Ken King
01-22-2006, 12:47 PM
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No, I’m not talking about a problem with our beef industry, but about the recent American insurgency that is calling for the impeachment of President Bush for his decision to escalate and target terrorist activities via a long existing NSA program of eavesdropping. Leading this insurgency is the head mad cow – Al Gore.
For years the NSA has been performing signals-intelligence operations against enemies, both foreign and domestic, to catch a glimpse at possible acts against our nation and interests in an effort to thwart any potential attacks. There is nothing new here and it is in the interest of our security to conduct such activities. What is new is how many that are seeking any means available to besmirch the President have labeled this as “illegal wire-tapping”. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Wire-tapping is actually a process of placing a monitoring device/program on a circuit-switched line of an individual person, or on a trunk group that may be part of a central office's domain of interest. To be conducted the law enforcement agency involved at whatever level of government must seek a court ordered warrant before conducting it. As a side note, it is important to understand that under FISA the warrant can be delayed for up to a year if the Attorney General certifies it as essential to our security.
Signals-intelligence (or eavesdropping) such as what the NSA conducts is a program consisting of a global electronic network, nicknamed Echelon, which comprises satellites, high-frequency direction-finding antennas and microwave interception dishes, located in orbit and in critical locations on the ground, in the sea and in the air. This network operates continuously, in real-time, collecting everything it can, but analyzing very little of what it collects. What the President called for was an increase of the analysis portion concentrating on known terrorist transmissions and the identification of potential contact within our borders. An obviously intelligent act when dealing with the potential for harm that can be carried out against this nation if left unchecked.
In recent days the sore loser of the 2000 election, Al Gore, has been calling for independent investigations into this activity, which in all truth was ongoing during his and Clinton’s era, as well as their predecessor’s era too. This is nothing more then grandstanding on Gore’s part in an effort to recapture the lime-light that he lost but has yet to accept.
Gore said of the issue, “What we do know about this pervasive wiretapping virtually compels the conclusion that the president of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently.” He then went on to say, “A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government. Our Founding Fathers were adamant that they had established a government of laws and not men.”
This from the man that sat back and was fully aware that his boss, the Chief Executive of our nation, William Jefferson Clinton, had perjured himself before a court of law, an actual crime, yet he sat back and did nothing about this. How can he justify this new found need to adhere to the law and the concept that no man, regardless of position, is above the law?
In this time of our lives things are certainly different then at any other time in our history. Most notably is the ease and rapidness of technologies that have impacted communications. The ability to communicate has gone beyond the telephone and letters and threats do not just come from nations but also from the world’s thugs within many nations, including our own. As such our tactics should change to evolve with the new threats and I see what President Bush has authorized as a justifiable adaptation to meet these threats in his duty to assure our protection. Failure to do so would be negligence on his part and would be an actual crime against the people unlike this alleged crime that the Bush detractors are now rallying to.
No, I’m not talking about a problem with our beef industry, but about the recent American insurgency that is calling for the impeachment of President Bush for his decision to escalate and target terrorist activities via a long existing NSA program of eavesdropping. Leading this insurgency is the head mad cow – Al Gore.
For years the NSA has been performing signals-intelligence operations against enemies, both foreign and domestic, to catch a glimpse at possible acts against our nation and interests in an effort to thwart any potential attacks. There is nothing new here and it is in the interest of our security to conduct such activities. What is new is how many that are seeking any means available to besmirch the President have labeled this as “illegal wire-tapping”. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Wire-tapping is actually a process of placing a monitoring device/program on a circuit-switched line of an individual person, or on a trunk group that may be part of a central office's domain of interest. To be conducted the law enforcement agency involved at whatever level of government must seek a court ordered warrant before conducting it. As a side note, it is important to understand that under FISA the warrant can be delayed for up to a year if the Attorney General certifies it as essential to our security.
Signals-intelligence (or eavesdropping) such as what the NSA conducts is a program consisting of a global electronic network, nicknamed Echelon, which comprises satellites, high-frequency direction-finding antennas and microwave interception dishes, located in orbit and in critical locations on the ground, in the sea and in the air. This network operates continuously, in real-time, collecting everything it can, but analyzing very little of what it collects. What the President called for was an increase of the analysis portion concentrating on known terrorist transmissions and the identification of potential contact within our borders. An obviously intelligent act when dealing with the potential for harm that can be carried out against this nation if left unchecked.
In recent days the sore loser of the 2000 election, Al Gore, has been calling for independent investigations into this activity, which in all truth was ongoing during his and Clinton’s era, as well as their predecessor’s era too. This is nothing more then grandstanding on Gore’s part in an effort to recapture the lime-light that he lost but has yet to accept.
Gore said of the issue, “What we do know about this pervasive wiretapping virtually compels the conclusion that the president of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently.” He then went on to say, “A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government. Our Founding Fathers were adamant that they had established a government of laws and not men.”
This from the man that sat back and was fully aware that his boss, the Chief Executive of our nation, William Jefferson Clinton, had perjured himself before a court of law, an actual crime, yet he sat back and did nothing about this. How can he justify this new found need to adhere to the law and the concept that no man, regardless of position, is above the law?
In this time of our lives things are certainly different then at any other time in our history. Most notably is the ease and rapidness of technologies that have impacted communications. The ability to communicate has gone beyond the telephone and letters and threats do not just come from nations but also from the world’s thugs within many nations, including our own. As such our tactics should change to evolve with the new threats and I see what President Bush has authorized as a justifiable adaptation to meet these threats in his duty to assure our protection. Failure to do so would be negligence on his part and would be an actual crime against the people unlike this alleged crime that the Bush detractors are now rallying to.