HispanicVista Columnists
U.S. Government Politrixs Exposed By The “Dirty Numbers”
By Robert Miranda
In the world of politrixs nothing is sacred—not even our liberty.
The people of the United States have become privy to the fact that our federal government has been eavesdropping on them without court approval. This represents not only a “major shift in American intelligence-gathering practices” in the war against terror; it also establishes the realization that our government has become delusional as it enforces irrational and dangerous policies brought on by the aftermath of 9-11.
The president of the United States secretly authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to eavesdrop on Americans in the hopes of obtaining evidence of terrorist activity. The eavesdropping was done without court-approved warrants, which are ordinarily required for spying on Americans, according to an article posted on the Web site Truthout.
In 2002 President Bush signed an executive order giving US government intelligence agencies the power to monitor international telephone calls and international e-mail messages “of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years”.
The United States government conducted these operations in an effort to track down "dirty numbers" linked to terrorist groups.
In an article published by the Associated Press, Bush stated that, "This is a limited program designed to prevent attacks on the United States of America and, I repeat, limited. I think most Americans understand the need to find out what the enemy's thinking."
In fact, it is the people who should be asking: what is our government thinking? And which intelligence gathering agency in our government decides who is to be spied upon?
I guess it really does not matter which spy agency handles this mess because they’re all inept anyway.
And this is the pickle we Americans are in. Bush is relying on his intelligence agencies to make determinations as to which Americans the NSA will spy upon.
Indeed, these are the very same intelligence agencies that were unable to make an intelligent analysis or predictions regarding the collapse of the communist system in the Soviet Union. These are the same intelligence agencies that have failed to produce effective intelligence analyses regarding other important foreign affairs. Here are the top dirty dozen intelligence failures by the “dirty numbers”.
United States intelligence agencies:
1. Failed to uncover Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor—1941;
2. Failed to predict the North Korean invasion of South Korea—June, 1950; and later failed to act on evidence that China would directly intervene in the war by ignoring General Douglas McArthur’s warnings;
3. Did not provide accurate information to President John F. Kennedy regarding Castro’s troop readiness before the Bay of Pigs fiasco—April, 1961;
4. Failed to accurately estimate the number of Soviet troops in Cuba, and missed the fact that the Soviets were armed with tactical nuclear weapons during the Cuban Missile Crisis—October, 1962;
5. Failed to properly analyze North Vietnamese resolve to fight the war—1965;
6. Did not see Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the Iranian Revolution, both taking place in 1979;
7. Did not uncover the plot to bomb the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut—October, 1983;
8. Failed to predict accurately Saddam Hussein’s invasion plans of Kuwait in 1991;
9. Did not pick up on Al-Qaeda’s plot to bomb U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania—August, 1998;
10. Failed to uncover an Al-Qaeda plot to bomb the USS Cole—October, 2000;
11. Failed to understand the strong popular support President Hugo Chavez had in Venezuela after the failed coup attempt against him—2002; and
12. Failed to prove that Saddam Hussein had WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, which was the reason for invading that nation—2003.
And of course, let us not forget those presidential lies, such as Lyndon B. Johnson’s Gulf of Tonkin whopper of a lie, and the lie Richard M. Nixon told the nation about Watergate. Let’s not forget the big lies told to the nation during the Iran-Contra Reagan years.
Indeed, now we’re to believe that these same intelligence gathering agencies and the president, whom only weeks ago conceded to having bad information supplied to him before he invaded Iraq, are going to accurately detect which Americans are working with Al-Qaeda? Whoa Nelly!
In the same Associated Press article Bush is quoted as saying, "The fact that somebody leaked this program causes great harm to the United States. There's an enemy out there."
The people of the United States are being politrixed into submission by this unscrupulous Bush administration that is using fear to blind us of our loss of liberty.
As Benjamin Franklin said, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Robert Miranda, a frequent contributing columnist to HispanicVista.com (http://www.hispanicvista.com/) is a national award winning columnist, Latino community activist and Editor-in-Chief of the Milwaukee Spanish Journal. Email at: rmiranda@wi.rr.com