JUST when President George W. Bush was expecting to bask in the success of the Iraqi elections, revelations that he secretly authorised telephone taps on Americans without court warrants has plunged his administration into another crisis.
I just can’t come to grips with the lack of security in the media in relation to the War on Terror. They seem to have an agenda to put all the nations secrets on the front page to impede the nation’s ability to fight the war. I’m surprised they don’t publish the Order of Battle and deployment schedules for the US military involved in Iraq.
The article originated in the New York Times and has grabbed the Lefts interest as another stick to beat Bush with
Tim Dunlop makes a mountain out of it;
This one is a shibboleth: if you won’t condemn the president on this and hold him to account, you have lost any perspective and are nothing more than the worst sort of apologist. What’s more, you are no longer fighting terrorism but enabling it, doing exactly what they want, which is to undermine the legitimacy of one the most robust bulwarks against tyranny ever conceived, the Constitution of the United States.
Different stroke for different folks I suppose but applying to a court for a wire tap takes the surveillance out of the Top Secret box and puts it too close to the public arena. I simply wouldn’t trust any of the US infrastructure at the moment with every step being analyzed as to it’s potential to do Bush harm by activists all too ready to photocopy any memo or court order and send it to the media.
How did this get leaked for instance and under what motive? I for one do not care a fig for the rights of those who would do our society severe damage. They have abrogated all rights by their acts and clandestine covert ops are an acceptable answer.
The Terrorists can do what they like and seldom get called to order by the media but Bush is expected to telegraph all of his intentions to the enemy via the media or, goddammit, they will seek out and tell the enemy themselves. The media, afer all, are defending the high moral ground and it is they who will decide what is right and what is wrong; not the people elected to defend society.
Who’s side are they on?
UPDATE: Another viewpoint from Defense Tech
That’s all assuming, of course, that the wiretaps in this case are the same as in any other. But maybe they’re not. Maybe there’s something different about this surveillance. It could be in its scope, as Laura suggests. But I’m guessing — and this is just a guess — that the real difference is in the technology of the wiretaps themselves.
Another reason for it not to be in the public arena.