Response to the story that the president lied about NSA wiretapping and that the government is, indeed, creating a database of tens of millions of everyday communications among Americans—the largest in history (
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm?csp=34) --falls into two general categories
One response to this explosive story, based on the old-fashioned notion that this is a nation of laws, is outrage. The other, based on a willingness to go along with whatever the administration says, is, “I’m not doing anything wrong, so let them listen. They’re just trying to protect us.”
To the latter response, I would like to ask a few questions. The first is, protect us from what? Let’s posit an enemy that wants to overthrow the government of the United States and subdue its people. Doesn’t overthrowing the government in fact mean throwing out our Constitution? If an enemy did away with the Constitution, would it not follow that we the people would end up powerless under an invader? So if we’re doing it to ourselves, what are we supposed to be protecting ourselves against?
“Another 9-11,” you say. In fact, the 9-11 Commission determined that this government ignored information about the attacks that came from foreign intelligence agencies around the world. They also ignored information from our own agents about foreign nationals taking flight lessons. If they couldn’t take action on that limited amount of information, how are we to believe they will be able to sift through tens of millions of communications and take adequate measures to protect us?
“Doesn’t matter. If it’s for our security, I don’t have a problem with it.” Well, then, let’s talk about security. We feel secure in our homes or out on the street because we have a basic faith that we live in a society in which people who try to hurt us or our families will be caught and punished. As a society, we have agreed on what criminal behavior is and have created a code of laws to enforce our values. In recent years, however, we’ve seen what happens when the goalposts are moved and what we call ‘crime’ is no longer crime. For example, bank robbery is wrong when the money is carried out the front door, but not when it disappears into the cooked books of a fraudulent pension or savings and loan scheme. Lying by a top government official is impeachable when it’s about a personal matter, but not when it takes this country into a disastrous war.
Have you wondered just who is doing the listening? Do you believe they’re pure souls whose motives are beyond reproach? By listening without warrants, they’ve already placed themselves outside of the law, so I doubt it. Could they be political operatives looking for leverage against their opponents or minions of corporations trolling for new customers? Might they even be government-sanctioned blackmailers looking to gain power over private citizens by gathering the most intimate information? Since they’re breaking the law—acting criminally by definition—I would definitely withhold my trust.
In 1993, I attended a panel discussion of crime novelists from the Western hemisphere. The Mexican and Cuban authors, whose names I don’t remember, spoke cogently about the relativism of law in regard to how societies define crime. The Mexican author pointed out that in Mexico, where police corruption is practically institutional, crime fiction is often about honest citizens bringing the cops to justice—exactly the opposite of American crime fiction. The Cuban author commented that because the Cuban system was so political, the government had codified an entirely different definition of crime. In his society, where material goods were so scarce and the penalties were so harsh, robbery was rare. But crimes of thought and speech were doggedly tracked down and punished, and that’s what his stories were about.
The point is, the foundation of law that allows us to live our lives with some sense of security is vague at best, can shift according to interpretations on the bench, and is undergoing aggressive attack at the highest levels of government. The Boston Globe recently reported that the president of the United States has himself broken 750 laws and has regularly violated the Constitution. He has declared that the laws passed by Congress, even those he has signed, carry no weight if he chooses not to follow them. (
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/05/10/bush_vs_congress/)
Suppose what you feel safe saying or doing today becomes a crime tomorrow? Suppose someone you’re talking to today gets placed on a secret watch list because of something they’ve done that you know nothing about? By association, you are now an enemy of the state and can be designated an enemy combatant on no one but the president’s say.
According to the Bush administration, your home may now be broken into, and you may be spirited away with no word to your family or access to legal counsel. You may then be tortured according to the rules laid out by the Attorney General, contrary to laws and treaties that are supposed to be firmly in place. Before the days of the “unitary executive” who now signs legislation into law and nullifies it with a presidential signing all at the same time, you were protected from such a scenario. Today, you and the members of your family are now completely vulnerable to this abuse. Our latest appointees to the Supreme Court are fully on board with it, so don’t look to the courts to protect you.
So are we safer yet? Let me pose one last question: How do you feel about these powers in the hands of a Democrat; for the sake of argument, President Hillary Rodham Clinton?
Throwing out the Constitution is the first step in subduing the people of this country. To preserve America, our foundation of freedom must be defended at all costs. Every government official and every member of the military have sworn an oath that they agree. Nullifying this foundation one article at a time, removing it one plank at a time, guarantees that what we consider to be security will most certainly disappear.
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