Americans who value privacy and expect better of their elected government should be utterly furious, if not terrified, at new disclosures of how far the White House has authorized domestic spying and just how lax the watchdogs are.
Republicans and Democrats in Washington are tardily erupting in disbelief over USA TODAY's disclosures—not denied—that records on billions of home and cellular telephone calls made by millions of Americans have been turned over to the National Security Agency by telecommunications giants AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon Wireless.
How long have the companies colluded with U.S. intelligence to traffic in people's private business? Since just after 9/11.
Now, four years and eight months later, the nominal constitutional watchdogs, the U.S. Senate and House, are bestirring themselves like hibernating bears who have slept through a storm.
But what will they do now that they haven't done before? As alleged abuse after alleged abuse in the so-called "war on terror" has been trotted out since 9/11 and documented by competent media and insider whistleblowers, members of Congress have done precious little other than sputter fatuously in front of TV cameras.
In one of the most unbelievable Orwellian developments of all, the Justice Department on Thursday announced that its Office of Professional Responsibility is dropping an investigation of NSA abuses because—catch this!—Justice investigators couldn't get security clearance from NSA to investigate whether Americans' civil liberties are being trampled. (Is there something odd here—President Bush's Justice Department investigating his NSA?)
So, if investigators can't investigate because the target of the investigation won't permit it, what hope is there for congressional sleuths to determine whether Bush administration domestic spying is riding roughshod over the Constitution and statutory law?
If what's right and wrong and legal has been lost on the president and his cabinet, Congress needs to remember what happens when authoritarian regimes revert to secret government to defy constitutional authority and assert supreme power over law to "protect" citizens.
Congress has the power to choke off funds for spying programs that've never been fully explained or justified, except as vague attacks on phantom terrorists. Is targeting millions of American phone users and their phone records as automatic suspects vital in this "war"?
As a last resort, Congress also has the power of impeachment if the president chooses to rule like a monarch.
It's time for Congress to flex its muscle. Thus far, neither Republicans nor Democrats have shown the courage to demand an end to the trashing of civil liberties. And that is a real threat to the nation.
