Letters to the Editor
William Timberman
Published Letters: 3298 Editor's Choice: 7
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On the banality of our present evil
[Read the article: Comey's testimony raises new and vital questions about the NSA scandal]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]First of all, a thank you to ondelette for his explanations of how data mining actually works; it's always a pleasure to have someone who knows what he's talking about contributing to the discussion.
His primer on what data mining can and can't do effectively has set me to further thinking about how it has been used, and is being used by the brutal utilitarians of our present administration. Even though the following speculation is based to some extent on what he's said here, it's just that -- speculation -- and it's mine alone. I apologize in advance if I've run off in the wrong direction with the information he's provided.
That said, it seems pretty clear to me from the external evidence that the data mining programs, known and unknown, which were put into place since 9/11, and perhaps before it, have been used by the Bush administration for illegitimate purposes, everything from helping Karl Rove identify key districts to target for voter fraud and compiling lists of corporate donors, to intimidating weaker members of congress, principally so-called RINOS, but also Democrats in conservative districts, and in Republican opposition research. I've not much doubt that it's also been used to harrass peace and environmental groups, and to identify, say, climatologists in Federal agencies who subscribe to the Nation, or contribute to the Sierra Club.
If only that were its only use. When looking more closely at the practices of torture, extraordinary rendition, and the roundup of Middle Eastern residents of the U.S. in the wake of 9/11, another, an even more disturbing possibility starts to emerge. It seems quite likely to me that the weakness of data mining when it comes to identifying particular targets from a mass of circumstantial data led to a decision at the highest level of the Bush Administration to ignore the problem of false positives, and simply round up all the people with suspect profiles thrown up by the data mining operation, letting prolonged incarceration and torture sort them out, and if necessary outsourcing their mistreatment to friendly countries in the Arab world or Eastern Europe in cases where holding them in the U.S. itself might have proven inconvenient or embarrassing.
This was quicker and cheaper, no doubt, than trying to find enough FBI agents to follow up on the positive hits and weed out the wheat from the chaff by more conventional -- and more reliable -- means of investigation. It was also callous and brutal in ways which brought dishonor to us as citizens of the U.S. without our even being aware of it.
This scenario is pure speculation, I admit, but how else might one explain why folks like an Iranian American illegally imporing Iranian saffron through a cutout in Spain, or a Canadian doctor of Lebanese descent on his way to visit his aged mother in the Shi'a district of Beirut could suddenly find themselves being waterboarded in a basement in Cairo or Dushanbe? How else could you explain all those folks of Middle Eastern descent in cages after 9/11, some of whom might still be there for all we know?
This reminds me -- in kind, if not in degree -- of Nazi practices in the concentration camps, practices which led to the routine shipment of gold teeth to smelters for reprocessing, or to medical experiments on hapless prisoners. The application of industrial -- or post-industrial -- processes to the treatment of putative enemies and subversives for no reason other than administrative convenience, and without regard to who or what was being processed, is an abomination no matter who indulges in it. The U.S. government under GWB may not have done such things as I'm speculating on here, but the mere suspicion that it has should drive us to pursue the subject until we are sure one way or another, and if anyone is indeed guilty, to see that justice is done, and that they pay for their abominations.
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@ Ondelette
[Read the article: What will be done about James Comey's revelations?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The answer to all of your questions is yes, in my opinion. What makes evil banal is that no one recognizes it as evil, nor is willing to take responsibility for it. Succumbing to propaganda isn't completely exculpatory, I would say, although I have to concede that frogs who are boiled slowly deserve some sympathy, and victims set upon by force of arms deserve total sympathy.
No one now living has the right, for example, to accuse the inhabitants of the Warsaw Ghetto of complicity in their own demise; moreover it's worth noting that at the end they fought heroically to exact a price from their tormentors, just as the passengers on flight 93 did.
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A bit disappointing
[Read the article: What will be done about James Comey's revelations?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Not the conversation, of course. What was disappointing is that it wasn't on in prime time on every station in the Clear Channel Network, and on all the major TV network and cable channels from coast to coast. Well, done, Glenn, and to your fellow panel members as well.