That is the Way to Tyranny

The NSA is Collecting Data on Millions of Communications

We have recently learned that the National Security Agency has been sweeping up data on millions of phone calls and emails. The agency has not collected the content of the communications, but it has collected the number (address) to which each communication was directed as well as its time and date.  Such information will allow the NSA to map communication networks over both space and time.

Is the Information Really Useful?

It is easy to see how this information might theoretically be used to improve our national security, but it is not so clear how much the information has actually contributed.  Have terrorist plots been foiled because of information collected in this way? We don’t know. How many plots have been foiled this way?  We don’t know.  Could they or would they have been foiled without this information? We don’t know.  We also don’t know whether there are other, less costly or less intrusive methods that could have been used. We really should have a national debate on this and other related questions, but we probably won’t be able to have such a debate, because our government will be unwilling to share any information about what has been done on the grounds that the program is “classified” and that revealing information about it would damage our national security. 

Veering Toward Totalitarianism

This is the point where we veer dangerously toward totalitarianism and a police state.  Our government is saying in effect, “We can collect any information about you that we want to collect, and we don’t have to tell you what we are doing because if we told you, we would damage our national security.”

“Trust us,” they say.  

“We have your interests at heart,” they say. 
 

Imprisoning People Without Trial or Even Charges

Before the NSA’s program was revealed, we had already allowed our government to hold people in prison for many years at Guantanamo without having to prove in court that the people had committed any crimes or even that releasing them would endanger our national security.  Again, our government said that it couldn’t reveal how it knew that these people were a danger to national security because to do so would endanger that security. Again, the government said, “Trust us.”

These Programs Invite Political Abuse

The motives of the officials who run these programs today may be pure, but the programs themselves are invitations to political abuse.  If we allow them to stand, they will eventually be abused.  We know that they will be abused because such abuse has occurred in the past.  We know, for example, that for many years, the FBI kept voluminous files on politicians and that J. Edgar Hoover used those files to maintain his power.  We also know that the FBI illegally collected information on civil rights workers because J. Edgar Hoover didn’t like their politics.  We saw with our own eyes that people were harassed and sometimes crushed by the McCarthy committee and by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

We can be certain that sooner or later, the temptation to use the powers of the new programs to silence or harass political opponents will be too great to resist. Sooner or later, the communications of a political opponent of a president, of a powerful senator or of the head of the CIA or the NSA will be monitored.  His or her friends will be subpoenaed to testify before congressional committees. Pressure will be brought on them to keep their mouths shut on political topics. Perhaps, their careers will be destroyed as were the careers of many writers, directors and actors in the days of the Hollywood blacklist. And when we ask why this or that person is targeted, we will be told that unfortunately, the reasons for doing so cannot be revealed because revealing them would damage our national security. This is not a fantasy.  We have seen such things done in this country in our lifetimes, and anyone who thinks that they could not happen again is I am sorry to say, sadly mistaken.  

The Bill of Rights is Supposed to Prevent This Sort of Thing

The writers of our Constitution knew that power will always be abused unless it is hedged about with limitations.  That is why we have the Bill of Rights.  That is why we do not allow our houses to be entered and searched without warrants.  That is why we do not allow people to be imprisoned without clear charges.  That is why the right of habeas corpus is important.  

The Way to Tyranny

Today, again, our government wants to be able to bypass the rules in the Bill of Rights. The war on terror provides a good excuse for doing it, but we cannot allow the excuse to be used unless it can be proved to be a valid excuse.  If we want to continue to enjoy our democracy and our freedom, we have to stand up now.  We have to say that national security cannot be used as an excuse to abridge our freedom without proving that it is a valid excuse and without showing how the scope of the abridgement will be limited. We have to require our government to show that the benefits of abridging our freedom really do outweigh the danger of doing so. We cannot allow our government simply to murmur the words “national security” and then do anything it wants to do.  That is the way to tyranny.