Jack Balkin: Bradley Manning, Barack Obama and the National Surveillance State

[chill_wind]

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Bradley Manning, Barack Obama and the National Surveillance State

JB


In 2006, Sandy Levinson and I predicted that the next president, whether Democratic or Republican, would ratify and continue many of President George W. Bush's war on terrorism policies. The reason, we explained, had less to do with the specific events of September 11th, and more to do with the fact that the United States was in the process of expanding the National Security State created after World War II into something we called the National Surveillance State, featuring huge investments in electronic surveillance and various end runs around traditional Bill of Rights protections and expectations about procedure. These end runs included public private cooperation in surveillance and exchange of information, expansion of the state secrets doctrine, expansion of administrative warrants and national security letters, a system of preventive detention, expanded use of military prisons, extraordinary rendition to other countries, and aggressive interrogation techniques outside of those countenanced by the traditional laws of war.

The reasons for the creation of the national surveillance state were multiple; they concerned the rise of digital networks, changes in the technology of warfare, and the concomitant rise of networks of non-state actors as serious threats to national security. These problems would present themselves to any President, whether liberal or conservative, Democratic or Republican.

Barack Obama has largely confirmed these expectations, much to the dismay of many liberals who supported him. After issuing a series of publicly lauded executive orders on assuming office (including a ban on torture), he has more or less systematically adopted policies consistent with the second term of the George W. Bush Administration, employing the new powers granted to the President by Congress in the Authorization of the Use of Military Force of 2001, the Patriot Act of 2001 (as amended), the Protect America Act of 2007, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 and the Military Commissions Acts of 2006 and 2009. These statutory authorizations have created a basic framework for the National Surveillance State, and have made Obama the most powerful president in history in these policy areas.


The choice we face today, therefore, is not whether we will have a National Surveillance State, but the kind of National Surveillance State we will have-- one that does its best to protect privacy, civil liberties and internationally recognized human rights in changing conditions, or one that debilitates or eliminates these protections and guarantees, and brings us ever closer to emergency government as a normal condition of politics.


full text: http://balkin.blogspot.com/2011/03/bradley-manning-barack-obama-and.html

[chill_wind]

1. If you read the whole piece

you probably came to these statements. If you didn't, you might want to.
It's a pretty depressing assessment:

It's worth noting that if Private Manning were a prisoner of war, his treatment at the hands of the Obama Administration would violate the Geneva Conventions; indeed, if he were an non-uniformed enemy combatant, his treatment would probably violate Common Article III. Apparently, President Obama has gone Attorney General Alberto Gonzales one better. Not only must he believe that the protections of the Geneva Conventions are quaint, he must also think the same of the Bill of Rights, at least as applied to leakers--or at least, leakers whom the President and his associates did not authorize.

P.J. Crowley was fired for pointing out the obvious, that the treatment of Manning was counterproductive. He forgot to add, illegal and unconstitutional as well. By telling us the obvious, Crowley forced Obama to acknowledge the fact of the Defense Department's actions in public, and to report calmly to the press that that the DOD had informed him that everything is perfectly acceptable.

Jack M. Balkin (Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment)
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/jbalkin/index.htm

[bertman]

2. yes, this whole commentary is chilling as hell. But, you can make your

displeasure known in Washington, D.C. this Saturday March 19 at 1:00 pm by joining America's veterans in protesting the wars that our nation is perpetrating upon Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan.

For more information go to www.Stopthesewars.org.

SOLIDARITY!!


PEACE!!!


rec.

[chill_wind]

3. thank you for the link, Bertman

“Somehow this madness must cease.”

-MLK