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American Conservative publishes my piece on book on NSA spying

1:14 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy

The March 13 issue of American Conservative contains my review of James Risen’s A State of War.   Here is the start & finish of the piece -

James Risen’s A State of War has opened a Pandora’s Box for the Bush administration that no amount of howling, scowling, or bogus terrorist-attack warnings will be able to close. Risen’s revelations on pervasive National Security Agency warrantless spying on Americans shred the final pretenses to legality of the Bush administration. Now the debate is simply whether, as Bush and his supporters claim, the president is effectively above the law and the Constitution during the time of (perpetual) war.

****Risen’s revelations are propelling congressional and media investigations into the NSA warrantless wiretapping. It is very likely that the actual abuses will be far more widespread and shocking than what has been disclosed so far. Perhaps the best epithet for Bush’s civil liberties record is the saying of Lily Tomlin: “No matter how cynical you become, it’s never enough to keep up.”