Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

As I look at the issue of the possible relationship between a new Total Information Awareness program in the National Security Agency and the sudden urgency with which the Protect America Act was passed, the thing that piques my interest is the timeline of events.

I searched Google News for information related to FISA. Before July 25, I find nothing much. There’s nothing from the Bush Administration about an urgent need to “reform” FISA in order to expand the authority of Alberto Gonzales to spy against Americans. Zilch. When FISA is mentioned, it’s in articles that slam Bush and Cheney, or call for the impeachment of Alberto Gonzales.

On July 22 and 23, the only articles you’ll read about FISA have to do with the FISA World Rowing Championship for people under the age of 23 in Scotland. There’s no push at all from the White House to reform FISA. No urgency. No special terrorist threat. No need for new legislation.

Then, all of a sudden, on July 25, that changes. On July 25, United Press International publishes an article saying that Congressman John Boehner, out of the blue, is supporting a bill introduced on July 24 by Republican Heather Wilson that was like the first draft of the Protect America Act. It’s H.R.3138, given the cumbersome title: To amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to update the definition of electronic surveillance.

Electronic surveillance, huh? What else happened on July 24 to do with electronic surveillance? Oh, yes - U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker issued a ruling saying that the government’s effort to stop a lawsuit by the state governments of Connecticut, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey and Vermont, demanding had no merit… except for possibly the claim that state secrets were at stake, and that claim would be judged in the August 15 hearing. Those 5 states were seeking information about how the privacy of their citizens had been violated by telephone companies like AT&T, in collaboration with the NSA.

Judge Vaughn Walker refuses to kowtow to the Bush White House, the case is going forward, and Judge Walker announces that he will make a decision about whether what the Bush team calls “state secrets” can be revealed on August 15.

Boom! All of a sudden, it’s a full court press by the Bush White House saying that Alberto Gonzales must be given new spy powers… exactly the kind of spy powers it is alleged in the states’ lawsuit that he is already using. Furthermore, George W. Bush insists, mysteriously, that Alberto Gonzales must be given the new spy powers, which include the power to keep all information related to the spying sealed and secret, before Congress goes into its August recess. September will be too late, Bush says.

George W. Bush, who never met an August vacation during the War On Terror that he didn’t like, all of a sudden insists that if Congress doesn’t give Alberto Gonzales exactly the spy powers that Bush says Gonzales needs, he will call a special session of Congress to force them to pass the Protect America Act, not in September, but in early August.

I don’t see a smoking gun. There is no memo I have seen that says “We need to get the Protect America Act passed, because Judge Walker’s decision will force us at that hearing on August 15th to reveal our giant computer database spying program gathering the personal details of Americans’ habits on the Internet.” However, I see a gun, and not too far away from it, I see a wisp of smoke rising into the air. Maybe someone was smoking, or burning incense, but it looks mighty funny to me.