During his press conference yesterday, President Bush angrily claimed that he has absolute power to spy on anyone at any time, warrants and the Constitution be damned. He asked rhetorically, "Do I have the legal authority to do this? And the answer is, absolutely." He said he will continue the spying program "so long as the nation faces the continuing threat of an enemy that wants to kill American citizens."
In other words, forever.
As Bush spoke, I swear I could hear Richard Nixon speaking from beyond the grave. During a 1977 interview, Nixon said that "when the President does it, that means that it's not illegal." The White House should remember that his downfall was triggered by illegal surveillance not unlike what we're now seeing.
The Bush Administration has closed ranks behind its leader, but it hasn't been easy. After all, the notion that the President has the power to disregard federal law and the Constitution to eavesdrop on anyone he feels like is kind of hard to defend.
Not that they didn't try. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, ostensibly the nation's chief law enforcement officer, said that the FISA law governing national-security searches "involves looping paperwork around, even in the case of emergency authorizations from the Attorney General." But FISA allows for wiretapping on an emergency basis, with retroactive warrants allowed up to 72 hours after the tap is conducted. Even if that isn't sufficient, why not work with Congress to change the law instead of just ignoring it? Gonzales said an amendment "was not something we could likely get, certainly not without jeopardizing the existence of the program, and therefore killing the program."
Yeah, those pesky laws do tend to get in the way of doing anything you like just for the heck of it.
Gonzales also said that when Congress voted post-9/11 to let Bush attack al Qaeda, by using the words "all necessary and appropriate force" they also implicitly gave him the authority to spy on anyone the Administration believes to be connected with al Qaeda - a rationale heatedly rejected by many in Congress.
It is, to put it mildly, highly doubtful that in giving Bush the green light to retaliate against al Qaeda, Congress also gave him the authority to overturn statute law and indeed the Constitution. What else does the President think he can simply do away with at the stroke of a pen?
Having already dispensed with the Fourth Amendment's guarantee against warrantless searches, Bush is now targeting the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech, telling everyone, "The fact that we're discussing this program is helping the enemy." So pointing out that the President is acting like a dictator is not protecting democracy, but helping Osama bin Laden? Someone should point out to Bush that hiding behind bluster and accusing people who question him of borderline treason doesn't help his case.
The Bush Administration is out of control. Its previous abuses - indefinite imprisonment, secret jails, torture, et cetera - may not have felt like they applied to us, to American citizens. Instead, they always happen to other people, to bad people, to terrorists, and anything that happens to terrorists can't be bad enough.
But now the monster we unleashed to destroy the enemy is turning on us. When we pick up the phone to call family or friends, how can we be certain that no one is listening in? If we talk politics via E-mail, can we be sure that someone somewhere is not combing over our messages and looking for buzzwords to trigger further investigation? If we write a letter to the editor, or attend a political meeting, or subscribe to a certain publication, or borrow a particular library book, or post to a political-opinion blog, will our names go down on a list of people deemed worthy of increased surveillance?
Laws exist for a reason. The Founding Fathers designed the Constitution with a framework of checks and balances precisely to prevent just this sort of power trip by any one branch of government. The United States is a nation of laws and not of men, and no matter what Bush thinks, he cannot do anything he wants just because he's the President. He has to follow the same laws as everyone else. No exceptions.
President Bush says that everything he does in his Global War on Terror is to defeat the terrorists who want to destroy our way of life. But his reckless abuses in pursuit of this goal threaten to do the job for them by destroying the very freedoms we cherish. Congress and the public must act immediately to put an end to this power grab, by impeachment if needed.
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