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Opinion Another Outlook America needs protection from Bush act "[T]he public should view excessive secrecy among government officials as parents view sudden quiet where youngsters are playing. It is a sign of trouble." — William Rogers The Protect America Act is an Orwellian-named subversion of privacy and of Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches.
Rushed into law before Congress' summer recess, it was mercifully set to "sunset" this week. Congress is determined to replace it, and the Senate gained more time to dither with a two-week extension of the act. Lawmakers' hasty adoption last August occurred because of the Bush administration's usual fear-mongering about the threat of terrorism. In reality, the only modification necessary to accommodate evolution in Internet technology was an exemption for domestic wiretaps that target foreign suspects. But the broadly written law allows government eavesdropping on innocent Americans without oversight. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, established a highly secret court to provide oversight of executive branch spying. It came in 1978 as a result of the Nixon administration's abuses of the law — illegal domestic spying that was paltry compared to the massive data mining undertaken by the Bushies. Nixon may have longed for the levers of a police state. The Bush administration has gone ahead and created them. The House passed legislation last fall to replace the Protect America Act. It's a reasonable bill that builds in oversight and safeguards on the government's eavesdropping powers. On the other hand, the Senate bill continues the evisceration of the FISA court. The Bushies ignore with impunity any laws they choose, so we've heard a good bit from the administration about vetoing any bill without retroactive immunity for telecommunication companies who conspired with them in breaking the law. The House bill doesn't include immunity. With the complicity of about a dozen of the Senate's singularly spineless Democrats and led by Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the House version of the bill was dead-ended in favor of the administration's bill. The courageous Chris Dodd, D-Conn., remains determined to filibuster the bill. But with the number of surrender-monkey Democrats hovering around 12, there may not be enough votes to sustain the filibuster. Neither of the Democratic senators who are presidential candidates bothered to show up for votes on this, though they both claim opposition to immunity. It's an extraordinary commentary on the party of Lincoln that not a single Republican senator is willing to oppose this rank, outrageous grab for unfettered power. It's one thing to be an apologist for corporate prerogative and quite another to witness the wholesale abrogation of constitutional checks and balances without a peep. Several salient facts seem to get lost as we are beaten about the head with the hyperbole about fighting terrorism. First and foremost, the telecoms already have immunity. Under existing FISA law they are protected while acting pursuant to written government certification or so long as they can prove they acted in good faith. If we are to maintain the rule of law, there's absolutely no reason that the federal courts presiding over these cases can't simply make that determination, as they do in countless other cases involving classified information. So, what is this all about, really? With the Bushies' track record of misinformation and lying, things often aren't what they appear. Retroactive immunity for the telecoms, no matter how grateful they might be in the future, is almost certainly much less about the administration's corporate patrons than about administration activities themselves. The fact is that the numerous suits against the telecoms are the only method we mere citizens possess to compel the government and its corporate conspirators to fess up on how extensive the Bushies' lawlessness has been. The administration wants the suits to go away so it can continue operating in the dark with no accountability. There have been some broad hints of late from National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell that the administration is about to come out with some data mining proposals that will make the hullabaloo so far look minor. Cyber security is a real issue. It could well be al-Qaida's next sphere of operation. The crypto-fascists in the Bush administration have an easy answer — "trust us" and ask no questions. Democrats on Capitol Hill have continued funding Bush's endless war. They've failed to reinstate habeas corpus and they've rolled over for every expansion of secret government activity. The rule of law is no more an impediment to fighting terrorism than it is to unearthing crime and governmental malfeasance. History teaches that government assertions of secrecy are as likely to conceal government incompetence as any state secrets. Citizens who sit by while the Constitution is abrogated by men who believe they must operate above the law destine themselves to become victims of both terrorism and corruption. William H. Seewald: Longtime Amarillo resident and columnist. E-mail
comments about this story Posted: February 7, 2008
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