NSA: NonSense Allowed
May 14th, 2006George Bush has acknowledged the existence of the NSA’s data mining program, and assures you, promises you, that it strictly targets al-Qaeda. Tens of millions of al-Qaeda, all in this country. If he’s genuine — which he certainly is not, but for the sake of argument we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he doesn’t really deserve — this is a sign of obscene paranoia. Perhaps the White House is living with a new motto (the new one would, of course, replace the old of “Don’t Be Daddy, or Clinton!”), and it is:
Terriers terriers everywhere. And not a man to trust.
From now on, Bush’s NSA should be associated with “NonSense Allowed,” as the entire program is nonsense in every sense. Steve Chapman rounds out the reasons, and I’ll let him finish the job.
The Bush administration has managed to cross George Orwell with Sting. Every step you take, every move you make, Big Brother will be watching you. No one is exempt from the National Security Agency (NSA) program to amass a record of every phone call ever made, with the help of major telecommunications providers. As one insider told USA Today, “It’s the largest database ever assembled in the world.” And have no doubt: You’re in it. President Bush insisted, “We’re not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans.” In fact, that’s exactly what his administration is doing — 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is no longer possible (unless you’re a customer of Qwest, which has refused to cooperate) to make a telephone call without the government knowing about it and keeping a record of it. We are all suspects now.
An administration official told The New York Times the average person shouldn’t worry. The records, he said, were used only to keep tabs on “known bad guys.” But the government can easily get a court order to find out who a particular bad guy is talking to — or even to listen in. To target known bad guys doesn’t need a record of every call ever made. Why should law-abiding citizens care about this surveillance? To begin with, even the best of us sometimes make calls we wouldn’t want everyone to know about. Another reason is that we could be implicated in terrorism through no fault of our own. Suppose you call your friend Bob, who later calls his friend Rashid, who later calls his cousin in Kabul. The government may conclude you’re consorting with associates of Al Qaeda. It’s not just the NSA that will know whom you call. According to USA Today, the NSA told Qwest that “other government agencies, including the FBI, CIA and DEA, also might have access to the database.” What’s next? The IRS? The Office of Child Support Enforcement? Your local police?
Yes, that is next. It doesn’t make sense, I know, and it probably isn’t Constitutional, but remember: NSA. N.S.A.