Six years after 9/11 , US intel officials are complaining about the emergence of a major "gap" in their ability to secretly eavesdrop on suspected terrorist plotters.

In a series of increasingly anxious pleas to Congress, intel "czar" Mike McConnell has argued that the nation's spook community is "missing a significant portion of what we should be getting" from electronic eavesdropping on possible terror plots.

Remember:

Is more what we really need?

In my opinion not.

But running spies is not the NSA's job. Listening is, and more listening is what the NSA knows how to organize, more is what Congress is ready to support and fund, more is what the President wants, and more is what we are going to get.

Now, back to that news story:

Rep. Heather Wilson, a GOP member of the House intelligence community, told NEWSWEEK she has learned of "specific cases where US lives have been put at risk" as a result.

Intel agency spokespeople declined to elaborate.

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McConnell told Congress that we are "significantly burdened in capturing overseas communications of foreign terrorists planning to conduct attacks inside the United States."

Critics of the administration have expressed reluctance about expanding the surveillance powers of the government.

Midday Saturday, the White House re-released the text of the president's address, removing the sentence: "Every day that Congress puts off these reforms increases the danger to our Nation."

An 'Intel Gap': What We're Missing