As the Justice Department is proposing expanded spy-on-American’s powers, the latest issue of Mother Jones asks if an Obama presidency will give these powers back (subscription required at this time, but over the next few weeks will become available online).
Let’s start with the DOJ’s desired expansion of spying powers.
The Justice Department has proposed a new domestic spying measure that would make it easier for state and local police to collect intelligence about Americans, share the sensitive data with federal agencies and retain it for at least 10 years.
The proposed changes would revise the federal government’s rules for police intelligence-gathering for the first time since 1993 and would apply to any of the nation’s 18,000 state and local police agencies that receive roughly $1.6 billion each year in federal grants.
Quietly unveiled late last month, the proposal is part of a flurry of domestic intelligence changes issued and planned by the Bush administration in its waning months. They include a recent executive order that guides the reorganization of federal spy agencies and a pending Justice Department overhaul of FBI procedures for gathering intelligence and investigating terrorism cases within U.S. borders.
Now, the WaPo reports that this expansion of powers requires law enforcement to only have a SUSPICION of a target in order to collect information on said target, share that information with other “government” sources, and then retain that information for 10 years.
Suspicion. Not evidence. We are realizing a truly fascist government.
Now, since Bush landed in the WH, he and Cheney, with the help of all their cronies, have expanded executive powers as well as so-called intelligence gathering powers. And, as we see, before he finally leaves (goddess willing) they are pushing some more expansions of these powers.
Which leads us to the question many of us were asking during the primaries: Will the next president (assuming it is a democratic president) return these expanded powers to pre-Bush-the-lesser times? David Cole writes in the newest issue of Mother Jones, don’t bet on it, especially if we look at the historical trend we saw under [Bill] Clinton. (from the dead-wood version)
While there may be many reasons to support Barack Obama, don’t assume that a Democratic president will necessarily transform the counterterrorism policies of the current administration. Government officials do not as a rule like to give up power, and President Bush has grabbed plenty of power for the executive branch since 9/11. Democrats in particular often feel vulnerable to being portrayed as soft on crime or terrorism, and far to many tack to the right on these issues, as Clinton did. If the problem is to be fixed — and it is essential that we fix it — it will only be because of the sustained and popular pressure for change.
To validate Cole’s assertion that democrats “tack to the right” on crime and terrorism, we have watched in horror as Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and other democrats capitulated to Bush and the GOP numerous times in Congress. Most notably, Obama capitulated on the FISA vote.
In short, no amount of hope will change the fascist direction this country is currently moving. Vigilance of the people demanding that the Constitution be reinstated, and followed by all three branches of our government, will.
