Why We Can't Trust the NSA (And Why That's a Crisis)
A greater threat than Iran, ISIS, and "lone wolf" attacks: government lies.
By Ron Fournier
June 01, 2015 "Information
Clearing House" - "National
Journal" - The president of the United States,
most of Congress, the intelligence community, and virtually every institution in
Washington wants to extend a Faustian bargain on domestic spying. "Trust
us," they say. We can't. We won't. Even when there's no other choice.
No matter where you stand on the debate over renewing the USA
Patriot Act, understand that the greatest threat to democracy is not the rise of
ISIS, Iran, and "lone wolf" attacks. While those are real and present dangers,
the greater threat is this: Americans no longer trusting the people and
institutions protecting them.
A 50-year slide in the public's faith in government,
which began with the dishonesty of the Vietnam War, continues with the duplicity
of the post-9/11 "war on terrorism." One example: The National Security Agency
began secretly collecting phone records of millions of Americans after the
September 11, 2001, attacks and gained reauthorization, again in secret, by a
special court under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. That provision expired
Sunday.
A federal appeals court
ruled in May that seizing data about Americans' telephone calls goes beyond
what Congress intended when it wrote Section 215. The three-judge panel based
its ruling on the simple fact that Congress could not have approved "a program
of which many members of Congress—and all members of the public—were not aware."
Americans and most of Congress would still be in the dark
without whistleblower Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency
contractor now called a traitor by the people who ran the secret program.
Oh, and they lied about it.
Well before Snowden's revelations, intelligence chief James
Clapper was asked in a Senate hearing whether the NSA collects "any type of data
at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans." He said no, knowing
that the statement was false. "Not wittingly," he said. "There are cases where
they could inadvertently perhaps collect, but not wittingly."
Clapper's boss, Barack Obama, promised as a candidate in 2008
to trim Bush-era terrorism tactics and strike a better balance between security
and liberty. Instead, he secretly expanded the national security state. Polls
show he paid a price, both with voters (primarily young and liberal) who don't
trust the intelligence community and with less-ideological Americans who've
simply lost their trust in him.
Now the president wants people to believe that a
reauthorization bill, with its own Orwellian title, the
USA Freedom Act, will include
"more transparency" and "help build confidence among the American people
that your privacy and civil liberties are being protected."
We want to believe him. We need to believe him. He's the
commander in chief, and there is a legitimate need to adapt the civil liberties
regime to the 21st century.
But we can't trust him, not after he broke his word and
allowed Clapper to lie.
A Republican who hopes to replace Obama, former Florida Gov.
Jeb Bush,
says, "There's not a shred of evidence that the metadata program has
violated anybody's civil rights."
Bush can't be trusted, either. After all, there's not a
shred of evidence that the program has stopped a terrorist threat. And you
might recall the invasion bias, the cherry-picked evidence and the false
statements that helped sell the Iraq War started by his brother, with prodding
from hawks who now work for Jeb Bush.
The likely Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Rodham
Clinton, seems allergic to transparency and accountability, tarnishing her
tenure as secretary of State with email and family charity decisions that raise
all sorts of questions about her integrity. The amazing part about it: Clinton's
team dismisses polls showing a majority of Americans don't trust her because, in
the words of a longtime friend and adviser, "Trust doesn't matter."
I beg to differ.
This isn't a mere political problem, something that can be
glossed over with talking points or surmounted in a campaign against a weaker
opponent. It's a crisis. When the American people can't trust their leaders,
they can't be led.