Glenn Greenwald: Joe Klein's defense of warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty

[babylonsister]

Glenn Greenwald
Thursday October 11, 2007 08:26 EST
Joe Klein's defense of warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty

(updated below - Update II - Update III)

There is a lot of debate about what accounts for the decrepit state of our political press, but often overlooked is the sheer sloth and ignorance of journalists, who repeat what they are told without having any idea what they are talking about. Last night, Time's Joe Klein tried to explain why he supports the "Protect America Act" enacted by Congress in August that, in essence, allowed the administration to eavesdrop on all international telephone calls of Americans without warrants. This is what he said:

I don't agree with those who believe the Democrats have "folded" by agreeing to support the modified FISA law -- even if it is called, in the Orwellian fashion of the Bush Administration, the Protect America Act. From the start, I've argued that the NSA's data-mining program is essential and easily made legal by updating the FISA law . . . .

But the FISA law needed to be updated to reflect the technological advances since the late 1970's, including the use of data-mining, and this bill does that. Needless to say, no actual eavesdropping on conversations should be permitted without a FISA court ruling.

Truly bizarre. Klein says that "no actual eavesdropping on conversations should be permitted without a FISA court ruling." But the bill that Klein simultaneously says he supports allows exactly that -- it allows the Bush administration to eavesdrop, in essence, on any international calls it wants, including those to which a U.S. citizen, on U.S. soil, is a party. That is the whole point of the bill, the whole reason why it is such a travesty -- precisely because it allows "actual eavesdropping on conversations . . . without a FISA court ruling."

Thus, in two short paragraphs, Klein manages to say: "I am absolutely opposed to X, and I vigorously support this bill which grants X." He's obviously writing about his support for a bill that he has not read and that he has not begun to comprehend. And yet he repeatedly writes articles on FISA for Time, the largest weekly newsmagazine in America. That isn't anything more nefarious or complex than just garden-variety sloth and ignorance.

Still, Klein's support for a new law that he does not understand and has not bothered to look at is instructive as to why the bill passed in August and why there is such a danger now that it will be made permanent. In the Beltway culture, granting more power to the Government -- particularly when that power is justified by The Terrorists -- is always a Serious, Inherently Good measure, because that power will be exercised by the Good, Serious Adults Whom are Trusted, the Admiral Mike McConnells and the Gen. Michael Haydens and soon-to-be Trusted and Responsible Michael Mukasey.

more...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/