The Bush administration has been tracking all U.S. phone calls made through AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth and storing call patterns in a database for analysis of suspicious activity, according to an investigative report in USA Today on May 11, 2006. The story states that the program began shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and that the National Security Administration (NSA) project examines call patterns made from specific phone numbers to other specific phone numbers. The phone numbers are not attached to individual names and addresses, but stored in an NSA database. AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth together serve 200 million U.S. customers.

Since the story broke, Verizon has responded by stating its local or long-distance calling information is not being handed over to the NSA. Verizon's denial did not mention its wireless operations, leading some to accuse Verizon of parsing its denial and thereby admitting it surrendered wireless data. In addition, BellSouth has asked USA Today to retract part of its report.

Despite these rebuttals, USA Today still stands by its story as of May 23, 2006. The NSA program is classified, and therefore one might surmise these companies do not feel obligated to disclose--or maybe cannot confirm--their work with the NSA, even though the program is now public.

Customer backlash is forcing these companies to play defense. Of major U.S. telecom companies, only Qwest Communications has refused to participate in this volunteer NSA program.

In the end, the NSA monitoring of call patterns of millions of Americans without warrants is an abuse of power. It fits the abusive modus operandi of an administration that has engaged in warrantless wiretapping of U.S.-to-international phone calls despite current U.S. law, and also engaged in Internet data-mining projects, such as the Total System Awareness Project that began in 2002, and was defunded by Congress in 2003.

The U.S. government should not create secret programs outside the purview of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. court system, and the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Executive Branch secret programs simply are not compatible with democracy, especially when these programs target U.S. citizens.

The writers of the U.S. Constitution were especially concerned about the potential for government to target its own citizens. The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects Americans from illegal search and seizure without a warrant under all circumstances. Furthermore, a warrant cannot be granted without probable cause. This constitutional protection is absolute. It has no qualifiers. Let's look at the language:

" The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

The Bush administration has violated the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution through its search-and-seizure of millions of American phone logs, international calls, and Internet activity without seeking a warrant and stating "probable cause." The checks-and-balances and civil liberties encoded in the U.S. Constitutional are fundamental to the U.S. theory of democracy. These protections were crafted from the insight that governments amassing authoritarian power--back in the 18th century mostly monarchies--tend to abuse people and its citizens.

President Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and others in this administration are fundamentally altering the U.S. Constitutional system. They are doing so inch by inch, violating law by law, and pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable.

From this administration's disregard of the U.S. courts and the warrant system; to its disregard of U.S. law and international treaties against torture; to its distain for Congressional oversight of its "War on Terrorism"; to its use of CIA secret prisons in Eastern Europe; to the paying of journalists to support Bush administration policies, such as paying pundit Armstrong Williams to support the No Child Left Behind Act--this administration is expanding its definition of presidential power to unprecedented, monarchical levels.

The Bush administration, abetted by the spurious legal scholarship of Federalist Society lawyers, now-Berkeley professor John Yoo, and others within the administration, is advancing a legal framework to enable the President of the United States to undertake any action if an action is meant to 'defend the country.' This view of presidential power is called the Unitary Executive Theory.

The dubious Unitary Executive Theory states that under the war powers of the U.S. Constitution, the president can ignore any congressional law and court decision during its administration of war. The theory argues that constitutional war power trumps all other aspects of the U.S. Constitution--as if the executive branch was somehow more important than the legislative and judicial branches.

However the three branches are co-equal branches of government.

The Unitary Executive Theory is instrumental in this administration's argument that when the U.S. Congress voted for the invasion of Iraq, it also somehow approved warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens. For this administration, anything goes if it is in 'defense of America' and only this administration is able to understand what is, and is not, in defense of America. Today American citizens are facing a group of conservative authoritarians under the banner of the "Republican Party" who have taken control of the U.S. government, and are looking to cement permanent control of the U.S. system through a symbolic democracy that masks their not-so-secret, fundamental power.

The Bush-Cheney government is illegal. Any American opposed to this extremist government is a patriotic American, as well as a citizen of the world, to quote the ancient philosopher Diogenes.

Hopefully more and more people are beginning to wake up to the domestic and international destruction caused by this current regime. This government is not a democratic government. All must oppose its aims.



NOTES / LINKS

Phone Call Data-Mining:

1) "NSA secret database report triggers fierce debate in Washington. [Updated Version]." Page, Susan. USA Today Online. 05/11/06.
www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-11-nsa-reax_x.htm

2) "Whistle-Blower Outs NSA Spy Room." Singel, Ryan. Wired Magazine. 04/07/06.
www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70619-0.html

Unitary Executive Theory and the Attack on Congressional Law:

1) "Bush Challenges Hundreds of Laws." Savage, Charlie. The Boston Globe. 04/03/06.
www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/04/30/bush_challenges_hundreds_of_laws/

2) "Schumer Questions Nominee's Theory on Executive Role" The Boston Globe. 01/10/06.
www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/01/10/schumer_questions_nominees_theory_on_executive_role

3) Wikipedia Definition
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitary_Executive_theory

Photos: Courtesy of D.C. Indymedia and the World Wide Web.