The president as spy - Columbia Daily Tribune

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Tue, 27 Dec 2005 01:56:06 -0500

THE TRIBUNE'S VIEW The president as spy By HENRY J. WATERS

III, Pub

 

 

 

THE TRIBUNE'S VIEW

 

The president as spy

 

By HENRY J. WATERS III, Publisher, Columbia Daily Tribune Published

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

 

President George W. Bush has admitted authorizing spying on Americans

without using the legal process set up specifically for that purpose.

He might have acted illegally , in which case a much better argument

for his impeachment exists than anything ever alleged against

President Bill Clinton.

 

A special secret court exists to authorize spying on citizens. Even

when such warrants are issued legally, the process is extraordinary

and worrisome. The very idea of our government spying on us

contradicts our conception of personal freedom in America, but Bush

blithely admits having ignored this process, claiming a degree of

presidential prerogative that seems to exist only in his own mind. He

simply says the Constitution allows him to bypass any procedure he

wants to defend the nation against enemies with domestic spying, and

he vows to keep doing so until the enemy is defeated. In the murky war

on terror, this apparently means forever.

 

I can't judge the legality of Bush's action, but it is not hard to

understand the legal trouble he invites. If he broke the law, he has

given the most straightforward reason for impeachment.

 

Clinton was impeached mainly because of his personal peccadilloes,

papered over with allegations he lied to a grand jury. The dissembling

before the jury never would have brought impeachment without his

antics in the Oval Office, themselves by no means impeachable. I

thought he deserved impeachment (indictment) but, in the end, not

conviction and removal from office. If Bush's law violation is as

clear as many legal scholars believe, Bush similarly will deserve

impeachment and trial by the U.S. Senate, and the case for conviction

will be stronger.

 

It's hard to overestimate the gravity of this most recent

transgression by this president, whose obsession with national

security threatens the security of every citizen. The most basic

constitutional guarantee of personal freedom protects us from

unwarranted spying by government into our personal affairs.

 

Bush simply ignores all of this because he and his advisers think

their own judgment is basis enough to spy on their own citizens,

precisely the kind of tactic Saddam Hussein used in Iraq.

 

Moreover, Bush is outraged somebody leaked the information, implying

the informant acted to undermine the welfare of the nation. He hasn't

a clue what's wrong here. During a time of war, we will be tempted to

give the commander in chief a pass. This would be a mistake. His

potential transgression and the attitude it implies are more

threatening to the nation than anything posed by terrorists. We can

keep our integrity and still defend the country. It's time to stop

this administration's assumptions of power. If our nation's founders

had wanted a king and a court, they would have established a monarchy.

 

The issue was discussed.

Many colonists wanted to install George Washington as king. Wiser

heads prevailed, including that of the original George. Today's George

doesn't seem to get it.

 

 

Henry J. Waters III, Publisher, Columbia Daily Tribune

 

 

 

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You can't learn too soon that the most useful thing about a principle

is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.

- William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)