governments acquire powers during wartime; what about a neverending war?

[dajoki]

Slate
http://www.slate.com/id/2145155

press box: Media criticism.
Bush or Keller?
Who do you trust?

By Jack Shafer
Posted Thursday, July 6, 2006, at 10:56 PM ET

When governments acquire emergency powers during wartime, it's with the understanding that the crisis is finite and that when the war ends the government will relinquish those powers. But what happens when a government defines its war as neverending, as the Bush administration has its so-called "war on terror"? As long as any jihadist anywhere threatens the West, the administration would have us believe, we must trust it and remain in a wartime crouch.

The current conflict will soon conclude its fifth year, making it longer than the war against Japan. Most of the temporary powers in the PATRIOT Act that had been scheduled for "sunset" were extended, and the administration has conjured secret powers not directly spelled out by legislation. The New York Times revealed one such example of administration overreach last December when it reported the secret NSA surveillance program. Two weeks ago the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times reported—over administration objections—the secret sifting of SWIFT bank transaction data by the CIA and Treasury Department, which the White House justifies under 1977 economic sanctions legislation.

In reporting the SWIFT story, both papers rejected the White House assertion that disclosure was improper. The president and the vice president condemned both papers, and an exploding carbuncle masquerading as a member of Congress called upon the attorney general to investigate the New York Times under the Espionage Act, the Comint Act, and "other relevant federal criminal statutes."

Of course, overriding a presidential request doesn't make New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller and Los Angeles Times Editor Dean Baquet traitors. The whooping by the administration and its allies, however, does signal the breakdown of the traditional comity—I wouldn't call it "trust"—that has existed between the White House and the press. Since the end of WWII, the press has sought White House input whenever its reporters bumped up against issues of national security, and if the press has erred it's mostly erred in favor of the government position. For a good summary of recent instances in which the two Timeses and the Washington Post have held stories or deleted sensitive information at the administration's request, see Keller and Baquet's joint op-ed http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/01/opinion/01keller.html?ei=5090&en=d54ac45e4e52e739&ex=1309406400&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print from last week defending publication of their SWIFT stories.

[xxqqqzme]

1. while governments may

'...acquire emergency powers during wartime...'

What happens when that same government initiates an invasion by choice because the campaign contributors and various 'n sundry appointed place holders are anxious 2 see their personal wealth multiply 10 fold?

That's the discussion I want 2 see & hear. Let us start w/ an invasion of choice and occupation at will. First things first. Why is no one discussing that?

[grilled onions]

2. Fuzzy Math/Fuzzy War?

The farther away from 9/11 the fuzzier are the motives,goals and reasonings behind whatever this "this" is. Is it really a "war" for did they declare it as such? They called Korea a conflict,a police action. Viet Nam was a war but was it ever declared as one? If one had to write a term paper on what we are doing and why I would guess you would have many answers and who's to say who's really right or really wrong. If one cannot define,on paper, why you are at war,the exact goals in mind to determine success,failure and when the end is near it could go on for many years...It already has.

[shain from kane]

3. Absolute powers corrupt absolutely. n/t

[TalkingDog]

4. And therein lies the rub.

If people buy the continuing "unfolding" terrorist plots, well then, I guess they get the goverment they deserve.

Harsh, but what else is there to say?





My favorite Future Famous Dead Artist: KarenParker

[LiberalPartisan]

6. Not just the government they deserve

But the government they want. A HUGE portion of the populace wants a 'strong father' to take care of them. Republicans and republican voters are on the whole timid and small minded people desparatly seeking daddy's protection. and it will come to pass. Democarcy really is dead in the US and this is not a country to be the least be proud of - IMHO.

[mr_hat]

5. VGER.