[cross-posted from Frameshop]
To Bush Wiretapping Is 'Surveillance,' To Everyone Else It Looks Like 'Guessing'
In response to recent criticisms they they are engaged in domestic 'spying' the White House posted a definition of 'Domestic' on their web site. They must not realize that the White House web site is public, because this particular posting of theirs talks down to the American people in such an arrogant and offensive way, that only a childish, unsupervised intern could have posted such a ridiculous thing.
The real question, which the teenagers who run the White House web site do not understand, is how Americans define and understand 'surveillance' and whether or not we believe that President Bush is actually using his powers to keep track of terroristts. That's the question.
According to the White House, they are not engaged in 'terrorist surveillance' and only when those terrorists make or receive international calls to they wiretap the call. But if that was what the White House had been doing, they would not have stopped the 9/11 hijackers or saved a single American from dying on that day. Nobody called home on September 10 and said, "Just called to say 'Hi' and let you know we're going ahead with the attacks on New York and Washington, tomorrow. How's Mom?"
How silly that the White House should use that word 'surveillance.' They are not 'surveying' anything at the White House. It would be more accurate to say they are 'guessing' where the terrorists are. They do this guessing by 'scraping' everything they can get their hands on into a giant bucket of disorganized and disconnected information. They then spending billions to 'sift through' that big bucket information to try to figure out where the terrorists are.
Guessing, guessing and guessing. No wonder Americans feel unsafe!
The problem: it cannot be 'terrorist surveillance' if the White House does not know who or where the terrorists are.
If the White House knew who and where the terrorists are--why on earth would they listen to their phone calls? It is just such a ridiculous assertion by the White House.
Imagine this: The NSA finds the whereabouts of a terrorist cell and tells Cheney. Then, rather than picking them up with a Special Forces team or dropping some smart bombs on them, Cheney--under the logic of 'terrorist surveillance'--decides to set up some super secret surveillance? "Yeah, Don, this is Dick. Look, we found some terrorists. Yep, a whole bunch. Listen, I know we should be picking them up or something, but I'd rather we listened in on their phone calls for a while. You know, get some really juicy stuff, then catch them in the act. Got it? OK, let me know how it's going. Don't tell anyone."
As if!
What? Are we supposed to believe the NSA is running some kind of terrorist reality show? "Well,well, well....look what we have here. It's an Al Qaeda terrorist. Won't he be shocked to learn that he's on national TV. Dude!"
Nope, it's not surveillance. The Bush program is really the "Random Information Guessing Game," and has the goal finding terrorists. Why are they listening to phone calls? Because they have no other idea how to find the terrorists.
Heaven forbid the Bush Administration should convene a global conference inviting every nation on earth to come together and find a solution! They would rather just collect and sort, collect and sort--hoping they will find their needle in a haystack.
So remember: It's not possible to keep an eye on someone if you don't know where they are in the first place! The next time somebody uses that phrase 'terrorist surveillance' to justify President Bush's illegal wiretapping program--ask them why President Bush hasn't picked up these terrorists if he knows where they are.
Why? Because he has no idea where they are. But he'd rather guess then ask for help, and so he continues to play a game of chance with National Security.
© 2006 Jeffrey Feldman