Bush Abandons Warrantless Surveillance of Americans

In a letter to the Judiciary Committtee of the Democratically controlled US Senate, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced that the White House was abandoning its program of spying on Americans without a warrant. While this is a welcome development, two facts remain. This administration has repeatedly placed itself above both the law and the constitution, meaning that it may well do so again. Also, President George “LBJ” Bush has lied about the program before, so there is no reason to believe this program has been abandoned.

In his own words, the AG wrote, “ . . . on January 10, 2007 a Judge on the Foreign Intelligence Service Court issued order authorizing the Government to target for collection international communications into or out of the United States where there is a probable cause to believe one of the communicants is a member or agent of al Qaeda or an associated terrorist organization. As a result of these orders any electronic surveillance that was occurring as part of the Terrorist Surveillance Program will now be subject to the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Service Court.”

In other words, the administration has worked out a face-saving way to continue its spying (or intelligence gathering if one prefers). And indeed, the objection was never to the spying, to the collection of data that could undermine al Qaeda and its fellow travelers. The objection was the unconstitutional nature of the program. After all, it is not enough to fight those who oppose democratic freedoms; one must do so while embracing both democracy and freedom as more than just words.

As a result of these orders, Mr. Gonzalez has told the Senate Judiciary Committee, “. . . the President has determined not to reauthorize the Terrorist Surveillance Program when the current authorization expires.” That authorization is the latest in a series Mr. Bush has signed every 45 days that skips the FISA court and the warrant process. An unnamed official told CNN, “These orders allow us to do the same thing that we’ve been doing, but we will be operating under the orders we’ve obtained from a FISA judge.” In other words, it is now being done constitutionally.

There is just one more troubling matter, whether Mr. Bush will keep his word. A year ago, the Kensington Review noted, “In April of 2004, in Buffalo, New York, Mr. Bush said, 'Any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we’re talking about chasing down terrorists, we’re talking about getting a court order before we do so.' For two and a half years, he had given and renewed the order to the NSA to wiretap on US citizens with alleged Al Qaeda ties without going to court for that warrant. This is the smoking gun of deceit, and why lie if the law actually permits the NSA to do as it will without a warrant? Mr. Bush signed the order and its many renewals, and he said the line above. He knew it was untrue when he said it, and that makes it a lie, pure and simple.” He has consistently and constantly lied about this program. So, why should the nation believe him this time?

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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