RichardHarlos.com

Anyone remember the board game Monopoly? Among the items of play are a couple stacks of cards that the players draw from at appropriate moments in the game. One of those card simply says, “Get out of jail free” and for those who need it (i.e., who are currently in jail), the card can be a real life-saver.

For those who get one of these cards but are not currently in jail, they can just hold on to it and use it whenever they find themselves about to go to jail. They return the card to the pile after use, the card nullifies the sentence and the game continues uninterrupted.

In a similar fashion, the U.S. government’s figured out that they, too, have a “get out of jail free” card. Except unlike Monopoly, the U.S. government doesn’t have to return their card to the pile. Instead, they just keep it and use it over, and over, and over, and….

The U.S. government’s “get out of jail free” card is this universal proclamation of protecting national security. By saying that some action was performed in the interest of protecting national security, they seem immune from any sort of inquiry into whether what they did was legal. On the rare occasions that an investigation is begun, they deny cooperation with investigators, again, in the interest of protecting national security.

Here are a couple recent example of what I’m talking about:

Using authority to override/disregard existing law:

Bush signed an executive order allowing the NSA to engage in eavesdropping without a warrant. The president and his representatives have since argued that an executive order was sufficient for the agency to proceed. Some civil liberties groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, disagree.

     -from NSA Has Massive Database of Americans’ Phone Calls, CommonDreams.org, 11 May 2006.

…and…

Failure to cooperate:

The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers the necessary security clearance to probe the matter.

     -from NSA Stymies Justice Dept. Spying Probe, CommonDreams.org, 11 May 2006.

A government with the power to do what they want while answering to no one, and whose actions are beyond scrutiny sounds… well… like a nightmare come true!