Bush's secret war on America
Evan Whitton
Sydney Morning Herald
Florian von Donnersmarck's haunting film The Lives of Others is a warning to us all. It shows how the East German secret police, the Stasi, went about their deadly work of spying on 17 million citizens.
It is a stretch, but not impossible, to see the US President, George Bush, as the new Erich Honecker, the dictator of East Germany from 1971 until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.
Apart from lying, politicians tend to be overly fond of running other people's lives. There is a wickedly hilarious scene in Keating: The Musical in which the opposition leader, John Howard, clumps up and down the catwalk rasping: "I want powerrr!"
The events of September 11, 2001, gave Bush the excuse to procure absurd legal advice that, as commander-in-chief in a war on a high-order abstraction, terrorism, he has the power to do what he liked with the lives of millions at home and abroad.
He soon signed a secret executive order instructing the National Security Agency's 30,000 operatives to spy without a warrant on US citizens. Whatever certain lawyers or judges might say, this was plainly unlawful under the Fourth Amendment (1791) to the US constitution. It states: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
(Continued here.)
Sydney Morning Herald
Florian von Donnersmarck's haunting film The Lives of Others is a warning to us all. It shows how the East German secret police, the Stasi, went about their deadly work of spying on 17 million citizens.
It is a stretch, but not impossible, to see the US President, George Bush, as the new Erich Honecker, the dictator of East Germany from 1971 until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.
Apart from lying, politicians tend to be overly fond of running other people's lives. There is a wickedly hilarious scene in Keating: The Musical in which the opposition leader, John Howard, clumps up and down the catwalk rasping: "I want powerrr!"
The events of September 11, 2001, gave Bush the excuse to procure absurd legal advice that, as commander-in-chief in a war on a high-order abstraction, terrorism, he has the power to do what he liked with the lives of millions at home and abroad.
He soon signed a secret executive order instructing the National Security Agency's 30,000 operatives to spy without a warrant on US citizens. Whatever certain lawyers or judges might say, this was plainly unlawful under the Fourth Amendment (1791) to the US constitution. It states: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
(Continued here.)
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