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December 23, 2005
The Bramble Bush
by Kevin Morford

Spies Among Us Redux

     There are spies among us. I previously wrote about them in my May 6, 2005 insurgent49 article “Spies Among Us”. Now that their activities are being documented, and they are starting to get some mainstream attention, it is time to revisit the issue.

     My previous assertion that there are spies among us was an extrapolation based upon past history, the increase in domestic spying powers openly granted by post September 11 legislation, and the increase in budgets for domestic spying. In other words, I did not then have direct evidence that increased numbers of spies were among us. Instead, I simply inferred their existence from circumstantial evidence.

     Recent disclosures have now confirmed the validity of my prior inference. The December 15, 2005 broadcast of Democracy Now! discusses some of the direct evidence of spies among us. This includes recently leaked Pentagon papers (now doesn’t that have a familiar ring to it?), revealing that the military has been monitoring and collecting data about peaceful antiwar groups across the country. It also includes interviews with antiwar groups who have been targeted by that domestic spying, and information about a Colorado ACLU freedom of information request that revealed the existence of spying on Colorado peace groups by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force.

     More recently, it has been disclosed that President Bush signed a secret executive order shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, which authorized the National Security Agency to use wiretaps to intercept communications with a domestic component, without ever getting a warrant of any kind. The President now confirms that he has re-authorized that program more than 30 times since then. This is a clearly unconstitutional violation of the fundamental constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure without due process of law. It is also completely illegal under existing law, and an impeachable offense.

     It is not as if the federal government had any difficulty getting search warrants when it needed them. Even before the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States had a special federal court set up where the administration could go to get national security related search warrants in secret. The judges of that court had the security clearances necessary to deal with those cases, and they almost never turned down a government request for a search warrant.

     Under the law, the government could also conduct wiretaps without a warrant for up to 72 hours as long as they applied for a search warrant during that 72 hours. Despite the availability of those procedures, the Bush administration decided to have the NSA conduct warrantless wiretaps, and never seek any court authorization, even though wiretaps require a search warrant under clearly established precedent.

     The government has also set up phone lines so that anonymous callers can give tips to the government about alleged threats to national security. This means that the spies do not need to be on the government payroll. A disgruntled co-worker or neighbor can anonymously call in a report that can draw government attention to any of us.

     Do you remember “Total Information Awareness,” the program that John Poindexter tried to set up, but which was shouted down by an outraged citizenry? The goal had been to set up a federal database on U.S. citizens that took all the information in the vast private databases, and combined it with all the information in the federal databases. It now turns out that the Bush administration may have simply shifted that program deeper into the bowels of the government where it would not attract so much attention, and then pressed forward with it despite the outrage.

     There are spies among us. They are spying on you and me and everyone we know. They are part of a carefully planned campaign to increase the power of the federal government, and to decrease the constitutional limits on the abuse of power by the government. It is not just the left end of the political spectrum that is outraged by domestic spying. Principled conservatives are also outraged, equally or even more so.

     This issue, along with opposition to corruption in government, is an excellent way to bring people from all parts of the political spectrum together to oppose the Bush administration’s agenda of imperialism, unfettered executive power and corporate cronyism.







Kevin Morford is a political activist and an attorney in private practice in the Anchorage area.  He can be reached at kmorford@insurgent49.com.
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The
Bramble Bush
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in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership.