[Infowarrior] - Protect America Act Debate: Truth or Fear Mongering?

[Richard Forno]

Protect America Act Debate: Truth or Fear Mongering?
By David Kravets EmailFebruary 15, 2008 | 4:09:50 PMCategories: Surveillance

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/02/protect-ameri-1.html

We all should be very scared -- very, very scared.

Beginning Saturday, those living on American soil are likely to suffer a
"horrendous act." That's what Director of National Intelligence Mike
McConnell told Americans on Friday.

The reason is that the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives won't
re-authorize President Bush's warrantless spying powers, which are expiring
Saturday. The Senate did days ago, and even agreed to immunize
telecommunications companies from lawsuits for assisting the administration.

"More than likely we would miss the very information we need to prevent some
horrendous act from taking place in the United States," McConnell said.

President Bush has some bone chilling things to say as well. After the House
on Wednesday refused to follow the Senate's footsteps and re-authorize the
Protect America Act, which sunsets Saturday, the chief executive said
Americans' lives were hanging in the balance.

"At this moment, somewhere in the world terrorists are planning new attacks
on our country," the president said. "Their goal is to bring destruction to
our shores that will make Sept. 11 pale by comparison."

And on Friday, hours before the Protect America Act expires, Bush reiterated
the point. "By blocking this piece of legislation, our country is more in
danger of an attack," he said.

The verbiage from McConnell, Bush and a string of Republican lawmakers is,
to say the least, frightening. The words are scary because they portend the
end of civilization, as we know it.

Has Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker from San Francisco, doomed us all?

Pelosi countered that the president was "misrepresenting the facts on our
nation's electronic surveillance capabilities."

Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who heads the House Democratic Caucus, said
Friday that "This is not about protecting Americans. The president just
wants to protect American telephone companies."

But what if Pelosi, Emanuel and other Democrats are wrong? What if Bush and
company are telling the truth? What if it isn't fear mongering?

The Bush believers, however, are not flocking across the border. Do they not
believe him?

With the nation on the brink of destruction with Saturday's deadline
looming, many Republican and Democratic lawmakers have left Washington and
returned to their home districts for a 12-day Presidents' Day recess.

Perhaps the headlines of the pending apocalypse are simply headlines -- a
regurgitation of post 9-11 political theater, and devoid of any real meaning
to those who bother to read them.

At bottom, the debate is whether the nation's intelligence-gathering
agencies need warrants -- from a secret court -- to snoop on suspected
terrorists via telecommunication facilities within the United States.
Starting on Saturday, the law brokered last year authorizing warrantless
searches expires.

But such warrantless spying has already occurred in a program the Bush
administration authorized following the Sept. 11 attacks. The president, as
chief commander, maintains the Constitution grants him such powers
notwithstanding the Fourth Amendment.

We all should be very scared -- very, very scared.