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Warrantless Surveillance To Continue For Now
NormalVisual writes "It appears that the unconstitutional and controversial warrantless surveillance program being conducted by the Bush Administration can continue until an appeals court can hear the case, according to an AP article. The 6th Circuit ruled that while the lower court had ruled the program was unconstitutional, they felt that the case's chances before the appeals court and the possible danger to national security warranted their decision to let it continue despite the likelihood that the appeal process will take months."
Democracy is giving us the government we deserve.
Now, back to your big SUVs, tiny cell phones and reality television.
Perhaps we will wake up before the world turns its back on us permanently.
This is the way it's done.
1) Do something blatantly unconstitutional.
2) Get it knocked down in court.
3) Tie it up in appeals for years, continuing to do whatever you were doing.
4) Eventually get it killed by the supreme court, but have made a great run of it.
Politicians game the system and have no respect for the courts. Film at 11.
The only situation where they have been able to do this semi-legally (deemed illegal by the 6th) has been in the case of U.S. citizens communicating with foreign nationals over long-distance lines. The argument is that spying on the international wires is not a violation of the 4th Amendment because it occurs outside of American territory, nevermind the fact that one end of the wire terminates inside the U.S.
I think the court will find the action legal. The U.S. Constitution is actually pretty gray in this area because it wasn't foreseen that anyone could be able to communicate over long distances instantaneously. The U.S. has always been able to search and seize foreign mail, so that is probably the best argument they have to making long distance calls tappable.
It's a shame. The U.S. has become a place that is hostile to immigrants and travelers. Give me your poor huddled masses, indeed.
If you've got nothing to hide, then what is the big deal ?
If I've got nothing to hide, why do they need to watch me?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
That's not the purpose of a constitution. A constitution doesn't grant rights to the people or offer them protection. And it isn't something that can be "enforced" on people, citizen or not.
The one and only purpose of a constitution is to set limits on the power of the government.
Read one, sometime. Ours, for example. The whole thing is a mass of "this branch of government may not do so and so, except in these very special circumstances" and "this branch of government is required to do thus and so".
Why?
Because the founders of constitutional governments are almost uniformly recent survivors of abuses of government authority. King George's belief that he could do anything he felt like (the equivalent, in his day, of the unitary executive, or the "If the president does it it isn't illegal" school of thought) did not sit well at all with our founding fathers.
--MarkusQ
Every time a case such as this, or any other criticism of the Bush administration's policies regarding terrorism comes up, we hear all but the exact same thing: We need this [power | program | law] to fight terrorism. [If you disagree, you must support the terrorists.] Why is it that we never get to hear exactly why [power | program | law] is necessary to stop terrorists? I guess they're assuming that if they beat the drum of "We need this!!!1" long and hard enough people will believe it.
But what real use is this warrantless surveillance program to fighting terrorists? If you evidence, get a warrant. If you have a shred of something resembling evidence, go to FISA and you have about a 99.8% chance of getting a warrant. If there's no time to waste, start tapping and you can file for a warrant (which in an emergency case can be approved within an hour) any time in the next 3 days. To those who support this program: What conceivable set of circumstances would simultaneously require so many resources that there isn't one intern left over to file a request sometime within the next 3 days marked "urgent" with an institution that rubber-stamps nearly every request that crosses it's path, yet also be totally unknown and not under any previous surveillance. Such a set's parameters are absurd: it doesn't exist. Bush's warrantless surveillance program is nonsense in this regard.
But debating the merits and usefulness of any such program is a moot point. The Fourth Amendment forbids any unreasonable search and any search not affirmed by a judge. The Bush administration refuses to provide evidence that the wiretaps are reasonable (instead insisting that we take it's word), and the fact that they are not affirmed by a judge is the whole point of the program. Therefore, this program is inconsistent with the Fourth Amendment and any program or law contravening the Constitution, it's Amendments, or Treaties is illegal. End of debate, national security be damned. This is a nation of law, no matter what might be convenient, useful, or even life-saving. No one with even the foggiest clue what America is about petitions to destroy the 4th Amendment because it would be a great help to other criminal investigations (and hell yes it would be more convenient and efficient to not have to deal with judges and evidence beforehand), yet when "terrorists" come up, certain people who have all rules and regulations disappear. That is wrong, and history provides abundant evidence why.
