Department of It's About Frigging Time

[sleigh]

The New York Times is reporting that the Senate Judiciary Committee has issued subpoenas to White House, VP Cheney's office, and the Justice department to release documents regarding the Bush Administration's legal justifications for wiretapping orders, and also for their relationship with several telecom companies in who aided the NSA in their wiretapping endeavors.

It's about time, especially in light of the CIA's recent release of the "family jewels" files, which revealed many of the illegal activities of the CIA in past decades. The question becomes this: in a democratic and open society, how much illegal and hidden activities are we to tolerate from those who work on our behalf?

My personal answer: little to none.

Comments

[maiac.livejournal.com]

Some people would argue that we need the illegal activities to protect ourselves from our enemies. I would argue that if the government and its intelligence agencies didn't indulge in activities of that sort (like overthrowing governments and assassinating other country's leaders and kidnapping people we have a grievance against), we wouldn't have those enemies.

[stevengould.livejournal.com]

And, sadly, I would argue that those activities themselves turn segments of our own government into our enemies.