So Why Were The Bush Wiretapping Efforts Allowed to Continue?

In the days following the tragedy of September 11, 2001, the people were desperate for some reassurance of action from the U.S. government.

The nation had been violated when the planes struck the World Trade Center Towers in the heart of New York City.

Followed by the plane crashing in a Pennsylvania field and the damage done to the Pentagon many feared that the next attack could be from anywhere, occur anywhere, and happen at any time.

Their private neck of the woods could be next! Bush knew he had to act fast and decisively. Declaring the war on terrorism and deploying troops was one step; revenge could be ours and the guilty would pay.

However, what about the possibility of future assaults? Somehow the government had failed to sniff this one out in time to stop it. What is to say that the government would catch the next one?

If current efforts at ferreting out terrorists were failing then what could the government do differently in order to succeed? More tools in the fight against terrorism were needed in order to stop the next attack before it was carried out.

Those tools included the Bush wiretapping efforts along with other civil liberty violations in the Patriot Act. The Bush wiretapping received much of the public’s immediate attention. Previously, warrants were needed for each device to be used.

As the Patriot Act was signed into law the success of the Bush’s wiretapping came to fruition as the roving wiretap came into being.

All law enforcement officials had to do was receive one blanket authorization in order to wiretap any electronic device the person of interest may use.

Bush and the NSA

A program of warrantless wiretapping by President Bush became public knowledge from a December 2005 article in the New York Times. The wiretapping efforts drew up all kinds of controversy in the press.

Possibly started as early as June 2000 but also rumored to have begun in 2002, the National Security Agency was carrying out the work of the Bush wiretapping efforts.

If it had begun after the passing of the Patriot Act it would have had some legal backing, but having begun as early as 2000 makes the Constitutional implications staggering.

Bush Abuses his Power

As it turns out the wiretaps were being carried out under the authority of President Bush and an executive order. Bush had ordered the warrantless surveillance as part of a terrorist surveillance program.

Regardless of his intentions, his power does not come close to giving him the authority to carry out these actions. Sadly, the Bush wiretapping efforts were one of many violations carried out by the President under the guise of the war on terrorism.