“President Bush urged Congress to give him “additional authority” to continue his administrations eavesdropping program.”This is interesting, since this statement assumes he has some existing authority to wiretap and eavesdrop without a warrant, which I believe a judge has already said the government has no such right, but hey that is old news.
At least this time, he is attempting to do things in compliance with the legal system, by requesting the legislative branch of the government to actually pass legislation, rather than just exerting executive privilege. I guess that is what we call a uniter, not a divider.
This is an amazing request considering Bush has all of a sudden decided to be more up front and forthcoming having finally admitted to many things that have been alleged or suspected for some time such as saying that certain really bad guys have been held in secret prisons and tortured. This particular act and admission seems to be a very un-American thing to do, but hey I guess this is a do as I say, not as I do situation.
Either way, I hope and plead that if Congress does entertain this request from the commander in chief that they think long and hard about the long term effects of this request and what ramifications this type of legislation will have on future presidents and congresses as well.
Let’s assume for a minute that President Bush and the government are really only interested in eavesdropping on suspected Islamic fascist Al-Qaida types. Then the thinking goes, we can head them off at the pass, just like the British did a few weeks ago, then we will be working to stay one step ahead of the terrorist looking to bring the United States to its knees. This request opens up many Pandora’s Box that could cause the huge loopholes, that could make our tax code look like a Dr. Seuss book in comparison. For are just a few questions to ponder:
Who and what defines who the bad guys are, and under what circumstances would the government be able to snoop on them, without bothering to ask permission from the judicial branch?
How does Congress ensure the scope of the legislation so that it “allows” eavesdropping against the bad guys but also doesn’t violate the 1st and 4th amendments for honest, hard working, liberty loving American citizens?
Does this only apply to non-American citizens?
What if a suspected terrorist or someone under investigation is an American citizen?
What about a citizen of a country that we are “Friendly” with (UK, Germany, Holland, Saudi Arabia, etc.)
What if the suspected international terrorist has a family member, who is an American citizen, and they are only chatting about the weather, and not the downfall of western democracy?
Now, let’s assume it is 10, 20, or 50 years from now. This congress (or the next one) passes some form of legislation that sufficiently answers some of these questions and allows the executive branch to spy without warrants on bad guys. What is going to stop future generations of presidents to further expand who is considered a bad guy?
Picture Richard Nixon at his most paranoid and multiply by 100, since this type of legislation would have allowed Nixon and Hoover to go even further and deeper into their surveillance of Nixon’s enemies list. Think of Watergate never having been uncovered. Think of Woodward and Bernstein being labeled enemies or suspected terrorist, or aiding and abetting the enemy (Al-Qaida, Fascists, Communists, Socialists, Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Librarians and Connecticut for Joe).
Maybe I am paranoid, but having 200+ years of seeing how this country’s government operates, it is not a far stretch of imagination to see a scenario where the President has declared the other political party, or the candidate of the other party a bad guy, and is allowed to do warrantless wiretapping and eavesdropping. Amazing what a person could do with tomorrow’s newspaper today, and being able to account for your enemies actions today, will only weaken our democracy tomorrow.
Think about it and let me know what you think.
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