The release of millions of American civilians' phone records to the National Security Agency has spurred more cries against what is looking like an increasingly lawless White House. Phone numbers, times and locations of calls made by customers of AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth have been at the mercy of government scrutiny under the guise of America's War on Terror.
Although President Bush and administrators of the NSA are claiming there has been no listening to the calls' content, the monitoring of phone records without consent seems to be only a puddle-jump to another split battle concerning the privacy rights of the American people.
The telephone surveillance program has been supported as a vital effort for pursuing suspected al-Qaida members supposedly operating within the country, not as a means to spy on ordinary people. Regardless of its claimed uses, this breaching of personal information is itself suspect and should not be trusted to an administration that has been repeatedly called into question for its misuse of power.
According to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, authorization from a special court is needed to warrant such eavesdropping. Bush superseded this law by using his own power to authorize the program without informing the general public.
Gently pushing the line of legality has been a common theme of this administration, and this incident is just another black mark on Bush's track record. Whether it is right or not, many Americans agree ' based on positive polling about the NSA program ' that some foregoing of their civil liberties (privacy in this case) is necessary in the name of national security. It is the behind-closed-doors spying ' and the eventual outrage that ensues when it is discovered ' that makes Americans distrustful of the validity of these actions.
The monitoring of phone calls is not necessarily the introduction to the fall of all civil liberties ' if it stops here. At the same time, until a solution is reached, you just better hope you don't dial the wrong number.
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Once again, Bush expands his power
