spying is stupid unless it exposes some kind of wrong

The US' National Security Advisory has been eavesdropping on phone calls and emails from within the US for awhile now, we are just finding out. It's made the news close to every day for the past few months, because many people are angry that our government is infringing on our rights to privacy. President Bush says it's a "vital tool" in fighting terrorism. Cheney says it has saved thousands of lives- presumably those who were potential victims of terrorist attacks. Apparently, they credit terrorists with enough firepower and determination to pull off another series of attacks like those of that tragic day in September 2001. Which is frightening, and I am hopeful that Cheney is telling the truth and knows for certain that the N.S.A.'s program has prevented this. We have yet to hear news of this, though.

Meanwhile, it turns out that the N.S.A. is not only eavesdropping on those they seriously and honestly have sleuthed to be terrorists. The New York Times reported this morning that "Some F.B.I. officials and prosecutors also thought the checks, which sometimes involved interviews by agents, were pointless intrusions on Americans' privacy. " The F.B.I. has stated that most of the eavesdropping has led to either dead ends or to innocent Americans. Which means that the initial report defending the program was false. The N.S.A. stated that this program is justified in bypassing our country's 230 year-honored legal system in that it targets only those individuals located in America using email and phone calls to participate in terrorist activity. If that happened to be true, I for one would begin to understand how spying on Americans (invading their privacy) is a "vital tool". I am not playing into party antics by saying that I would be skeptical. I appreciate the US' resolve in fighting unjust terroristic activity and I believe we should do all we can to combat it. But I draw the line at this point. Which separates a logical, efficient program that identifies and zooms in on suspected terrorists from one that seems to be in effect right now. One that targets innocent Americans and invades personal privacy rights as a means and achieves no end. Perhaps this system of spying on Americans has saved thousands of lives, as Vice President Cheney claims. But until I see evidence that overshadows the F.B.I's report that innocent Americans are being spied on on a mucher larger scale than actual terrorism suspects, I will be hesitant to support Big Brother, if I may inappropriately call the N.S.A.'s eavesdropping as such.

So I am hoping for a reform. The C.I.A., probably not in a deliberate manner, either gave the White House poor information or ignored the right information about Iraq's nuclear programs. And now we're in a prolonged war that is deadly in its nature as a war and pointless in its essence as a particular conflict. Now the N.S.A. is doling out information that I see as pointless unless it truly is saving Americans. But as I envision it, Cheney's claims are not backed by solid information. If I'm wrong, prove me otherwise. This spy program is breaking constitutional law and not providing results that convince me or the rest of the nation that that's ok.