I had hoped not to see this happen after Obama was elected, but it has. The promises that he made, one of which was to stop the Bush Administration nonsense and stop breaking the law and violating American freedom, was a lie.
Not all of America is ignorant enough to not understand some of this and only see the promises that Obama made during his inauguration. I wanted to believe in him and I do still have some hope left, but what Obama is doing is a mistake if he wants my approval.
Let’s “hope” that the Department of Justice is running rampant and going around Obama and that he didn’t necessarily want this to happen and doesn’t have this idea that he can do whatever he wants as President.
Realize that once you violate these laws and enter into the territory of violating American freedom and privacy, a flood gate with STRONG rushing water behind it is opened. One day we are wiretapping 1000 Americans under the disguise of “he might be a terrorist”, the next we are living in a police state.
Friday evening, in a motion to dismiss Jewel v. NSA, EFF’s litigation against the National Security Agency for the warrantless wiretapping of countless Americans, the Obama Administration’s made two deeply troubling arguments.
First, they argued, exactly as the Bush Administration did on countless occasions, that the state secrets privilege requires the court to dismiss the issue out of hand. They argue that simply allowing the case to continue “would cause exceptionally grave harm to national security.” As in the past, this is a blatant ploy to dismiss the litigation without allowing the courts to consider the evidence.
It’s an especially disappointing argument to hear from the Obama Administration. As a candidate, Senator Obama lamented that the Bush Administration “invoked a legal tool known as the ’state secrets’ privilege more than any other previous administration to get cases thrown out of civil court.” He was right then, and we’re dismayed that he and his team seem to have forgotten.