[Infowarrior] - NYT Editorial: A New Rush to Spy

[Richard Forno]

August 22, 2008
Editorial
A New Rush to Spy

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/opinion/22fri2.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

There is apparently no limit to the Bush administration’s desire to  
invade Americans’ privacy in the name of national security. According  
to members of Congress, Attorney General Michael Mukasey is preparing  
to give the F.B.I. broad new authority to investigate Americans —  
without any clear basis for suspicion that they are committing a crime.

Opening the door to sweeping investigations of this kind would be an  
invitation to the government to spy on people based on their race,  
religion or political activities. Before Mr. Mukasey goes any further,  
Congress should insist that the guidelines be fully vetted, and it  
should make certain that they do not pose a further threat to  
Americans’ civil liberties.

Mr. Mukasey has not revealed the new guidelines. But according to  
senators whose staff have been given limited briefings, the rules may  
also authorize the F.B.I. to use an array of problematic investigative  
techniques. Among these are pretext interviews, in which agents do not  
honestly represent themselves while questioning a subject’s neighbors  
and work colleagues.

Four Democratic Senators — Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Sheldon  
Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Richard Durbin of Illinois and Edward  
Kennedy of Massachusetts — have written to Mr. Mukasey and urged him  
not to sign the guidelines until they are publicly announced and  
national security and civil liberties experts have had a chance to  
analyze them.

We concur, and we would add that there should be full Congressional  
hearings so Americans can learn what new powers the government intends  
to take on.

The F.B.I. has a long history of abusing its authority to spy on  
domestic groups, including civil rights and anti-war activists, and  
there is a real danger that the new rules would revive those dark days.

Clearly, the Bush administration cannot be trusted to get the balance  
between law enforcement and civil liberties right. It has repeatedly  
engaged in improper and illegal domestic spying — notably in the  
National Security Agency’s warrantless eavesdropping program.

The F.B.I. and the White House no doubt want to push the changes  
through before a new president is elected. There is no reason to rush  
to adopt rules that have such important civil liberties implications.