The most recent FISA amendments passed by the House of Representatives on May 14, 2008 were a significant improvement on the FISA amendments passed by the Senate in February 2008, but the provision for a special commission to investigate the Terrorist Surveillance Program should be excised from this FISA legislation. We do NOT need a special commission to examine the illegal Terrorist Surveillance Program because such commissions (e.g., the 9/11 Commission) usually are horribly flawed in terms of personnel and procedures, and because such a commission would be doomed to failure. We already have a commission known as the U.S. Congress that has the duty and the authority to make any necessary investigation and to take any necessary remedial action. If Congress is not capable of handling this responsibility, an independent Federal prosecutor would be much more effective than a special commission.
A few defenders of the Bush Administration concede that the Terrorist Surveillance Program was technically illegal, but then dismiss any violations of the law as a necessary response to the so-called war on terror. FISA was passed in 1978 in response to abuses of power by several Presidents, but primarily in response to numerous violations of the law by the Nixon Administration, including illegal domestic surveillance. Much of the information regarding these abuses was compiled in reports prepared by the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (chaired by Senator Frank Church of Idaho) in 1975 and 1976. It should be remembered that most apologists for President Lyndon Johnson and President Richard Nixon excused their illegal activity on the grounds that it was done during wartime. The Bush Administration is using a perpetual state of war as an excuse to engage in widespread monitoring of internet traffic and telephone calls to and from U.S. citizens without warrants and without probable cause. We should do everything practical that is allowed within our Constitution to prevent deaths from terrorists, but the so-called "war on terror" is an endless war, and we should not sacrifice the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution due to fears which are disproportionate to the actual threat. George Orwell recognized that war was inevitable under certain circumstances, but he also recognized better than most people that governments use war as a tool of propaganda, and he recognized that governments use war as a means to deprive people of their inalienable rights. The Bush Administration's never-ending war on terror is the perfect vehicle to advance the interests of a national security state. If the American people surrender their right to be free from unwarranted government surveillance, there will never be an appropriate time to reclaim that right.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: I am retired after working 33 years as a claims representative for the Social Security Administration, and I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU.
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