Spies like us

There is a must-read article in today New York Times about eavesdropping within the U.S.

The gist of is that by presidential order signed in 2002, the N.S.A. (National Security Agency):

...has been conducting some warrantless eavesdropping on people in the United States who are linked, even if indirectly, to suspected terrorists through the chain of phone numbers and e-mail addresses, according to several officials who know of the operation."

This is bad, bad, bad. I wasn't old enough to experience the effects of Vietnam War here on the home front, but this must be like deja vu for you boomers out there. The scandal back then [or rather, one of the scandals] was that the NSA was spying on Vietnam protestors. This so outraged the public that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was passed that explicitly forbids wiretapping and eavesdropping of US citizens without a warrant.

Undoubtedly, the focus of the expanded eavesdropping program under the current administration is potential terrorists. But guess who also is being subjected to privacy invasions without judicial oversight? That's right, it's Iraq War protestors. Here's an example from Infoshop News.

Here's another choice tidbit:

"The White House asked The New York Times not to publish this article, arguing that it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny. After meeting with senior administration officials to hear their concerns, the newspaper delayed publication for a year to conduct additional reporting. Some information that administration officials argued could be useful to terrorists has been omitted."

So what changed that made the Times finally decided to publish?

I'm all for using the best wiretapping and electronic surveillance methods available to help fight the war against religious extremism. But judicial oversight is critical to prevent abuses. Somebody has to watch the watchers.