Judicial Oversight and the Limit of Executive Power

Comment from Jose Sr.
"As stated in the article first linked to your essay: "A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the NBC report about the database. However, he said: "The Department of Defense uses counterintelligence and law enforcement information properly collected by law enforcement agencies. (Note the word "Properly"...)"The use of this information is subject to strict limitations, particularly the information must be related to missions relating to protection of DoD installations, interests and personnel," he added.The Pentagon has already acknowledged the existence of a counterintelligence program known as the "Threat and Local Observation Notice" (TALON) reporting system.This system, the Pentagon said, is designed to gather "non-validated threat information and security anomalies indicative of possible terrorist pre-attack activity." Now, I ask you, Jose, is the Government spying on you, or are you spying on them? All of this while our ememy is trying to kill us in our homes, workplaces and shopping malls.
Sincerely,Jose Sr "

All of the covert activities of the Bush administration have been carried out without any independant review. The secret wiretaps, for example, have been, and are continuing to be carried out without any warrents or outside agency monitoring their activities.

The primary point is that these acts are not carried out purely in defense against terrorists, and we have only their word that they are operating "properly." There is evidence to indicate otherwise. The ACLU, for example, has obtained documents which they claim demonstrates surveillance on many peaceful groups including Greenpeace and the Quakers [link,link].

Throughout our history, new threats to this country have routinely been met by new demands for expanded power of the executive branch, and in almost all cases, they have led to abuses. Below is a brief collection of information on specific violations resulting from power left unchecked by external review:

1980's
1. Nicaragua - The Reagan administration throughout the 1980's participated in overt and covert operation to destablize the democraticlly elected government of Nicagarua, primarily by funding right-wing terrorist groups like the "Contras" to carry out attacks against the civilian population. When public support forced an end to the official support of these groups, weapons were secretely sold to Iran and the funds wen't to continue the support of terrorist activities in the "Iran-Contra" scandal [link].

1970's
1. Operation Minaret - NSA created a list of individuals who were associated with anti-war and civil rights groups, and conducted surveillance on them [link]

1960's
1. COINTELPRO - An extensive illegal counterintelligence program involving numerous state and federal agencies, including the CIA, FBI, and Army Intelligence, directed against critics of the government, including anti-war groups, the NAACP, and Martin Luther King Jr.
COINTELPRO history [link]
PBS Bill Moyers article COINTELPRO Again? [link]
Nixon's surveillance of John Kerry [link]

2. Operation Chaos - Illegal CIA intelligence gathering within the United States against groups opposed to the Vietnam war.
A History of Operation CHAOS [link]
Excerpt from Report to the President by the Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States [link]

1950's
1. Operation Shamrock - Illegal covert effort by the National Security Agency to intercept virtually all domestic and international telegraph communications [link].

2. McCarthyism - An extensive effort carried out by Senator Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin, as well as others, against left-wing subversives, as well as Democrats who supported the New Deal policies of FDR.
Link to numerous governemtn documents related to McCarthyism [link]

1940's
1. House Committee on Un-American Activities - Investigated subversives, made unfounded accusations against subversives, and assumed guilt based on association with groups and individuals.
History of House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) [link]
HUAC and censorship of Hollywood [link]

2. Internment of Japanese Americans - More than 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent were forcibly relocated from their homes along the west coast to camps in more isolated areas.
A History of the Japanese-American internment camps [link]
A photographic exibit about Japanese Internment at the University of Utah [link]
Link to information about a PBS documentary about children living in the camps [link]

1920's
1. The first Red Scare - after WWI, a smear campaign was carried out against social dissidents. More than 16,000 people were arrested and held without trial.
A brief history of the first Red Scare [link]
Link to photo archive of first red scare (1918-1921) [link]


Note: As a result of the covert surveillance under COINTELPRO, Operation Shamrock, Operation Minaret, and Operation CHAOS, the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance act was passed in 1978 to limit domestic surveillance. Among other things, it set up a secret court to approve warrants for wiretaps. That is the reason that Bush's current wiretapping is clearly unnecessary and illegal, since warrents obtained through the FISA court are Top Secret, and can even be obtained retroactively for 72 hours after a wiretap has begun.