14 January 2006 (#40)
9/11 terrorized many.
The response to 9/11 should have been a strengthening of our civil liberties and a robust commitment to the rule of law, national and international. A courageous and patriotic leader would have realized that and been unrelenting in achieving those outcomes.
A terrorist would have devised as many ways as possible to amplify fear and hatred in the aftermath of 9/11. The whole world knows what Bush and his neoconster minions have done – illegal war of aggression, extraordinary renditions, use of chemical weapons, torture, occupation of a sovereign Nation with military bases and corporate facilities, and more. The outcomes include an expansion of lawlessness, death and destruction in Iraq and elsewhere, and, for Americans, a rapid deterioration of their civil liberties, the viability of their Armed Forces, and their credibility in all aspects of world affairs.
Americans now know that Mr. Bush spies on them and will continue violating the law, and their Constitutional rights, by spying on them whenever he, alone, decides to do so. Some Americans, because of Mr. Bush’s masterful use of fear, think it is ok to relinquish their civil liberties, in order to avoid another 9/11. They’ve been told that it was because of 9/11 that Mr. Bush decided he could order the National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on Americans irrespective of legal or Constitutional constraints.
What those Americans need to be told is that that is a lie. As Jason Leopold reports today:
Still,
one thing that appears to be indisputable is that the NSA surveillance began well before 9/11 and months before President Bush claims Congress gave him the power to use military force against terrorist threats, which Bush says is why he believed he had the legal right to bypass the judicial process.
According to the online magazine
Slate, an unnamed official in the telecom industry said NSA's
"efforts to obtain call details go back to early 2001, predating the 9/11 attacks and the president's now celebrated secret executive order. The source reports that the NSA approached U.S. carriers and asked for their cooperation in a 'data-mining' operation, which might eventually cull 'millions' of individual calls and e-mails."
Link: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011306Z.shtmlMonday, 16 January, 2006, may be just the day for all those Americans to be brought to the fullest recognition of this particular Bush lie. How fitting, indeed, would it be that on the day we honor Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., that that be the day of recognition of the scope of Bush’s deception and his use of fear to degrade our civil liberties and destroy the rule of law.
Perhaps Vice President Al Gore will be delivering just that message. John Nichols writing online for
The Nation informs us that:
It sounds as if Al Gore is about to deliver what could be not just one of the more significant speeches of his political career
but an essential challenge to the embattled presidency of George W. Bush. In a major address slated for delivery Monday in Washington,
the former Vice President is expected to argue that the Bush administration has created a "Constitutional crisis" by acting without the authorization of the Congress and the courts to spy on Americans and otherwise abuse basic liberties. Indeed, his aides and allies are framing it as a "call to arms" in defense of the Bill of Rights and the rule of law in a time of executive excess.
The vice president will, according to the groups that have arranged for his appearance -- the bipartisan Liberty Coalition and the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy -- address
"the threat posed by policies of the Bush Administration to the Constitution and the checks and balances it created. The speech will specifically point to domestic wiretapping and torture as examples of the administration's efforts to extend executive power beyond Congressional direction and judicial review."
Link: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?pid=49140Perhaps the DNC could urge every DNC member to watch C-SPAN at noon EST on Monday, to invite friends to watch, and to contact every member of their family, their church, their school, …, everyone, and encourage them to listen to Vice President Gore.
In any event, Mr. Bush used the terror of 9/11 to spread fear, to spread death and destruction, to endanger our National Security, and to encroach on our civil liberties. What he also did is use 9/11 as “cover” for his illegal and un-Constitutional actions that transpired during his first months in office – an office he would have never been allowed to enter had an election not been stolen. Perhaps retribution-time begins at noon EST, on Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. day, 2006.
Thank you for your continued leadership,
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