With Britain foiling an allegedly imminent terrorist attack, the Bush administration is wasting no time getting their message out: Americans need to be spied on even more. From the White House to the Department of Homeland Security, fingers are pointed at critics of the administration’s illegal wire-tapping, secret trials and threats to journalists, and a smug “Told you so” resounds.

Calling British investigators “nimble” and “flexible,” DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff stressed the importance of reshaping the U.S. legal system to “allow us to do that.”

“It’s not like the 20th century, where you had time to get warrants,” Chertoff said. The comments were mimicked by the Republican chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who warned that there were “folks in the U.S. who want to get rid of some of these [wire-tapping] tools.”

Neither mentioned that Bush has ignored a 2005 report urging the deployment of explosives detection technology at airports and, just weeks ago, tried to divert funds earmarked for the development of liquid explosives detectors to the agency responsible for security at government buildings.

» Scott Saxon