DNA Not Required

President Bush broke the law. He broke a very important law that prohibits domestic spying by Federal agents. He broke the law almost certainly with full knowledge that he was doing it; White House Counsel certainly gave an opinion that what was proposed was illegal and improper. That is scary!

Agents are permitted to spy on citizens within the country if they can convince appropriate courts that national security violations are taking place. The president signed an order directing a federal agency to carry out surveillance on activities outside the scope of the law. That is very scary!

What is most frightening to me is not what I have just written but rather that high federal officials would agree to carry out such illegal activities if the president would agree to sign off and take responsibility.

I served in the military, honorably if not spectacularly, and spent most of my adult life working for the federal government, including two times in different elements of the Executive Office of the President, The Council on Wage and Price Stability and The Office of Management and Budget.

The army drilled into us that we were never required to obey an illegal order. Indeed we were told that if we obeyed such an order, we would be guilty of whatever crime we might commit in doing what we were told. While as a civil servant I do not remember being explicitly trained that the military concept of following illegal orders was correct, I felt throughout my career that that was the case and was never disabused of the notion.

Having known of many cases where federal employees did violate this concept under pressure from superiors, I am not shocked that the National Security Agency has itself in a pickle over this. What is most amazing is that Bush signed the directive. That’s stupid!

Presidents wanting to have illegal actions taken in the past did it with a wink and a nod. When they wanted the IRS or the FBI to do things they weren’t supposed to, they just hinted. Mr. Bush has apparently signed a document authorizing on his personal authority the NSA to spy – illegally. How dumb can you be?

This may all go away. No one really wants to impeach the president for wanting to defend the nation, but, my God, this is stupid and scary.

Blog on!

Wild Bill