Illegal Spying, The Biggest Blunder of All?

As of yesterday, when I finished the piece on the Boosh spying ordeal, I had no plans to continue that subject for another day. However, after carefully reviewing all that has been said and done since the New York Times broke the story, it has become apparent that this is big. Really big. In fact, so big, that it may be the event that breaks the Boosh stronghold of Republican support. He very well may have gone too far this time.

Alberto Gonzales, while trying to help bolster support for Boosh, may be doing just the opposite. Gonzales stated, "The President has not authorized....blanket surveillance of communications here in the United States." Comforting words indeed, coming from a man who I would not trust as far as I could throw. At least, according to Gonzales, I know that I can have dinner with my wife and daughter without fearing that the NSA freaks are listening to every word spoken. That is not the most troubling aspect of what Gonzales said, nor the most harmful to Boosh. What hurts Boosh the most are the following two statements.

1) "There were many people, many lawyers within the administration who advised the president that he had inherent authority as commander in chief under the Constitution to engage in these (sic) kind of signal intelligence of our enemy." First, I have spoken to many attorneys that practice in Constitutional law and the overwhelming consensus is that this is simply not true. There is nothing in the United States Constitution that allows for a president to spy on American citizens, nor allows one to order others to do so. Second, we have known for a long time that Boosh acts under a different constitution than the rest of us do. But, these are not the most damaging remarks. The next Gonzales statement does the most long term harm to Boosh, picking a fight with the wrong people, his very base.

"We also believe that the authorization to use force, which was passed by the Congress in the days following the attacks of September 11, constituted additional authorization for the president to engage in this kind of signal intelligence." Now, Booshco has crossed the line into putting words in the mouths of Congress. And Congress happens to be pissed off about this. First, only 8 members of Congress even knew of this program, much less gave Boosh authority to spy on our citizens. Second, one of the eight that did know, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, wrote a letter to Vice President Dick Cheney in 2003 that stated, among other things,"...unable to fully evaluate, much less endorse these activities." Rockefeller is not a Constitutional scholar, nor an attorney, but he knew enough to know that it just did not smell right. To top it off, over the last two plus years, other Congressmen and Senators, who had gotten wind that something was going on, asked Rockefeller about it. All Rockefeller could say was, "I can't tell you."

For this administration to say that Congress authorized this activity, takes the arrogance of these people to new heights. Only when you thought that they couldn't go any further in thumbing their noses at the Constitution and telling the American people to shove it, they try to cram an unintended power into their arsenal. And claim Congressional approval to do that very thing. Senator Arlen Specter, a Republican, said that he plans to directly ask Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito about his views on "presidential authority on spying on Americans without a warrant." He also, against the wishes of Boosh, plans to open hearings about this soon after the first of the year. Boosh stated,"An open debate would say to the enemy, 'Here is what we're going to do.' And this is an enemy which adjusts." Boosh is back in attack and fearmongering mode, and people are tiring of it. Now, he is dumping his garbage on the doorstep of Congress, Republicans included, and they are going to fight back. Nearly every elected official who has chosen to speak about this has been aghast that Boosh would consider this proper behavior. Let's look at some of what Boosh said yesterday.

"We've got to be fast on our feet, quick to detect and prevent." Now, Boosh is not one that I would describe as "fast on his feet." In fact, he may be the slowest "on his feet" President in the history of this Republic. Besides, we have a special court set up so that we can act quickly. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court was set up in 1978 for just this purpose. Over the years, the FISA court has been asked to authorize thousands upon thousands of warrants. It takes anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours to get a warrant approved through this court. This court is a necessary check and balance to prevent someone like Boosh from abusing power. Out of the unknown thousands of warrants that have been requested, the FISA court has rejected exactly four. Four times it has said no.The court has also asked for modifications on another 96 warrant requests. This process is hardly burdensome.

"We know that a 2 minute phone conversation between somebody linked to al-Qaeda here and an operative overseas could lead directly to the loss of thousands of lives. To save American lives, we must be able to act fast and to detect these conversations so we can prevent new attacks." Just show me one time, ONE TIME that anything you have done has prevented any attack anywhere, Boosh. You are fond of saying that "obviously things are working because we haven't been attacked since 9/11." Well, we weren't attacked BEFORE 9/11 either, so you have proven nothing other than having the ability to put fear before all else when communicating with the American people. Who exactly is the enemy here? Is it the Taliban, or al-Qaeda, or Muslims in general, or American operatives, or sleeper cells, or who? Who the hell are we fighting and defending ourselves from? Saying "terrorists" is just a bit too broad for me to be okay with your monitoring of my phone conversations and reading my emails. You say that "they" hate us because we are free. Quite frankly I don't think "they" care one bit about how we live, "they" just want to be left alone so that they can live however "they" choose to. We have no business fighting holy wars anywhere in the world, and that is exactly what we are doing.

"To say 'unchecked power' basically is ascribing some kind of dictatorial position to the President, which I strongly reject. I am doing what you expect me to, and at the same time, safeguarding the civil liberties of the country." There, you finally said it. You threw in the "dictatorial position" on your own, without it being mentioned by anyone else. And, we know why. It is the closest thing to the truth that you have said in 5 years, and you said it because you know that it is what is lying underneath the surface of everything you do. Dictatorial Power, that is what you think you have. Let me offer a couple of suggestions to you, Commander. First, you do claim unchecked power, claiming to do what I expect you to. You have no idea what anyone expects you to do, because you never ask. You are cloaked in secrecy, as is your entire administration, making decisions after manipulating things to look how you hope or think they should look. And, you do feel as if you are the dictator. Whether this mission came from God or out of your own twisted worldview, you have decided to unleash the power you have on the world. And, the world doesn't like it. You follow by saying that you are "safeguarding the civil liberties of the country." Here's a little bit of "educating" that you obviously need. Free of charge, courtesy of Cyclone. Countries do not have civil liberties, it is the citizens of the countries that have those liberties. Or did have. You have managed to trample on more of my civil liberties than anyone in history, all in the name of fighting some "war on terror" against an enemy that lives only inside your head.

If you decide that we have no right to rule the world, consider each country a separate and respected entity, and only use weapons when we are threatened, then we have a chance to survive. But, if you "stay the course," the most ungodly unimagineable course that you have started us on, then we are history. Only you, the Dictator in charge, can determine the outcome.

(Someone just sent me the complete handwritten Rockefeller letter to Cheney. It can be found at:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/rock-cheney1.html

Cyclone