Shredding The Constitution For Naught

by Steve Soto

So the vastly increased amount of domestic surveillance upon Americans by the Bush Administration isn’t resulting in more and more terrorism-related prosecutions after all? If they aren’t using the fruits of these illegal activities to actually round up terrorist cells and prosecute the bad guys here at home, then there are several questions:

1. What exactly is the Bush Administration shredding the Constitution for, if it isn’t to assist law enforcement to bring alleged domestic terrorist threats to justice and protect the homeland?

2. Was the original threat of domestic cells overstated from Day One?

3. How can anyone measure the War on Terror if prosecutions don’t matter?

The number of FISA warrants and National Security Letters has spiked upwards, but the DOJ says that measuring outcomes in terms of prosecutions isn’t necessarily warranted, as there are other uses of this information in the diplomatic and military worlds, presumably overseas. But if such information is generated from domestic surveillance and yet doesn’t result in domestic law enforcement or prosecution activities, then how relevant is this information to fighting terrorism at all?