The Surveillor in Chief
Tonight the President suggested again that if only he had tapped all Americans phones he would have prevented the 9/11 attacks. That’s why, he says, he needs this nationwide surveillance program. You’ll remember that for years he has been saying “no one could have foreseen the attacks.” In fact, maybe we would have been better off if the President had been reading his Daily Intelligence Briefs the summer before the attack, which had more specific warnings. He wants us to believe that only bad guys will be watched and listened to. The kind of police states where the government knows no restraint begin with the government saying it only restrains bad guys, but who decides who are the bad guys– a functionary at the NSA, or worse, a political appointee at the White House? That’s why we no to demonstrate probable cause before a judge, but the President refuses to do that. Because suspects are always suspect– until they later turn out to be completely innocent– law enforcement, investigative, and intelligence forces must be subject to careful constraints.