Bush's Wartime Powers
George W. Bush does not apologize about his policies. He rarely admits mistakes; he'd prefer to tell the Big Lie until people believe it's the Truth. Bush didn't apologize for starting a war over WMDs that didn't exist, or torturing prisoners, or detaining people without charges, or holding people in secret government jails. He admitted 30,000 Iraqi civilians have died since the Iraq War began, but he didn't even come close to apologizing for their deaths. So, it is not shocking that the Bush Administration has defended the need to wiretap American citizens without a court order.
Here are a few points to remember about Bush's domestic surveillance.
1. It is in direct violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) passed in 1978, which requires all surveillance on U.S. citizens to be approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Since this court almost never turns down surveillance requests, isn't it disturbing that the Bush Administration could not even be bothered to comply with this law?
2. Congress did not authorize spying on American citizens. The Department of Justice's propaganda leaflet claims that Congress granted Bush unlimited spying powers when it passed the war resolution of September 14, 2001. Here is the passage the DOJ uses to justify Bush Administration criminality: "[the President can] use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations and persons he determines planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001." Does that sound like a green light for domestic spying? The Congressmen that signed it didn't think so.
3. Bush claims wartime powers, in a war that will never end. The War on Terror? I think that will end right after the War on Poverty, the War on Cancer, and the War on Tooth Decay. Bush is not the first president to curtail basic liberties during war. In particular, two far greater men than Bush have restricted civil rights in immoral and possibly illegal ways - Lincoln and FDR. Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, censored newspapers, and locked up extremist dissidents. FDR had German spies tried and executed in a military tribunal and interred Japanese-Americans in an ugly display of ethnic profiling.
These were terrible things, but far more understandable than Bush's actions. Lincoln was dealing with a violent insurrection, the bloodiest war in our nation's history. The country was literally tearing itself apart. Roosevelt was at war with two miliaristic societies that declared war on us as part of a naked attempt at global domination. In 1941, Japan ruled Asia, Germany controlled most of Europe and seemed to be on the brink of conquering the largest nation on Earth. The very survival of the United States was at stake in both 1861 and 1941. Short of a nuclear holocaust, I can't imagine a president facing a bigger crisis than those facing Lincoln and Roosevelt. However, these were both finite situations with a foreseeable conclusion. There is no definable end to the War on Terror; there is barely a definable enemy.
9/11 was an atrocity, but is America REALLY in mortal danger right now? If not, Bush's powers are unjustified and dictatorial. If the nation's existence is in jeopardy, it is from environment collapse and economic decline, two things Bush has helped to bring about. The supposed protector of the United States and its values is going to be the ruin of us all. I love to be right, but I will not be smiling when the historians of tomorrow rightly judge Dubya as the worst president in American history. One good thing, if I'm not in a secret federal prison, I'll at least get to enjoy my new beach-front property in Columbia, South Carolina.
Here are a few points to remember about Bush's domestic surveillance.
1. It is in direct violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) passed in 1978, which requires all surveillance on U.S. citizens to be approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Since this court almost never turns down surveillance requests, isn't it disturbing that the Bush Administration could not even be bothered to comply with this law?
2. Congress did not authorize spying on American citizens. The Department of Justice's propaganda leaflet claims that Congress granted Bush unlimited spying powers when it passed the war resolution of September 14, 2001. Here is the passage the DOJ uses to justify Bush Administration criminality: "[the President can] use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations and persons he determines planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001." Does that sound like a green light for domestic spying? The Congressmen that signed it didn't think so.
3. Bush claims wartime powers, in a war that will never end. The War on Terror? I think that will end right after the War on Poverty, the War on Cancer, and the War on Tooth Decay. Bush is not the first president to curtail basic liberties during war. In particular, two far greater men than Bush have restricted civil rights in immoral and possibly illegal ways - Lincoln and FDR. Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, censored newspapers, and locked up extremist dissidents. FDR had German spies tried and executed in a military tribunal and interred Japanese-Americans in an ugly display of ethnic profiling.
These were terrible things, but far more understandable than Bush's actions. Lincoln was dealing with a violent insurrection, the bloodiest war in our nation's history. The country was literally tearing itself apart. Roosevelt was at war with two miliaristic societies that declared war on us as part of a naked attempt at global domination. In 1941, Japan ruled Asia, Germany controlled most of Europe and seemed to be on the brink of conquering the largest nation on Earth. The very survival of the United States was at stake in both 1861 and 1941. Short of a nuclear holocaust, I can't imagine a president facing a bigger crisis than those facing Lincoln and Roosevelt. However, these were both finite situations with a foreseeable conclusion. There is no definable end to the War on Terror; there is barely a definable enemy.
9/11 was an atrocity, but is America REALLY in mortal danger right now? If not, Bush's powers are unjustified and dictatorial. If the nation's existence is in jeopardy, it is from environment collapse and economic decline, two things Bush has helped to bring about. The supposed protector of the United States and its values is going to be the ruin of us all. I love to be right, but I will not be smiling when the historians of tomorrow rightly judge Dubya as the worst president in American history. One good thing, if I'm not in a secret federal prison, I'll at least get to enjoy my new beach-front property in Columbia, South Carolina.
posted by David Bowden at 2:08 PM
