Dec 20, 2005
On Wire Taps and Idiocy
If I hear one more stupid statement about how the President “clearly broke the law”, I’m going to puke. Adding “clearly” to a statement just because you feel strongly about it doesn’t make it a fact. To ignore the facts, doesn’t change the facts.
I don’t know why I’m still amazed at a far-gone liberal’s ability to say ‘guilty’ before everything is proven, but yet certain idiots are already calling for impeachment. I guess these folks have replaced “innocent until proven guilty” with “innocent unless I say so”.
Well, shame on them.
The fact is that there are many good arguments for the claim that what the Bush administration did was completely legal. But, you have to look at facts:
- No interception where both parties were in the US was done without a warrant.
- All interceptions without a warrant were targeting communications where one participant operating outside of the US had suspected connections to Al Qaeda or other terrorist organizations.
- The FISA (Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review) upheld the President’s power to search without a warrant in 2002.
- Other courts (United States v. Brown [1973] and United States v. Humphrey [1978]) have also upheld the Presidents authority to perform warrantless wiretaps in foreign intelligence.
- There is no Supreme Court ruling on the matter, which would be the final say.
- Beyond all of this, Congress gave the President the right to “use all necessary and appropriate force” against those who were responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks. Spying on foreign nationals with suspected terrorist ties, even in their dealings with a US Citizen, is a reasonable derivative of that power.
Hmm… So, he “clearly” broke the law, huh? I beg to differ.
Should their be judicial oversight of such things? I think that’s questionable to begin with, but I’ll grant that many people would feel that there should be. OK, fine. Work to make it that way, don’t just blindly cry ‘foul’ because it helps your political agenda.
Another point – who the heck are we trying to protect here?
I don’t believe for one minute, that with all the other things on his plate, that President Bush would be risking his office and how history remembers him to illegally eavesdrop on a handful of people with questionable friends. I think Bush at least deserves the presupposition on our part that 1) he believed there was sufficient legal precedent and 2) thought it the right thing to do to protect YOU and ME.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not claiming that ‘good intentions’ are enough to excuse a crime, were one committed. I’m objecting to the moral outrage that is seething in the leftist Blogosphere about this issue.
Only in America can you be vilified by the very people you are trying to protect.
Despite all the stupidity by people who don’t bother to take an honest look at the facts before slingling politically motivated idiocy, what really bothers me about this whole affair is the fact we are openly discussing what was supposed to be one of the most secret government programs.
In my opinion, if the Bush administration is guilty of anything, its hiring oath-breaking blabber-mouths to work for them. This isn’t whistleblowing, its partisan politics at its worst.
Wow, nicely said Andy!
I too have been getting a bit sick and tired of hearing unfounded accusations tossed around over this.
The thing that gets me is the people that are pretending this is about ‘losing personal freedoms’ when it’s really about them “getting Bush, at ALL costs.” At least I wish people would be honest about their motivations.
I don’t blindly trust law enforcement and/or government agencies (personally I have very little trust for the later) but I somehow doubt anyone really is looking to tap my phones willy-nilly just for S’s & giggles. Just a hunch.
However, were my name and number in a captured al Qaeda operative’s possession? Heck, I’d wanna know myself what the heck it was doing there.
Yet I can ALREADY hear these same busy-bodies whine when a terrorist group manages to slip through the radar and set off bombs on crowded transit trains (ask the Brits and the Spanish about that), or blow up a crowded nightclub (ask the Aussies or Israelis) crash another bunch of planes, or pull off a major chem bio attack, etc…
Then it’ll be “WHY DIDN’T ANYONE STOP THEM!??! WAHH!” They’ll be pointing out whatever Bush was doing at the moment the attack happened, and then making up conspiracies that he did it.
They’ll also want hearings into why the government didn’t use MORE power to stop whatever attack occurred that will actually have been caused by a lack of power and information provided to law enforcement to have prevented it!
Information like, oh… I dunno… keeping tabs on whoever the heck al Qaeda et al have operating inside the US!
And talk about loss of freedoms.
Imagine someday when none of us can go to the mall, or take our kids to the park, or do much of anything without fearing that a terrorist bomb will go off.
Imagine being searched EVERYWHERE we go before entering public places, the same way we’ve already gotten used to being searched before entering an airport.
Imagine the loss of freedom when every big city has to impose nightly curfews to curtail terrorist activities.
Imagine the loss of freedom when no one is allowed to carry a backpack, briefcase, luggage or even a ladies’ pocketbook onto public transit, or into public places for the possibility of suicide bombers. (Ask the Israelis how many freedoms they’ve had to give up for these kinds of considerations EVERY DAY.)
Imagine the loss of freedoms when our stock markets crash due to uncertainty due to attacks being more and more frequent, and our whole way of life goes down the tubes. (Anyone remember the hit our economy took after 9/11? Tens of thousands lost their jobs and even since have had less and less job security.)
The people acting like they are really sooooo worried about their phones being tapped, and almost always arguing against law enforcement using the type of surveillance tools they WILL need to prevent every possible future terrorist attack, will guaranteed be the ones whining longest and loudest when it comes down to REAL freedoms being given up in an America where terrorists have weakened our system enough to pull off regular attacks.
I only hope we never get to such an era, but sometimes I have a baaaaad feeling. Much of the rest of the world is already there.
But hey, if such a nightmare ever visits us, I’m sure it’ll all be Bush’s fault. Even 20+ years after he’s out of office and somehow *gasp!* terrorists STILL want to pull nasty sneak attacks, it’ll still all be Bush’s fault.
Thanks for the kind words!
Harry, you are SO right my friend… I too had my head filled with these same people blaming Bush for another attack getting through… “Why didn’t you do enough to stop this? You were too focused on Iraq! Blah Blah Blah!”
I’ve got a lot of friends and co-workers in Israel who deal with these issues daily, and I don’t think the US has the stomach for it – look how childish we are when someone is trying to protect us for cryin’ out loud!
God willing we won’t have to find out…