To Spy or Not To Spy
Two of the most important news stories of the year were reported last week. On Tuesday, NBC reported that the US Defense Department was spying on peace groups in the United States. On Friday the New York Times reported on the National Security Agency’s eavesdropping on Americans since 2002.
The White House asked the Times not to publish the article. I’ll let you decide if it was in the public interest to sit on a major story for a year. For me and for people who are concerned about civil liberties, we are once again astonished by the conceit of the Bush administration, the Pentagon and the NSA to decide how to manage their supposed “war on terror.” Clearly, they are fighting internal dissent, not terrorism and they’re spending a lot of money to do it.
According to the Associated Press, a senior intelligence officer said that Bush has personally authorized eavesdropping in the United States more than fifty times.
Note the words “personally authorized”. It’s time for Bush to be held accountable for this crime against democracy. His administration consistently acts secretly and with a big stick. Behaviour of this kind is usually associated with dictators. Even Bush admitted that in today’s press conference. Bush was granted more executive powers by Congress, such as the authorization of spying, after September 11, 2001.
It’s all symbolic of a paranoid administration looking to suppress life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, unless it suits them. You don’t have to be a good Republican or Democrat to raise the red flag on the issue of spying, only a good citizen.
Let’s hope some patriot steps up and makes noise.
That’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.
The full NBC story is available at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10454316/
The New York Times story is available at http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/politics/16program.html