[Infowarrior] - Clarke OpEd: Setting a standard in fear-mongering

[Richard Forno]

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20080201_Bush_legacy__Setting_a_stand
ard_in_fear-mongering.html

Bush legacy: Setting a standard in fear-mongering

Richard A. Clarke is former head of counterterrorism at the National
Security Council

When I left the Bush administration in 2003, it was clear to me that its
strategy for defeating terrorism was leaving our nation more vulnerable and
our people in a perilous place. Not only did its policies misappropriate
resources, weaken the moral standing of America, and threaten long-standing
legal and constitutional provisions, but the president also employed
misleading and reckless rhetoric to perpetuate his agenda.

This week's State of the Union proved nothing has changed.

Besides overstating successes in Afghanistan, painting a rosy future for
Iraq, and touting unfinished domestic objectives, he again used his favorite
tactic - fear - as a tool to scare Congress and the American people. On one
issue in particular - FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) - the
president misconstrued the truth and manipulated the facts.

Let me be clear: Our ability to track and monitor terrorists overseas would
not cease should the Protect America Act expire. If this were true, the
president would not threaten to terminate any temporary extension with his
veto pen. All surveillance currently occurring would continue even after
legislative provisions lapsed because authorizations issued under the act
are in effect up to a full year.

Simply put, it was wrong for the president to suggest that warrants issued
in compliance with FISA would suddenly evaporate with congressional
inaction. Instead - even though Congress extended the Protect America Act by
two weeks - he is using the existence of the sunset provision to cast his
political opponents in a negative light.

For this president, fear is an easier political tactic than compromise. With
FISA, he is attempting to rattle Congress into hastily expanding his own
executive powers at the expense of civil liberties and constitutional
protections.

I spent most of my career in government fighting to protect this country in
order to defend these very rights. And I know every member of Congress -
whether Democrat or Republican - holds public office in the same pursuit.

That is why in 2001, I presented this president with a comprehensive
analysis regarding the threat from al-Qaeda. It was obvious to me then - and
remains a fateful reality now - that this enemy sought to attack our
country. Then, the president ignored the warnings and played down the
threats. Ironically, it is the fear from these extremely real threats that
the president today uses as a wedge in a vast and partisan political game.
This is - and has been - a very reckless way to pursue the very ominous
dangers our country faces. And once again, during the current debate over
FISA, he continues to place political objectives above the practical steps
needed to defeat this threat.

In these still treacherous times, we can't afford to have a president who
leads by manipulating emotions with fear, flaunting the law, or abusing the
very inalienable rights endowed to us by the Constitution. Though 9/11
changed the prism through which we view surveillance and intelligence, it
did not in any way change the effectiveness of FISA to allow us to track and
monitor our enemies. FISA has and still works as the most valuable mechanism
for monitoring our enemies.

In order to defeat the violent Islamist extremists who do not believe in
human rights, we need not give up the civil liberties, constitutional rights
and protections that generations of Americans fought to achieve. We do not
need to create Big Brother. With the administration's attempts to erode
FISA's legal standing as the exclusive means by which our government can
conduct electronic surveillance of U.S. persons on U.S. soil, this is
unfortunately the path the president is taking us down.

So it is no surprise that in one of Bush's last acts of relevance, he once
again played the fear card. While he has failed in spreading democracy,
stemming global terrorism, and leaving the country better off than when he
took power, he did achieve one thing: successfully perpetuating fear for
political gain.

Sadly, it may be one of the only achievements of his presidency.

 
Richard A. Clarke is the author of "Against All Enemies: Inside America's
War on Terror." E-mail him at info at nsnetwork.org.