Just last week we had to listen to conservatives whine because the Supreme Court overturned a law denying U.S. military prisoners in Guantanamo Bay the right to habeas corpus. How dare they, people like John McCain intoned, give legal rights to war prisoners. They're guilty, they don't need rights! They need to be punished for the crimes we can't prove they committed!
Lest we think that politicians are only interested in taking rights away from guilty people, Congress is this very day moving to take rights away from the innocent. Since 2006, George Bush has been pressing Congress to pass a law that not only allows the President to tap any phone call in the United States without a warrant as long as he says he is doing it to prevent terrorism, but also grants immunity to any telephone company that did an illegal wiretap in the past.
That's right. Any phone call you make any time can be tapped. Without a warrant. And there is nothing you can do about it. You can't even sue the government to find out the reason you were tapped. You have no rights. All your phone calls are free for the government to pluck, whenever they feel like it, and you can't do a damn thing about it.
I've written about this before. Earlier in the year, members of Congress tried to push a similar bill through, but were blocked by a filibuster. So they are trying again. What Congress and the President want to do is to make it illegal to sue a telephone company for a warrantless wiretap. Why is this a big deal? Because there are 40 or so lawsuits against telecom companies for illegal taps in the courts right now. If this law passes, all the lawsuits will be dismissed. These lawsuits are the only chance the public has of ever finding out what the White House was tapping and why. We don't know if the Bush administration was really hunting terrorists or if they were collecting information to blackmail people and win elections, or even to find out illegal stock tips they could use to steal money in the stock market. We simply don't know.
The government certainly has to do some things in secret. But secrecy should be a last resort, not the norm. If this law passes, secrecy becomes the norm. No citizen, now or ever, will be able to challenge the validity of a federal wiretap.
This is amnesty for criminals. The criminals are the telecom companies who tapped calls without a warrant, and the government officials who told them to do it. These criminals get off scot-free, and the law that got them off the hook could go down the same week conservatives howl because detainees now have the right to a court hearing in which the evidence against them is presented. I am both furious, and afraid, of the people in charge of this country.
One of the most outrageous parts about this bill is that it was drafted up with the approval of Democratic leadership. President Bush is 9 months from leaving office, his approval ratings are below 25%. He is weak as a kitten. Why won't the Democrats stand up to him? The only answer I can come up with is that some of the people in the Democratic leadership are hiding something that will come out if the telecom lawsuits come out. Perhaps they took money. Perhaps they used the wiretapping for their own advantage. Whatever it is, it appears both the White House and the Democratic leaders have done something terribly wrong and they are pulling every stop to legally cover themselves. If we citizens do nothing about it, they will get away with their criminal behavior.
It is said we are at war. War is no excuse for taking rights away from citizens. Throughout its history America has mostly fought wars for rights -- what a sad end we are coming to if we consider war a good reason to flush rights down the toilet.
I sent the following email to Chip Pickering, my Congressional Representative in Mississippi's 3rd district:
Mr. Pickering: It is my understanding that Congress may be considering a bill today that grants telecom companies amnesty for illegal wiretaps. I am urging you to oppose this bill.
I realize you are a Republican and tend to support Presidential initiatives. But this bill allows the President sweeping powers to snoop on private citizens. I am appalled that the Republican party, a party that has long supported small government, is fully behind efforts to put the FBI in the homes of every American. This is unconscionable.
I have written you a few times on this topic, and have NEVER received even a polite response, which I consider to be bad form on your part. You could at least acknowledge me.
But no matter. I intend to send letters to the editor to all local newspapers, and to do what I can to raise awareness of this issue. I am a citizen of a proud Southern state. I don't take being deprived of my rights lying down, and neither will the citizens of Mississippi.
Michael C. Hebert, MD