"Every time I see this argument, they leave out every mention of the fact that the wire taps happen when there's a known terrorist on the end of the line.
Every time. "
How could you possibly know that? How could you possibly know that?
Are the men who run these programs infallible? They never make a mistake?
"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary."
- James Madison, Federalist #51
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
What warrants this obviously lefty post on Slashdot? Am I the only conservative on Slashdot that actually wants to WIN against the terrorists? You can talk all day long about how many civil rights you protected at all funerals you will be attending if we DON'T do the surveillance. I am so tired of a weak, shortsided view that left winged politicians use as their foundation for "peace" that I can hardly watch the news anymore. You that disagree deserve what will happen to you. The terrorists can only win if we let them, and right now that is exactly what we are doing. What a weak country the USA is becoming. I hope the trend can be reversed!!!
Are you kidding? Where do you people come from? I mean, I've made some bone-headed statements in my life, but I do generally try to research something before I spew it forth.
Being wrong is one thing--everyone makes mistakes--but to say that frivolous lawsuits are hampering the war on terror, causing the Executive Branch to jettison the need for warrants altogether, is so far in left (by that I mean right) field that I must infer that you really are a space alien.
Comments regarding FISA are perfectly reasonable in this context - the provisions of that bill are important to the present debate - but one must not lose sight of the fact that FISA was designed to counter an entirely different threat.
I've had the opportunity to study under a man that helped write the act, and while I haven't had a chance to discuss the recent developments with him, his view of FISA was that it was designed to serve a counter-intelligence role, but fails to be as useful against other threats.
Counter-Intelligence operations are fundamentally different from counter-terrorist operations. CI operations are much easier to predict, with relatively well understood actors, motives, and a much lower imminent risk to life and property. CI threats are relatively easy to pick out, relatively easy to understand. Of course, the most important word in this post is "relatively"...
Counter-terrorist operations are almost the polar opposite. Targets of foreign intelligence agencies are clear - they're after classified data and those that manage or handle it. The actors are clear - "diplomats", non-official cover officers, and Americans (in this case) with classified data. Targets of terrorists are not, as the focus of many of these groups is simply to kill as many people as possible by whatever means they can use. They don't care about classified data, they don't play games with diplomatic immunity. The actors could be foreign college students or home-grown California boys who decide to support the cause for reasons of their own, as we've seen recently.
Beyond simply acquiring data, FISA also allows for the prosecution of those who hand classified data to those who are not authorized to receive it by allowing evidence to enter into court without entering into the public record. FISA is an excellent tool for what it does. It's much more precise, limited, and focused on its threat.
Counter-terrorist operations require a wider approach - something of a "drag net" - for them to be successful. Pre-9/11 U.S. counter-terrorism was based largely on luck - case in point being the capture of the WTC '93 bombers, whose cell was unraveled because a member thereof just couldn't leave behind the deposit on his truck. More recent attacks should provide ample evidence that we can't fall back simply on luck any longer - we must be more active in preventing attacks rather than mopping up after them.
I think there is room for debate on this matter, and I do not believe that Benjamin Franklin quotes nor tradition should hold us from implementing laws we need to protect ourselves. Of course, this should occur within reasonable limits, in accordance with majority will and proportionate to the threat - which is growing and innovative itself - and without completely losing national character.
A quote I read recently sums up my position:
"To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law would be to lose law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means." (Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John B. Colvin, September 20, 1810, quoted from Terrorism Freedom and Security: Winning Without War, Heymann, MIT Press, 2003, pg. xi)
Of course, this view must be tempered - we must be careful about those means we do and do not sacrifice - but we also should not sacrifice our nation on the altar of law. There is a time for dogmatic adherence a time to take a more pragmatic view rooted in self-preservation. We should slip from the first to the last cautiously, infrequently, and with friction and great reservation. Yet sometimes, we must slip to survive and pursue our own self-preservation.
I thank you for your comment and for what it brings to this discussion.