Bush legacy: Setting a standard in fear-mongering
By
Richard A. Clarke Read Spanish Version
This
appeared in the February 1 edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
When
I left the Bush administration in 2003, it was clear to me that its
strategy for defeating terrorism was leaving our nation more
vulnerable and our people in a perilous place. Not only did its
policies misappropriate resources, weaken the moral standing of
America, and threaten long-standing legal and constitutional
provisions, but the president also employed misleading and reckless
rhetoric to perpetuate his agenda.
This
week’s State of the Union proved nothing has changed.
Besides
overstating successes in Afghanistan, painting a rosy future for
Iraq, and touting unfinished domestic objectives, he again used his
favorite tactic — fear — as a tool to scare Congress and the
American people. On one issue in particular — FISA (Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act) — the president misconstrued the
truth and manipulated the facts.
Let
me be clear: Our ability to track and monitor terrorists overseas
would not cease should the Protect America Act expire. If this were
true, the president would not threaten to terminate any temporary
extension with his veto pen. All surveillance currently occurring
would continue even after legislative provisions lapsed because
authorizations issued under the act are in effect up to a full year.
Simply
put, it was wrong for the president to suggest that warrants issued
in compliance with FISA would suddenly evaporate with congressional
inaction. Instead — even though Congress extended the Protect
America Act by two weeks — he is using the existence of the sunset
provision to cast his political opponents in a negative light.
For
this president, fear is an easier political tactic than compromise.
With FISA, he is attempting to rattle Congress into hastily expanding
his own executive powers at the expense of civil liberties and
constitutional protections.
I
spent most of my career in government fighting to protect this
country in order to defend these very rights. And I know every member
of Congress — whether Democrat or Republican — holds public office
in the same pursuit.
That
is why in 2001, I presented this president with a comprehensive
analysis regarding the threat from al-Qaeda. It was obvious to me
then — and remains a fateful reality now — that this enemy sought
to attack our country. Then, the president ignored the warnings and
played down the threats. Ironically, it is the fear from these
extremely real threats that the president today uses as a wedge in a
vast and partisan political game. This is — and has been — a very
reckless way to pursue the very ominous dangers our country faces.
And once again, during the current debate over FISA, he continues to
place political objectives above the practical steps needed to defeat
this threat.
In
these still treacherous times, we can’t afford to have a president
who leads by manipulating emotions with fear, flaunting the law, or
abusing the very inalienable rights endowed to us by the
Constitution. Though 9/11 changed the prism through which we view
surveillance and intelligence, it did not in any way change the
effectiveness of FISA to allow us to track and monitor our enemies.
FISA has and still works as the most valuable mechanism for
monitoring our enemies.
In
order to defeat the violent Islamist extremists who do not believe in
human rights, we need not give up the civil liberties, constitutional
rights and protections that generations of Americans fought to
achieve. We do not need to create Big Brother. With the
administration’s attempts to erode FISA’s legal standing as the
exclusive means by which our government can conduct electronic
surveillance of U.S. persons on U.S. soil, this is unfortunately the
path the president is taking us down.
So
it is no surprise that in one of Bush’s last acts of relevance, he
once again played the fear card. While he has failed in spreading
democracy, stemming global terrorism, and leaving the country better
off than when he took power, he did achieve one thing: successfully
perpetuating fear for political gain.
Sadly,
it may be one of the only achievements of his presidency.
Richard
A. Clarke is former head of counterterrorism at the National Security
Council. He is the author of "Against
All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror."
E-mail him at info@nsnetwork.org.
