illegal surveillance programs are actually useful for catching terrorists. I wonder if this is the sort of thing it might be useful to mention in a news story like this? No, I forgot, journalists have to maintain objectivity, which means they mindlessly parrot official propaganda and you decide! if it’s bullshit.

Oh yeah. And? What the fuck does sharing intelligence about Central Asian terrorist groups operating in Germany have to do with the government’s formerly illegal surveillance of American citizens? I think we ought to stop all our spying and shut down our intelligence agencies and stop starting bullshit wars and stuff that make gathering and sharing intelligence necessary, but last I checked not many other folks were seriously trying to restrict the government’s ability to spy except on American citizens. Right? Nobody is seriously trying to restrict the government’s ability to surveil Central Asian terrorist groups operating in Germany and share that surveillance with Germany. Right? I wonder if that’s the sort of thing it might be useful to mention in a news story like this.