Cl’1'|Jo rtlan b © hseruer
Page A4
December 28. 2005
Opinion articles do not
necessarily reflect or represent the
views o f The Portland Observer
O pinion
Spying Akin to
J. Edgar Hoover
O B o f t S E W.BUSH: A LEADER WHO L I S T E « * ,
Bush justifications,
attacks mislead
by U.S. R ep . M axine W aters
President Bush's decision to by­
pass the U.S. Constitution and laws to
permit the National Security Agency
to spy on American citizens is very
problematic.
The description of the NSA pro­
gram is re m in isc e n t o f the
COINTELPRO program in which the
FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover, spied on
the leaders of the civil rights movement, including the Black
Panther Party.
The House of Representatives and the Senate must fulfill
its constitutional duty and hold hearings on the NSA
program. We cannot hide behind the false argument that
this program was authorized in the name of national secu­
rity. If the President believed he needed more power to
conduct the war on terrorism, he should have asked the
Congress to authorize such powers, not declare them on his
own.
It is important to note that telling the House and Senate
party leaders and the chair and ranking members of the two
Intelligence Committees about the program is not Congres­
sional oversight or approval as the Administration implies.
It doesn I matter that the
president says only
individuals with possible
ties to al Qaeda are being
monitored; as a people we
have learned that his words
are not always truthful.
Beware Of Federal Wire Taps
Outrageous
spying must be
investigated
J udge G reg M athis
“ Y eah , I d id it. So
w hat?” T h a t’s basically
the stance President Bush
took when the new s was
leaked that the govern­
ment listened in on inter­
national phone calls w ith­
out a w arrant - all in the
nam e o f fighting terrorism . Bush,
angry that the inform ation had been
disclosed, defended his actions and
w ent on to say he will continue to
use secret international w iretaps to
m onitor the activities o f people in
the U.S. that are believed to have
connections with the ever elusive
al Qaeda.
Perhaps this new s that the rights
o f citizens w ere being violated
w ould be easier to digest if the
governm ent didn’t have a habit,
one that goes back several d e­
cades, o f using its intelligence ac­
tivities to infringe upon the civil
by
Furthermore, the president’s claim that no member of
Congress expressed concern about the program is false. In
2003, Sen. John Rockefeller wrote Vice-President Cheney
expressing concern about the program and House Demo­
cratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has also said that she expressed
her concerns about the program to the Administration.
The president knows full well that this program was
classified and these members of Congress would have
violated the law if they went public with their concerns
about the NSA program. These attacks are yet another
attempt by the president, the vice-president and other
Administration officials to smear its critics and mislead the
American people about the justifications for their actions.
We saw the Administration’s tactics during the run up
to the war in Iraq and the leaking of Valerie Plame's name and
now we see it in the justifications for spying on American
citizens.
The existence of the NSA program is exactly why many
Members of Congress have misgivings about reauthorizing
the Patriot Act as the President demands. Many o f us,
Democrat and Republican, are concerned that the Patriot
Act could allow the Administration to violate the civil rights
of Americans.
Maxine Waters is a Democrat from California and member
of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Healthy Birth Initiative can help.
Healthy Birth Initiative (HBI) is a program
African American women and their families 1
in N /N E Portland.
someone
you know
pregnant
libertiesoflaw -abidingcitizens and
civil rights organizations
Bush took and tw isted the au­
thority granted to him after 9/11
and allow ed the N ational Security
A gency to eavesdrop on overseas
calls m ade or received by A m eri­
cans. T he NSA intercepts
billionsofcom m unications
across the w orld, but is
banned from doing any
spying here at hom e w ith­
out first getting approval
from the Foreign Intelli­
gence S u rv e illa n c e A ct
Court. The President m ain­
tains the inform ation that has been
gathered has prevented another ter­
rorist attack and saved countless
lives. If this is true, where is the
proof?
F o r those w ho say, “ If y o u ’re
not doing an y th in g w rong, none
o f th is s h o u ld m a tte r ,” th e y
sh o u ld know th a t g o v e rn m e n t
has ‘sp ie d ’ on, o r in v estig ated ,
several A m erican civil rights and
p o litic a l o rg a n iz a tio n s . T h e re
is n ’t any e v id e n c e th a t th e se
groups had done anything w rong,
they ju st h ap p en ed to op p o se the
cu rrent adm in istratio n .
A cco rd in g to the d o c u ­
m ents recen tly released by
the A m erican C ivil L ib e r­
ties U nion, an org an izatio n
founded in 1920 to p ro tect
HBI offers:
• Transportation to medical and social
service appointm ents
• Hom e Visits
• Incentives
• Health education classes (free childcare and
transportation when attending any HBI
group or class)
• Information and referrals to com m unity services
the rig h ts o f all c itizen s, the fed ­
e ra l g o v e rn m e n t has c o lle c te d
data on People for the E thical
T r e a tm e n t o f A n im a ls a n d
G re e n p e a c e , an e n v iro n m e n ta l
group. T he FBI even has over
1,000 pages o f in fo rm atio n on
the A C L U , a leading c ritic o f
B ush and his w ar on terror.
If the President believed he needed
more power to conduct the war on
terrorism, he should have asked the
Congress to authorize such powers, not
declare them on his own.
This isn ’t the first tim e in this
nation’s history that law -abiding
organizations have been m onitored
by the governm ent. D uring the
black liberation m ovem ent, the
F B I'sC ounter Intelligence Program
investigated and disrupted the ac­
tivities o f so-called radical indi­
viduals and organizations, includ­
ing Dr. M artin L uther King Jr., the
Black Panthers, M alcolm X and the
Nation o f Islam.
A nyone still not understanding
the severity o f the President’s ac­
tio n s sh o u ld c o n sid e r that our
brothers and sisters calling loved
ones in Jam aica, Trinidad, Kenya
“ 2006’Another Level
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alw ays truthful.
Much o f the nation, including
law m akers - D em ocrats and Re­
publicans alike - is infuriated by
not only the revelation that these
in te rc e p tio n s o c c u rre d , but by
B ush’s cocky resp o n ses to the
questions that follow ed. L et’s hope
this outrage leads to investigations
into the president’s actions and,
ultim ately, and end to this and sim i­
lar practices.
N ew Year’s Eve -
For more information contact:
Health Department
or anyw here else in the w orld could
unknow ingly have their sim ple call
home subjected to the prying - and
illegally tuned - ears o f the U.S.
governm ent. It d o e sn 't m atter that
the president says only individuals
with possible ties to al Q aeda are
being m onitored; as a people we
have learned that his w ords are not
Dec. 31.2005
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