Many readers chime in on the NSA thing:
Your polite liberal correspondant neglects to explain why Democrats
in the Congress failed to oppose the Clinton-era use of electronic
intercepts against domestic (US Citizen) enemies, as well as Echelon,
the NSA program that arguably did the same thing they object to now
under the Bush administration.
Or in other words: “Why didn’t you guys object when Clinton did the
same thing?”
I would really like to see someone from the left answer this.
And…
Jonah:
You write: “If the program is worthwhile why not have a law supporting it? “
Because if the program was a legitimate exercise of executive power, it does not require legislative or judicial assent. And, further, any attempt to get assent from the other two branches only sets a dangerous precedent – it gives the other two branches a veto which they shouldn’t have.
The American constitutional theory depends on the notion that the three powers compete to a balanced stasis, not that they cooperate.
Bush has to argue that any program of domestic surveillance that doesn’t engage national defense must be governed by law, and that he must obey it (as he does when he follows the FISA courts). However, if the surveillance does involve national defense, it’s no longer a matter that Congress or the court have any say in. They have to butt out.
There is an interesting legal issue here. Existing laws assume that citizens who commit acts against their own country are performing specific acts of treason, where each act is a separate crime. If each act is a separate crime, then each act is governed by criminal law, and Bush needs a warrant. Bush is claiming, and I think rightly so, that these acts cannot be treated as separate crimes. Bush is arguing that these acts are part of an ongoing war against the United States, and therefore fall under his aegis as Commander in Chief.
So, the interesting legal question (where all the fun is) comes down to this: can a citizen carry out a war against his own country? Or, must we assume that all those acts are merely assistance to the enemy, where each act is a separate crime?