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Tucson Helps Immigrants in Need, May Ask Obama to Curb Deportations

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Justanotherhuman7/05/2014 7:10:50 pm PDT

That last example Gellman gives of the Muslim couple from Australia who had an affair before he went to Afghanistan to try to join the Taliban?

Why wouldn’t they have been kept under surveillance? It certainly could have turned out far differently than it did. And even after he left to pursue his own ambition, this couple kept in contact with each other.

“On May 30, 2012, without a word to her, he boarded a plane to begin a journey to Kandahar. He left word that he would not see her again.

“If that had been the end of it, there would not be more than 800 pages of anguished correspondence between them in the archives of the NSA and its counterpart, the Australian Signals Directorate.

“He had made himself a target. She was the collateral damage, placed under a microscope as she tried to adjust to the loss.

“Three weeks after he landed in Kandahar, she found him on Facebook.

“Im putting all my pride aside just to say that i will miss you dearly and your the only person that i really allowed myself to get close to after losing my ex husband, my dad and my brother.. Im glad it was so easy for you to move on and put what we had aside and for me well Im just soo happy i met you. You will always remain in my heart. I know you left for a purpose it hurts like hell sometimes not because Im needy but because i wish i could have been with you.”

When it comes to terrorism and the routes people are pursuing to accomplish their own personal goals in it, romantic notions should never be considered as an excuse not to follow up. She may have been innocent of any wrong-doing but might not have remained so had she joined him.

Gellman felt no compunction in publishing what he thinks the NSA should not have done.