Dean weighs in on government surveillance

The extrajudicial spying authorized by the Bush administration may be vastly wider than originally thought or than the president acknowledged 10 days ago.

The New York Times is reporting that the National Security Agency has been tapping directly into some of the main arteries of American telecommunications companies in its hunt for suspicious activity, apparently with the approval of those telecommunications companies, but not with the approval of any court.

The agency combing through phone calls and e-mails said to number in the millions, not all of them, obviously, the work of terror suspects.  In acknowledging the eavesdropping last week, the president having said that only those suspected of terrorist ties were being monitored.

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Anyone with more than three neurons firing knows better than that.

 

But it does give one pause...can't help but wonder what, now, constitutes terrorist ties. Are my emails read if I have a Quaker friend? What about a Vegan friend?

 

What is a terrorist these days and who are they exactly? What constitutes aiding and abetting...giving comfort to terrorists.

 

Would dissent and disapproval of Bush policy be a form of giving comfort to terrorists, in Bush's mind, which seems to be all that matters these days.

 

Damn! That's a scary thought! Bush mind is all that matters?

 

Oh hell, we are really screwed and stewed.