Exactly How Many Americans Is George Bush Spying On?

1:39 am EST August 1st, 2007 | News | 6 Comments

From the start, the revelations about the Bush administration spying on Americans has been smelly. To this day, we still have no reasoning for why the administration chose to bypass the FISA court, especially when they could have conducted their surveillance and retroactively obtained a warrant in the process. Furthermore, the attorney general has refused direct questioning from U.S. senators as to the scope, target, etc. of the surveillance.

spy vs spy

The administration, as it always does, justifies this behavior with conservative legal theory dreamt up by the drones that come out of such laughable institutions as Liberty University and the Federalist Society. The track record of these legal "theories" are laughable even to judges appointed by Republican presidents, and there is now a consistent pattern of terror suspects being released or having charges thrown out because the administration has employed such nonsensical legal justifications. That’s why their obfuscation on the domestic spying is so unbelievable. And now comes word that there’s even more they were hiding.

The Bush administration’s chief intelligence official said yesterday that President Bush authorized a series of secret surveillance activities under a single executive order in late 2001.

The disclosure makes clear that a controversial National Security Agency program was part of a much broader operation than the president previously described.

The disclosure by Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, appears to be the first time that the administration has publicly acknowledged that Bush’s order included undisclosed activities beyond the warrantless surveillance of e-mails and phone calls that Bush confirmed in December 2005.

What I’d like to know, seriously, is if President Bush is echoing the activities of folks like Richard Nixon (and others) and using the intelligence community to spy on his political enemies? These justifications, even for something as basic as what a terrorist is, are so broad and so general that little to no distinction is made between true terrorists and political activists who happen to be on the other side of the aisle. Is it really a stretch to think Bush’s team has sought every possible advantage and used their made up legal theory to justify it? If this isn’t the case, why do they have such a hard time simply coming straight about this program?

Last fall they tried to say that there would be a backlash against Democrats for questioning the goals and uses of these programs, and they renamed the domestic spying to the Orwellian "Terrorist Surveillance Program" when it’s still spying on Americans in America. As the polls showed, there was no political price to pay and in fact the gross violation of civil rights may have contributed to the President and his party’s "thumpin’".

What the heck is going on here, and does anyone in Washington have the balls to ask?

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6 Responses to “Exactly How Many Americans Is George Bush Spying On?”

  1. Enlightened Liberal says:
    August 1, 2007 at 6:26 am

    The function of the Federalist Society and similar organizations isn’t to make sound legal arguments, it is to muddy the waters so that the population and the oh so serious press will think there is a legitimate argument that the Constitution allows warrantless wiretaps and other intrusions.

    And the “conservative” population supports it, saying that while it is an invasion of privacy, it’s not like the NSA will spy on THEM.

  2. SaveFarris says:
    August 1, 2007 at 8:37 am

    If this isn’t the case, why do they have such a hard time simply coming straight about this program?

    Yes, let’s publicly air every single tactic being used by the Administration to find & track terrorists. Cause we all know that there’s no way a terrorist will be able to get ahold of a copy of the NYT or, Allah forbid, log on to the Internets and adjust their activities accordingly.

    …it’s still spying on Americans in America.

    Except … not so much. The item Media Matters links to expressly describes the program as International Calls only.

    G*d D#mn Bush! Who does he think he is trying to stop terrorist attacks?!?

  3. Dr. Anatole Gavage-Huskanoy says:
    August 1, 2007 at 10:18 am

    There are no libertarians on the right. Only authoritarians.

  4. Oliver Willis says:
    August 1, 2007 at 11:32 am

    You think terrorists are so stupid they don’t think we’re spying on them, or our society so fragile we should just trust the president to shred the constitution? Yes, it says international calls – on a White House document. As the last 6 years have shown, White House documents under this administration are worth about zip.

  5. Porlock Junior says:
    August 1, 2007 at 11:53 pm

    Visualize Impeachment.

  6. Duros62 says:
    August 2, 2007 at 6:25 pm

    I’m visualizing as hard as I can. -|–