secrets and spies

This story has been out for a few days, but a recent comment from Redsock reminded me to mention it.

Bush admits to approving secret spying
CBC News

U.S. President George W. Bush has acknowledged that he authorized secret monitoring of "people with known links to al-Qaeda." But his admission has drawn heated criticism from politicians who say Bush overstepped his authority.

. . . .

In an eight-minute radio address on Saturday, Bush said he personally approved the interception of communications more than 30 times since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"In the weeks following the terrorist attacks on our nation, I authorized the National Security Agency, consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution, to intercept the international communications of people with known links to Al-Qaeda and related terrorist organizations."

He called the program a "vital tool" in protecting American lives against future attacks.

Bush criticized a news media leak drawing attention for the first time to a program he called "highly classified" and crucial to national security.

The New York Times reported on Friday that the National Security Agency has monitored the e-mails, telephone calls, and other communications of hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of people inside the U.S. without warrants during the past three years.

The Times said it delayed publishing its story for a year after administration officials said the disclosure would harm national security. [Emphasis mine!]

Bush defended the program and said it is used only to intercept the international communications of people inside the United States who have been determined to have a "clear link" to al-Qaeda and related groups.

He vowed the program would continue for as long as those organizations threaten the U.S.

Several U.S. lawmakers accused Bush of trampling on civil liberties and democracy.

Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said "it is time to have some checks and balances in this country. We are a democracy ... not secret orders and secret courts and secret torture."

"This shocking revelation ought to send a chill down the spine of every Senator and every American," said another Democrat, Senator Russell Feingold.

Even Arlen Specter, the Republican chair of the Senate judiciary committee questioned the legality. "It's inexcusable to have spying on the people of the United States, without court surveillance, in violation of our law, beyond question."

The admission comes as Bush is pushing the U.S. Congress to re-approve the controversial Patriot Act, which makes it easier to get court approval to spy on Americans. The original act runs out in two weeks.

From the New York Times this past Friday:

Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts

Washington, Dec. 15 - Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.

Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the intelligence agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an effort to track possible "dirty numbers" linked to Al Qaeda, the officials said. The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications.

. . .

The Bush administration views the operation as necessary so that the agency can move quickly to monitor communications that may disclose threats to the United States, the officials said. Defenders of the program say it has been a critical tool in helping disrupt terrorist plots and prevent attacks inside the United States.

Administration officials are confident that existing safeguards are sufficient to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans, the officials say. [Ed note: Just how dumb do these people think we are???] In some cases, they said, the Justice Department eventually seeks warrants if it wants to expand the eavesdropping to include communications confined within the United States. The officials said the administration had briefed Congressional leaders about the program and notified the judge in charge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the secret Washington court that deals with national security issues.

The White House asked The New York Times not to publish this article, arguing that it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny. After meeting with senior administration officials to hear their concerns, the newspaper delayed publication for a year to conduct additional reporting. Some information that administration officials argued could be useful to terrorists has been omitted.

The illegal spying doesn't surprise me. After all, it's an illegal government, and they've made it very clear that democratic agreements - the Constitution, the Geneva Convention - don't apply to them. But now the New York Times, long known by many progressives to be a government mouthpiece (and not, as the wingnut hoax would have you believe, a liberal tool), has shown its true colours.

Ironically (is there no end to the irony?), the Cheney Administration is using this disclosure as ammunition to get the so-called Patriot Act extended! We've been spying on you all illegally anyway, so you might as well make it legal? I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

The inevitable wingnuttery argument that the government only spies on terrorist threats reminds me of three words: Martin Luther King.

Attorney General Bobby Kennedy, his hands tied by the truckloads of dirt FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had on his brother, the President, was blackmailed into allowing Hoover to step up his surveillance efforts against King. (What dirt, you ask? Hoover had the incredibly long list of JFK's girlfriends, including an East German spy. Apparently Kennedy's White House romps would make Clinton look like a boy scout.)

Anyway, the FBI and the "Justice" Department used a roving wiretap on King, listening to his conversations wherever he traveled. This helped them round up King's criminal associates (peace protestors, civil rights organizers, ministers, rabbis) and thwart his master plan (equality and justice).

But don't worry, I'm sure they're only using it on bad guys this time.