When intelligence agencies go bad
There are several court cases pending involving the NSA's extraordinary wiretaping of Americans, but apparently the judges hearing the cases are getting fed up.
For a while now, the Bush administration has invoked extraordinary security measures to keep noncleared people away from the goodies. This includes judges, clerks and of course, opposing lawyers. Civil libertarians have long carped about this situation, complaining that it upsets the very nature of the adverserial American legal system. Some of them are getting close to issuing rulings to cut through the Gordian knot as happened during the Watergate era.
I have two worries; short and long term.
My short term worry is that if not stopped, the Bush/Cheney/Satan approach to government will have permanently upset the checks and balances of our system. It may take a long while to put it right again.
My long term worry is that when we do put it right, in true American fashion, we will overcompensate in the other direction and hamper our intelligence services to the point of futility. We need a robust intelligence function, but we also need one that is monitored--excesses in the heat of need must needs justified later to cooler third party heads.
I wonder if any of the current crop of candidates can effect this sense of balance?
Posted on January 26, 2007
