By Kenneth J. Theisen, 7/20/07
On June 27, 2007 Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick
Leahy issued subpoenas to the White House, Vice President Dick Cheney and the
Department of Justice for documents about the National Security Agency (NSA)
warrantless surveillance program. The NSA launched the program in 2001, shortly
after 9/11. The program intercepts vast
quantities of the international telephone and Internet communications of
innocent Americans without court approval. The deadline for compliance is
today, July 18. As of the writing on this article, no documents have yet been
supplied to the Judiciary Committee. And it is not likely that the Bush regime
will be turning over any such documents any time soon.
In fact the regime has fought releasing information about
the NSA surveillance program at every turn.
The spy program was kept secret until the New York Times revealed it
about a year-and-a-half ago. The Bush
White House scored a legal victory on July 6, 2007 when in a 2-1 ruling, the U.S.
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a legal challenge to the NSA’s
warrantless surveillance program. The
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had earlier filed suit on behalf of
prominent journalists, scholars, attorneys, and national nonprofit
organizations who claimed that the NSA surveillance program disrupted their
ability to communicate effectively with sources and clients.
The plaintiffs alleged a well-founded fear that their
communications were subject to illegal surveillance, but the court dismissed
the case because plaintiffs could not state with certainty that they had been
wiretapped by the National Security Agency. Of course the plaintiff’s
were caught in a Catch 22 situation.
Since the Bush regime has kept the program secret, it was virtually
impossible for the ACLU to prove that the plaintiffs were actual victims on the
NSA surveillance. If the lawsuit had
been allowed to proceed the plaintiffs may have been able to prove this through
legal discovery.
After the dismissal, ACLU Legal Director Steven R. Shapiro
stated, “We are deeply disappointed by today’s decision that insulates the Bush
administration’s warrantless surveillance activities from judicial review and
deprives Americans of any ability to challenge the illegal surveillance of
their telephone calls and e-mails. As a result of today’s decision, the
Bush administration has been left free to violate the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act, which Congress adopted almost 30 years ago to prevent the
executive branch from engaging in precisely this kind of unchecked
surveillance.
“It is important to emphasize that the court today did not
uphold the legality of the government’s warrantless surveillance activity.
Indeed, the only judge to discuss the merits clearly and unequivocally declared
that the warrantless surveillance was unlawful.”
Unfortunately the dismissal of the lawsuit leaves the Bush
regime free to continue the illegal spying on our phone calls, e-mails and
other communications. It also keeps the
entire program clothed in secrecy and the failure of the regime to provide
documents to Congress will continue to keep the program hidden behind closed
doors.
Because of all the secrecy around this NSA spying program
most people are unaware of its nature.
The Bush regime describes it as a “terrorist surveillance program.” It says that if you are not a terrorist you
have nothing to worry about. But this surveillance program allows electronic
monitoring of telecommunications without any showing to a court that the person
being spied upon in this country is a suspected terrorist or not. It is in violation of the First and Fourth amendments
and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Bush regime legal flaks, such as Attorney General Gonzales and John Yoo, claim
that the president as commander-in-chief of the military is allowed to spy on
anyone without intervention by the courts.
But the Supreme Court has found this claim of unlimited commander in
chief powers during war to be an unacceptable effort to “condense power
into a single branch of government,” which is contrary to the
Constitution’s checks and balances. But
then the Bush regime has continuously pushed the envelope about the scope and
nature of presidential powers. It will continue
to do so until it is halted, not by the courts or by congress, but by a mass
movement that drives the regime from power.
The regime repeatedly claims that the program has saved lives. But this is the
same claim it uses to justify torture, its wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan,
and myriad other crimes against humanity.
What the program does do is expand the power of the regime which has
murdered hundreds of thousands throughout the world all in the name of the
so-called “war on terror.”
It is also important to keep in mind that this NSA spy
program is only one of many spy programs operated by the government to violate
your privacy. Under the PATRIOT Act,
FISA, and other draconian legislation, virtually all information from the books
you check out at the library to your bank records are open to government
snooping.
World Can’t Wait will continue to follow the
compliance or non-compliance of the Bush regime regarding the NSA program as
well as other developments which deprive you of your right to privacy.