We are Bush...

Your 4th Amendment will be Assimilated

Resistance is Futile!

We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Your telephone and e-mail communications will become one with ours. Your birth, educational, occupational, marital, medical, financial, political, and service records have been downloaded, recompiled, and disseminated to us. We are Bush.....

Quoting President Bush:

"It's seems logical to me that if we know there's a phone number associated with al-Qaida or an al-Qaida affiliate and they're making phone calls, it makes sense to find out why," Bush said. http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060102-123422-7213r.htm

Clearly this is misdirection on the part of President Bush. The administration here is attempting to take advantage of America's "Attention Deficit Disorder". Of course it would be sound and reasonable to monitor calls from "known" terrorists to US citizens. A.D.D. America is supposed to associate this reasonableness to the NSA's warrantless program as a whole.

Those familiar with FISA realize that Pres. Bush is perhaps unwittingly putting forward an argument against warrantless surveillance. Here he stipulates that a phone number connected to al-Qaida or an affiliate is known. Many times in the recent past he has insisted that these measures are only used when there is a "clear link" to terrorist organizations. This foreknowledge and clear links amount to instant Probable Cause. There is no judge in the US that would deny a surveillance warrant in such cases. Another line of rhetoric revolves around the need for the timely engagement of surveillance. In the past, the Bush administration has made the point that there is not time to get a warrant. This is not true. Under a legal use of FISA, the NSA may engage in surveillance immediately. They then must contact a judge and request a warrant within 72 hours after initializing surveillance. This retroactive feature of FISA is legal, proper, and nullifies any complaints regarding speed.

The question then is why the administration wants to be able to exercise warrantless searches if warrants are easily had in his offered scenarios and can be approved retroactively? It has been reported by the administration that protocol demands that one of the callers be located outside the US. It has been admitted that "accidents" have occurred where improperly trained agents have "accidentally" intercepted communications that originated in the US and ended in the US. Does the Bush administration want these "accidents" to continue? A judge would deny the warrant and report to the NSA that this particular monitoring is not in line with the Constitution and MUST be stopped. Not exactly convenient if you want the Plausible Deniability afforded by incompetent staff. Perhaps they would like to inadvertently monitor Democrat communications and uncover closeted homosexuals, mistresses, drug use, and other compromising evidences.

Another excuse is that allegedly Clinton and Carter violated the Constitution in this manner as well. Even if true, that does not excuse the continuance of such activities by the current administration. The President should come out with a statement announcing a review of FISA use was conducted and; it was determined to be improper without a warrant. The bad precedent set by past administrations could excuse this temporary faulty assessment of proper FISA use. If this is ended for all administrations it would be a positive outcome for the nation. The allegiance of this writer is to Freedom not a particular party. If the President chooses to cease this illegal spying and set a proper precedent, my voting patterns would not likely change. This writer admits to voting for him twice. If the President continues to abuse the rights our Founding Fathers found Self-Evident, then I will join the Democrat cries for impeachment.

*Note: The Bush Borg picture was found at topplebush.com.