Daddy Bush vs. The Boogeyman!

It was revealed by in a New York Times article that the National Security Agency was employed by the CIA at the behest of the Bush Administration to spy on american citizens in the years following the twin towers attack. Presumably in the war on terror.

Unlike FBI wiretaps, which are authorized, and periodically reviewed by the judicial branch, the NSA's very existence is denied, and therefore little in way of constitutional checks and balances exist to prevent abuses by any executive employing this massive spy tool upon the american people.

Quoting Bush's radio speech (CNN):

"Yesterday the existence of this secret program was revealed in media reports, after being improperly provided to news organizations. As a result, our enemies have learned information they should not have, and the unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages our national security and puts our citizens at risk."

End Quote.

Despite the president's supposed indignation, no well trained, or even sane terrorist (or spy) would ever feel secure making an uncoded long distance phone call within the United States.

Any long distance phone call originating within the United States would be transmitted via trans-oceanic fiberoptic cable (tapped), or satellite transmission (monitored). Even cellular calls originating in the U.S., but placed to locations outside its borders would be fair game - which implies they too are widely monitored. The NSA operates several Internet packet sniffing, and data analysis nodes monitoring Internet traffic including Voice Over Internet Protocols, and automated key word text search.

It has been known for many decades that the United States intelligence community has employed the use of extra-national assets to collect intelligence information on american citizens. The CIA employs friendly foreign intelligence agencies to spy on americans living in the United States. Means include the use of foreign spy satellites which monitor, and record cellular communications, microwave relay transmissions, and high resolution satelite imaging. This practice has circumvented legal prohibitions of using the CIA to spy on americans.

Therefore no well trained terrorist, or spy would ever assume their electromagnetic telecommunications would be private. It's an absurd assumption, and the president's handlers must hope that now that this encroachment has been revealed that it will represent the first step toward the legalization of NSA, and CIA spying upon americans.

The New York Times hasn't revealed any state secrets. The only people who may not have known would be average citizens, and they don't care anyway.

Most people have to be asking, NSA, CIA, FBI - what's the big difference? And most are probably saying, "I want the government to use all assets available, and to hell with any law that would prevent our government from catching the terrorist!".

Why don't americans care about this issue? Because we all believe that this power would only be used against the bad guys, and we're just average folk - we have nothing to lose. We're powerless working stiffs living in an age in which the individual doesn't matter anymore.

The average joe's response seems to be, "Just let me alone. Let me keep my job, come home in the evenings, watch a little television, surf the web - and I won't say anything when you spy on the arab down the street, or round up the muslim cleric, and detain him without trail for years".

Most people are so politically, and historically illiterate that they don't get the bigger implications of this story. They don't fear that once established, having the NSA spying upon american citizens will allow this secret massively funded spying aparatus to be used on anyone, at anytime to further the aim of any chief executive for any reason.

Remember the KGB? How about the Gestapo?

Just imagine George Washington authorizing that all mail be read by continental postal employees. Do you get the picture now? I sure hope so, because it's not exactly what our founding fathers intended for this nation. Being patriotic means more than quietly letting others spy on you, and turn your nation into a police state.

Just remember this, when a little boy looks over into the shadows of his darkened room, and believes that the boogeyman has crawled into his bedroom it doesn't matter how abusive, or even sadistic that child's father has been to the child, that little child will still call out to the big strong daddy to save him. It's basic human nature. Hitler knew it. Bush does too.

So all any despot needs to usurp democratic freedoms is a boogeyman. Which is why Osama Bin Laden remains a free man to this very day.