You may remember that more than two months ago, amid the controversy over the Obama administration's decision to grant full American constitutional rights to, and hold a civilian trial for, accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley asked Attorney General Eric Holder about Justice Department lawyers who before joining the Obama/Holder team had represented Guantanamo detainees or worked for groups representing them. Grassley pointed to one high-ranking Obama Justice official who formerly represented Osama bin Laden's driver and another who works on detainee issues despite previous advocacy for detainees.

Since a suicide bomber's attempt to bring down a Detroit-bound airplane on Christmas Day, we've heard a lot about the counterterrorism community's supposed "failure to connect the dots." As a result, directives have been issued calling for improved information sharing and analysis, and agencies were ordered to review their procedures.

Such bureaucratic self-evaluation and narrow focus on the "dots," however, misses a much larger, more central piece of the puzzle - that a legalistic culture, driven by litigious activists, has infected and impaired our war on terrorism.