This will come as a great surprise, but the Bush Administration's domestic spying program was even more extensive than previously known. As reported by the Associated Press:
The Bush administration authorized secret surveillance activities that still have not been made public, according to a new government report that questions the legal basis for the unprecedented anti-terrorism program.
It's unclear how much valuable intelligence was yielded by the surveillance program started after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, according to the unclassified summary of reports by five inspectors general. The reports mandated by Congress last year were delivered to lawmakers Friday.
President George W. Bush authorized other secret intelligence activities — which have yet to become public — even as he was launching the massive warrentless wiretapping program, the summary said. It describes the entire program as the "President's Surveillance Program."
The report describes the program as unprecedented and raises questions about the legal grounding used for its creation. It also says the intelligence agencies' continued retention and use of the information collected under the program should be carefully monitored.
Questions the legal basis. As in Bush may have authorized even more illegal activity. As in someone with some legal authority maybe perhaps ought to investigate whether or not Bush committed crimes, while in office. If you believe in that whole rule of law thing. And before we're subjected to another onslaught of Liz Cheney telling us how everything her daddy did was to stop them damn terr'ists, the New York Times adds this:
While the Bush administration had defended its program of wiretapping without warrants as a vital tool that saved lives, a new government review released Friday said the program’s effectiveness in fighting terrorism was unclear.
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The report, mandated by Congress last year and produced by the inspectors general of five federal agencies, found that other intelligence tools used in assessing security threats posed by terrorists provided more timely and detailed information.
Most intelligence officials interviewed "had difficulty citing specific instances" when the National Security Agency’s wiretapping program contributed to successes against terrorists, the report said.
My senator:
"While former Bush administration officials continue to argue that their policies made the country safer," said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, "I believe this report shows that their obsession with secrecy and their refusal to accept oversight was actually harmful to U.S. national security, not to mention the privacy rights of law-abiding Americans."
Add this to Thursday's revelation that, under Bush, the CIA concealed a top "anti-terror" program from Congress, and it would seem we have a little problem. That continues to reveal itself as having continually recurred, under Bush: secret and illegal government programs that were supposedly about fighting terror, that did little or no good, and that violated Americans' basic constitutional rights. Jack Balkin:
In sum: the Bush Administration used an illegal program that wasn't effective, and when the public found out, it repeatedly used this ineffective program to scare Congress into passing laws that legitimated many of its illegal practices and gave the intelligence agencies greater leeway with less oversight.
Nice move, eh?
The lesson of this story is not that the Bush Administration used to do very bad things and thankfully we don't do them anymore. The lesson of this story is that Congress needs to require the Executive Branch to implement New FISA in ways that are accountable both to Congress and to a set of ombudsmen in the executive branch that Congress should now create. Congress needs to require audits of the kinds of surveillance programs the executive branch is now running. It needs to create a set of new checks and balances within the executive branch in order to prevent the sloppiness and the end-runs around consultation and checks on abuse we saw in the Bush Administration. Thanks to a successful strategy of repeated and shameless demagoguery, President Bush has handed enormous new powers of surveillance off to his successor, and to every President thereafter, regardless of party. The question now is what, if anything, Congress plans to do to prevent future abuses.
A little transparency from the executive branch also would help.
Update [2009-7-11 13:2:11 by Turkana]: From MinistryOfTruth: