Well, one can live without the Internet, though less informed. It was worth it! The beach was great [comments and pix coming on 3oldmen.com soon]. But the CNN network news lags and whitewashes things a bit, so it sounds like business as usual rather than a time when the American soul is under internal attack. When I got back a while ago and turned on the heat [and my computer], there was one piece of things that seems much clearer than when I left. It was already abundantly clear that the N.S.A. domestic spying was patently illegal. But when did it start?
It was a discovery for me to find out that the war in Iraq had been planned well before 911 and why. The N.S.A. domestic spying story is turning out to be something of a similar revelation it seems. The N.S.A. was listening in on domestic calls and emails shortly after Bush took office, well before 911. The story is documented on truthout, by a N.S.A. [rah rah] memo from early 2001, and commented on firedoglake with their usual clarity.
The editorial in this case writes itself. The claim that the abuses of presidential power are necessary because of [or even part of] the post-911 war on terror is a fiction, just as the Iraqi W.M.D. and Al Qaeda connections were a fictional reason for the war. I suppose, if one is so inclined, one can argue that the war or domestic surveillance are good ideas. But you have to mount that argument without referring to either 911 or to the U.S. Constitution. These powers are not granted to the president. He got the war power on false pretenses. The domestic spying he got without pretenses. He just did it because he wanted to and only tried to justify it when he got caught. Both the Iraq war and domestic surveillance were in the works before 911.
Glad to have that cleared up…
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