Of course, the primary catastrophic loss resulting from the terror attacks on 9/11 was the loss of life, including people who grew up in my neighborhood. The second catastrophic loss was the war in Iraq which was snake-bitten from the start thanks to lousy war planning and the false pretenses employed to start the war in the first place. The third catastrophic loss is the civil liberties which are being eroded each and every day and which may never return, so long as elected and other public officials use the terror threat to keep the population on edge for years to come. We continue to fall for these scare tactics.

The various counter-terror methods put in place by the dishonest hacks in the Bush administration have been well-chronicled. These warrantless searches are justified by the need to stop the next terror attack. That was the justification a few weeks ago when Bush rammed another surveillance law through Congress. According to Newsweek, that law, too, was premised on a house of cards.

In a new embarrassment for the Bush administration top spymaster, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, is withdrawing an assertion he made to Congress this week that a recently passed electronic-surveillance law helped U.S. authorities foil a major terror plot in Germany.

The temporary measure, signed into law by President Bush on Aug. 5, gave the U.S. intelligence community broad new powers to eavesdrop on telephone and e-mail communications overseas without seeking warrants from the surveillance court. The law expires in six months and is expected to be the subject of intense debate in the months ahead. On Monday, McConnell - questioned by Sen. Joe Lieberman - claimed the law, intended to remedy what the White House said was an intelligence gap, had helped to "facilitate" the arrest of three suspects believed to be planning massive car bombings against American targets in Germany.

Other U.S. intelligence-community officials questioned the accuracy of McConnell's testimony and urged his office to correct it. Four intelligence-community officials, who asked for anonymity discussing sensitive material, said the new law, dubbed the "Protect America Act," played little if any role in the unraveling of the German plot. The U.S. military initially provided information that helped the Germans uncover the plot. But that exchange of information took place months before the new "Protect America" law was passed.

After questions about his testimony were raised, McConnell called Lieberman to clarify his statements to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, an official said. . . . Late Wednesday afternoon, McConnell issued a statement acknowleding that "information contributing to the recent arrests [in Germany] was not collected under authorities provided by the 'Protect America Act'."