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• Tuesday, July 22, 2008 07:33 PM

  Continuity of Government is the perfect alibi for any spying program

  Because it's entirely theoretical.

  We've been hearing reports about massive databases and massive internet wiretapping since 2001. Why has there been so little reputably sourced information leaking out, given how many people must be involved?

  I believe whistleblowers haven't come forward for four reasons.

  1. The intelligence establishment is full of right wing authoritarians who believe security trumps everything, especially privacy.

  2. Just as in the Justice and Defense Departments, Cheney made sure the important jobs were stocked with Republican cultists who "took oaths to the President," not the Constitution.

  3. Continuity of government is "necessary to the survival of the nation itself" so secrecy seems justifiable to otherwise sensible and prudent government employees.

  4. Continuity of government plans "will only be used in event of emergency," which sooths the consciences of potential whistleblowers, since they're just collecting information to be used in "purely hypothetical" situations. Of course, when someone decides to use the database, it's no longer hypothetical, but it's also already too late.

  This last one is most important because it's unique to the present situation. Something similar to reasons 1-3 all applied to previous spying programs, like J. Edgar Hoover's FBI files. But post-Watergate and post-Church commission, I think the intelligence sector is a little too sophisticated for such crude rationalizations.

  The "hypothetical" nature of Main Core was critical to getting everyone to go along with an unprecedented spying program.

  —teho Read teho's other letters
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