Watching the good guys, and leaving potential terrorists alone

Jeannie DeAngelis writes at The American Thinker about the government watching the good guys while leaving the terrorists alone. Did you know that while

cell phones are being tapped, keystrokes on computers are being logged and email intercepted and read; but mosques, which are home base for homegrown terrorists, are strictly off-limits to counterterrorism efforts.

Since when?

Since 2011, in order to investigate or go undercover to find terrorists in mosques, which is supposed to be what the prying program is all about, according to Investor's Business Daily FBI agents need "high-level approval from a special oversight body at the Justice Department dubbed the Sensitive Operations Review Committee." The SORC is a DOJ-appointed body made up of a chairman, members, and staff, all of whose identities are top secret.

What if you try to contact the Sensitive Operations Committee?

If by chance one should suspect a sleeper cell is in a neighborhood nearby, fret not; just dial up the Sensitive Operations Review Committee. If no one answers, leave a message, because the SORC may be on a Sensitive Operations mission in Mexico supplying high-powered rifles to drug cartels and will no doubt promptly return the call as soon as they return.

In all seriousness, the Sensitive Operations Review panel was set up in response to Islamist groups who were offended that mosques were the targets of FBI stings looking for Muslim extremists. Apparently the ACLU and CAIR sued the FBI for surreptitiously staking out jihadists in Los Angeles mosques. Both organizations defined looking for Islamist extremists where Islamic extremists assemble as a violation of Muslim civil rights.

Could the Boston bombers have been stopped?

The duo could have been stopped. Tragically, they weren't because while Tamerlan Tsarnaev was exhibiting "rage filled rants" and mocking Martin Luther King Jr. during worship service at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, reconnaissance efforts were focused on more pressing threats such as the whereabouts of tea party members, pro-lifers, ex-military men, Christians, and political conservatives.