John Dean: Why Worry About Communications BUSH&CHENEY Are Intercepting?

[kpete]

Why Should Anyone Worry About Whose Communications Bush and Cheney Are Intercepting, If It Helps To Find Terrorists?
By JOHN W. DEAN
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Friday, Feb. 24, 2006

Although the Bush Administration does not encourage public debate over decisions it has made regarding how to govern, more and more people are asking questions about the ways and means employed during this presidency.

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The Why-Should-I-Worry Question

The NSA surveillance program seeks to uncover persons in the United States who are conversing internationally and by telephone or email with known al Qaeda organization or operative abroad, or with affiliates of such organizations and operatives.

"I am not personally worried about the government listening to any of my conversations, for not only do I not know anyone even remotely connected with terrorism," one questioner said to me after the panel, "But furthermore, I would be happy to give up my privacy," she said, "if it helps to find terrorists." This young lady wanted to know why others were so concerned about the government's using the latest technology to find terrorists.

Let's set aside the issue of whether the President can simply ignore the FISA law validly enacted by Congress - and signed by a prior president. I will return to that in another, later column, for it is an important question that is not going to go away. Here, I will look only at the issue of whether the average American has anything to truly be worried about, as NSA electronically sifts through endless digital exchanges to find the proverbial needle-in-a-haystack.

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more at:
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20060224.html

[lauren_victoria]

1. i'm not worried that

the government might suspect I'm a terrorist, I'm pissed off because we're in the land of the free yet we are being wiretapped by our own government for our own protection, with no regards to our privacy.

[EFerrari]

3. Welcome to DU, lauren_victoria.

:)

[lauren_victoria]

5. thank you :]]

:-)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. Welcome to DU!

have fun! :hi:

[bryant69]

2. Interesting points to consider

And another side of the debate - I guess because details on the program are sketchy i've mostly concentrated on it's illegality. But those dtails we do have sugest that the program may not be as effective as President Bush claims it is, and it could potentially create problems for innocent people.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[lauren_victoria]

8. yes, it's probably

going to do no good in the end, just end up hurting innocent people.
which I think is why it's so troubling to a lot of people.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. the trouble with this is

that the definition of "terrorist" can change from being a member of al Qaeda to being a member of the Democratic Party. When the FBI is spending time snooping on Quakers and other anti-war activists, it doesn't make me want to feel comfortable with trusting Bush.

[BootinUp]

6. Nicely done by Dean n/t

[Ready4Change]

9. With no oversight, they may not just be tapping terrorist suspects.

They may not be tapping just for national security reasons. They may be tapping political rivals for campaign plans, as was done in Watergate. They may be tapping to gain industrial secrets for their supporters. They may be tapping in order to collect future blackmail material.

With no oversight, there is no way to ensure that they have in the past, are now, and will in the future ONLY tap suspected terrorists. It is wide open to abuse. Abuse of the very sort that sparked the creation of FISA in the first place.