New Crime Revealed:
Bush's Secret War at Home
We have now learned: Two years ago, George W. Bush went behind the back of the American people and secretly authorized the National
Security Agency (NSA) to carry out surveillance of people throughout the United States.
The secret presidential edict, revealed yesterday in the New York Times, allowed massive spying, surveillance of phone calls and peoples' homes without any evidence of criminal activity, and without court order. This complete violation of the Bill of Rights was ordered without congressional debate or judicial scrutiny and oversight. It was Bush’s secret, a hidden and criminal violation of peoples constitutional rights.
Bush’s secret action is a violation of federal wiretapping law, the Privacy Act and a violation of the Fourth Amendment. What remedy exists when the President violates federal law and trashes the Bill of Rights? The remedy provided by the Constitution is impeachment.
This latest bombshell follows a pattern well known by all those who are demanding that Congress defend the Constitution through impeachment. Bush cynically used September 11 to violate the most important tenets of the US Constitution and international law. The war of aggression in Iraq, the establishment of a global network of secret prisons and torture centers, the unleashing of secret police spying on citizens and non-citizens alike, the evisceration of due process rights and the systematic lying to Congress and to the people about the reasons for the launch of the Iraq war - these constitute the essential case for impeachment.
The American people are demanding in ever greater numbers that the constitutional mechanism that holds high officials accountable for criminal activity be immediately applied. The idea promoted by some that Bush is too strong to be impeached is sheer nonsense and it defies the historical record. Richard Nixon was on the verge of being impeached in the last half of his second term and not long after, he won a landslide majority in the 1972 election. Clinton too was impeached in the second half of his second term, on the allegation of perjury, when he had an approval rating of 60%.
Today Bush’s approval rating is hovering around 40%, the majority of the people believe Congress should vote to impeach if Bush lied about the reasons for going to war, and now millions more are shocked that Bush secretly authorized the most powerful spy agency to spy on anyone it wanted too without court order or evidence of criminal wrong doing.
The Bush White House, in its very essence, is the negation of democracy. The people must not stand by and let cherished freedoms protected by the Constitution, be stripped away in secret.
