Chertoff: ‘Lieberman Is Dead Right’

Think Progress » Chertoff: ‘Lieberman Is Dead Right’ In Calling For Increased Wiretapping

First off, WTF is ‘dead right?’ This, from the man who referred to European terrorists as ‘clean skinned.’ Can we possibly get a less savvy administrator to head the Homeland Insecurity Complex?

In case you missed it, Joe Lieberman (DL, Sith), has used the flaming airport SUV incident to call more more, yes more, illegal wiretapping in the US.

Never mind that the two explosive cars in London were found without the help of any such insecurity services. Never mind that there is not a single documented case of this illegal and unwarranted wiretapping actually stopping a terrorist plot. It’s clear that the droid army is attacking, so we must order more clones, asap!

What I want to know is where are these alleged terrorist plots that Mr. Chertoff refers to as "being stopped." We see lame-assed homegrown terrorists paraded on the news every six months or so. Some nutcase thinks he’ll storm an army base. Someone else thinks that by torching a gas pipeline, the flames will travel miles up the line and explode all of JFK airport. Someone else thinks he can take out the Sears Tower with toy guns. None of these men have the means, unless our FBI informants foolishly decided to provide them. All of them were stopped with traditional criminal law enforcement methods.

There are only two possibilities. First, illegal wiretaps have done no good and are being used for something else, besides finding terrorists. Second, that illegal wiretaps are essential, but the government lies to us each time they work, pretending it was some (get this!) "informant" who actually made the case.

Why lie? Well, because if they used illegal wiretaps, the defense attorneys would have their cases thrown out of court. And rightly so, because that’s what protects all of us from being framed by overzealous prosecutors, if and when it happens. And that’s exactly why we shouldn’t be using these illegal wiretaps in the first place. Even if they’re not used, the defense can still raise the fear that the government obtained evidence illegally (perhaps the Government got amazingly lucky?) putting the whole case is in jeopardy.

What it comes down to is that Law Enforcement — and this is going to sound almost obvious — is tasked with Enforcing the Law. When Law Enforcement breaks the law, it ceases being Law Enforcement, and is instead, simply Enforcement, much like any criminal syndicate, now concerned with both its mission, and protecting itself from discovery. Turning our first class legal system into the equivalent of Political Mafia strong arms is far worse than anything al Qaeda could ever do to us. And the deceit that comes from this administration on this subject makes it clear that this is exactly what they want to do. If this was simply about protecting us, then the first thing DHS would do is secure the ports and borders, not put on a show of overwhelming "fear conditioning" every time someone lights a match.