Bringing the Point Home
Updated on May 13, 2006 at 12:51 pm.
The ability of some Americans to tolerate and even embrace each new Orwellian government intrusion into our lives in the name of the “war on terror” never ceases to amaze me. Two minutes into any talk show, the inevitable response to the observation that our government now engages in unprecedented and clearly illegal surveillance of its own citizens is aired: “You people need to understand that we’re in a war!” they cry. “Maybe if the government was monitoring our telephone calls on 9/11 we would have avoided the attack! Besides, I don’t have anything to hide. I’m a law-abiding citizen!”
As the Framers would say, what a load of crap.
Let’s review one last time: On August 6, 2001, the President was handed a memo entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US.” The two-page memo contained the following information:
We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a [redacted] service in 1998 saying that Bin Laden wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of “Blind Shaykh” ‘Umar ‘Abd al-Rahman and other US-held extremists.
Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.
The President continued his vacation at his Crawford, Texas ranch.
At that time, FBI field agents were monitoring some of that “suspicious activity,” but their superiors repeatedly ignored their warnings:
ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 20 - The F.B.I. agent who arrested and interrogated Zacarias Moussaoui just weeks before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks told a jury on Monday how he had tried repeatedly to get his superiors in Washington to help confirm his certainty that Mr. Moussaoui was involved in an imminent terrorist airline hijacking plot.
But, said the agent, Harry Samit, he was regularly thwarted by senior bureau officials whose obstructionism he later described to Justice Department investigators as “criminally negligent” and who were, he believed, motivated principally by a need to protect their careers.
Mr. Samit’s testimony added a wealth of detail to the notion that officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation played down, ignored and purposely mischaracterized the increasingly dire warnings from field agents in the Minneapolis office that they had a terrorist on their hands in Mr. Moussaoui.
* * *
Mr. Samit confirmed that he had told Justice Department investigators that the senior agents in Washington “took a calculated risk not to advance the investigation” by refusing to seek search warrants for Mr. Moussaoui’s belongings and computer. He testified that he had come to believe that “the wager was a national tragedy.”
Agent Samit’s testimony corroborated the detailed account provided by FBI Special Agent and Minneapolis Chief Division Counsel, Coleen Rowley, in her May 21, 2002 memo to former FBI Director Robert Mueller.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, two of the 9/11 hijackers cleared security and boarded commercial aircraft holding tickets purchased under their real names despite both being suspected terrorists:
Al-Midhar bought his plane ticket for Flight 77 with his real name. At the time, he was wanted by the FBI and CIA for attending a terrorist meeting in Malaysia. He was also on a State Department watch list called TIPOFF. Al-Hazmi also bought a ticket for Flight 77 using his real name. And he shared an address as 9/11 hijacker Nawaq Alhazmi. Al-Midhar, for his part, was living with Mohammed Atta, the ringleader of the plot.
In other words, federal law enforcement officials had at their disposal every tool necessary to thwart the attacks. They failed. The idea that we must surrender more of our civil liberties to prevent future attacks is ludicrous. In what possible way does sweeping and illegal surveillance of millions of innocent Americans’ telephone and Internet communications provide any better intelligence than the specific information federal agents had immediately prior to 9/11? The whole argument is ridiculous.
The problem, of course, is that the cowering masses believe that they would never be a target of government surveillance because they have nothing to hide. Because the topic is unlikely to come up during small talk with Brandon Mayfield in the supermarket checkout line, you’ll need to make the point yourself. I suggest the following approach:
Over the next week, take a moment to telephone each of your “conservative” friends. I don’t mean real conservatives, those few remaining small government libertarian types. Real conservatives already get it, and they’re every bit as outraged as you. I refer instead to the prevailing “anything the President wants to do to protect me from the terrorists is fine by me” brand.
Before calling, drum up some elaborate and salacious story with which to begin the conversation. Make sure it’s not an actual elaborate and salacious story from your college days. You don’t want to embarrass anyone just to make a point. (For that reason, you should take extra care to fabricate a truly fantastic story if your friend happens to be a Republican Congressman or CIA executive.) I suggest something like “Hey, Joe. It’s Tom. My wife and I were just watching HBO and it reminded me of that time we all went down to Tijuana and got so drunk that those hookers stole our wallets and made off with all of our drugs while we were passed out. Remember that? That was hilarious.” Something like that.
Call each friend on your list and hit him with the tale as soon as he answers the phone. When your friend begins to stammer, tap the receiver with a pencil a few times, then ask whether he heard that clicking sound. (It works just as well if you leave the message on the machine). Abruptly hang up and move on to the next acquaintance on your list.
If even a small percentage of Americans engage in this simple educational exercise, public sentiment on this issue will change quickly and dramatically.
So get cracking.
UPDATE: Kung Fu Monkey has a good post up on the same subject.
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