In ordering the NSA to spy secretly on Americans, George Bush has overturned United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18, which prohibits domestic spying by NSA; violated the federal act which created the FISA court to oversee covert domestic investigations; and trampled upon the Fourth Amendment guarantee against warrantless searches.
The President of the United States has admitted on national radio that he has violated the laws of the nation and abrogated the U.S. Constitution, that he has no remorse for his actions and intends to continue to hold the Constitution in contempt, and that he believes himself to be above the law and not answerable to any institution or human being alive.
I don't like George Bush as any reader of this journal will know, but this goes so far beyond mere disagreement with his policies and ethics. This would be recognized as tyranny by the Founders of this country; it defies a principle established in Anglo-American jurisprudence since the Magna Carta. As does the use of torture, by the way, and the suspension of habeas corpus. But if Abu Ghraib was not enough to move you, if the imprisonment of American citizens without charges does not seem to be your problem, perhaps the spectre of Orwellian surveillance of American citizens at the whim of a man who considers himself above the law will give you a chill.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, read the
original article in the New York Times. You'll note that the Times knew about this a year ago, and withheld the story at the request of the Administration, which itself is a shameful act indicating
how low the "free" press in American has sunk. (See this for
more NYT analysis.)
If you don't want to register to read that article, try
this later one on MSNBC.
If you want a primer on Constitutional principles,
try this at Steve Gilliard's blog.If you want to know why the Prez thinks this is ok,
read this.And if you think something ought to be done about it,
read this.It cannot stand, or historians will look back on this moment at the pivot point where the American republic and its experiment in democracy crumpled. Ironic that it was no foreign enemy, but fear and complacency that did us in.
