Bush's Need for Speed Argument Runs Into the Truth

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Mon, 19 Dec 2005 16:25:18 -0600

Bush authorized censoring Internet and intercepting emails

 

 

 

Bush's " Need for Speed " Argument Runs Into the Truth

 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/bushs-need-for-speed-a_b_12550.html

 

 

In his news conference today, President Bush invoked the need for

speed in the War on Terror as the reason he is illegally ordering the

National Security Agency to conduct domestic surveillance without

search warrants. Sounds like a compelling argument, right? In the

fast-moving world of information age technology, we can't really

afford to make our law enforcers take the time to go get a warrant, right?

 

It's true – Bush might have had a point, except for one tiny little

detail he refused to discuss at his press conference: namely, the fact

that current law is so lax that he is already permitted to get a

search warrant retroactively, 72 hours after surveillance is

conducted. Put another way, the law currently allows Bush to order

surveillance as fast as he possibly can, and allows surveillance

operations to take place immediately. The only thing that is required

is a court-issued warrant that can be issued retroactively within 72

hours of when the operation started. And, as I've noted earlier, the

special court that grants these warrants has only rejected 4

government requests in a quarter century, meaning getting a warrant is

about as easy as it gets...that is, as long as you aren't trying to do

something wholly outrageous and unrelated to the War on Terror.

 

And so we're back to the same question: why did the President order

domestic surveillance operations without even asking retroactively for

warrants? In his press conference, Bush tried to ramrod the entire

issue into one of him working to defend America, and critics

supposedly being weak on national security. But he frontally refused

to answer the very simple question when a reporter put it to him:

 

QUESTION: Getting back to the domestic spying issue for a moment,

according to FISA's own records, it's received nearly 19,000 requests

for wiretaps or search warrants since 1979, rejected just five of

them. It also operates in secret, so security shouldn't be a concern.

And it can be applied retroactively. Given such a powerful tool of law

enforcement is at your disposal, sir, why did you see fit to sidetrack

that process?

 

BUSH: We used the process to monitor. But also, this is a different

era, different war. It's a war where people are changing phone numbers

and phone calls, and they're moving quick. And we've got to be able to

detect and prevent. I keep saying that. But this is -- it requires

quick action.

 

This is a form of lying that is worse than even the day-to-day lying

that goes on in politics. This is premeditated lying – lying even

though the liar knows full well that everyone sees the lie; lying

where the facts invoked in the very question asked are patently

ignored. How could he possibly cite the need for speed or " quick

action " as the reason for refusing to get search warrants, when those

warrants can be issued retroactively, and thus do not slow down

operations in any way at all?

 

There really is only one explanation that a sane, rational person

could come up with: The surveillance operations Bush is ordering are

so outrageous, so unrelated to the War on Terror and such an

unconstitutional breach of authority that he knows that even a court

that has rejected just 4 warrant requests in 25 years will reject what

he's doing. All you have to do is look at recent news reports about

federal law enforcement and military assets being deployed against

domestic anti-war and peace groups to know that this is well within

what the Bush White House sees as acceptable behavior.

 

And it is clear, they aren't going to relent. As the Associated Press

reports, " President Bush brushed aside criticism over his decision to

spy on suspected terrorists without court warrants Monday and said he

will keep it up 'for so long as the nation faces the continuing threat

of an enemy that wants to kill American citizens.' "

 

So even after public outcry, and even after a courageous reporter

pointed out that the White House's " need for speed " answer doesn't

hold water, the President stood up and said screw the law, screw the

constitution, I'm going to do it anyway - and I'm not going to provide

any legal justification for any of it.

 

This scandal has quickly ripped the veneer off this White House's use

of " national security " in the post-9/11 world. It sees " national

security " not as a priority in defending America, but as a slogan that

justifies smarmy, used-to-getting-whatever-they-want politicians

trampling the laws that are supposed to confine state power. This has

nothing to do with the need for speed, or the need to fight terrorists

– it has everything to do with an out-of-control, paranoid President

believing he is above the laws that have governed this country for 200

years. And if America lets this stand – if we let the law be " brushed

aside " - we set a dangerous precedent for future presidents to trample

our Constitution.

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