The Usual Suspects

Ever since the word got out that Bush's secret police are illegally scrutinizing the minutiae of our daily lives, the Republican spin machine has responded in its usual way, by lying.

It's their standard operating procedure. If you want to start a war, slime an opposing candidate, or justify a criminal policy, you just make shit up.

In this particular case, the standard lie, spun into cotton candy thread by the credulous and swallowed by the gullible, is that Carter and Clinton did the same thing.

Here's the warrantless search order Clinton signed:

Section 1. Pursuant to section 302(a)(1) [50 U.S.C. 1822(a)] of the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance] Act, the Attorney General is authorized to approve physical searches, without a court order, to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of up to one year, if the Attorney General makes the certifications required by that section.

Two things make this different from Bush's NSA order: 1) The AG could approve only physical searches, not electronic surveillance, and 2) the AG had to be able to certify that said searches were in compliance with USC section 50 section 302.

What does that section require? That there be "no substantial likelihood that the physical search will involve the premises, information, material, or property of a United States person."

To go on TV and baldly assert that what Clinton did is the same as what Bush is doing isn't an exaggerration, a mis-statement, or a mistake. It's an outrageous, deliberate lie.

While we're at it, here's the order Carter signed:

Pursuant to Section 102(a)(1) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1802(a)), the Attorney General is authorized to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign intelligence information without a court order, but only if the Attorney General makes the certifications required by that Section.

This one includes electronic surveillance, but like Clinton's order is required to adhere to the rules laid out in the same USC section, which specifies that "the electronic surveillance is solely directed at communications exclusively between or among foreign powers." Under the terms of both these orders, spying on U.S. citizens was strictly off limits.

The hopeful sign is that the people spreading this malarky aren't always getting away with it. A couple nights ago on "Hardball," some neocon Senator from one of our barbaric southern regions of cornbread and revival attempted to tell this lie, but was brought up short by Andrea Mitchell, actually doing her job for a change.

"You're leaving out the last sentence," she told him, when he recited an edited version of Clinton's order.

In a truly democratic society, GW Bush and his crew of buccaneers would be out of office and in prison right now, doing hard time for the lies they told during the runup to Iraq. But lying worked for them then, and there's no reason for them to assume that it won't work now.

The truth is, there is no precedent for the kind of surveillance we're being subjected to under Bush, and it has nothing to do with "terrism." Big Brother is indeed watching you.