New NSA Documents Shine More Light into Black Box of Executive Order 12333
Extralegal power has always been a mainstay of the federal government. For 20th century examples, the FBI was notorious for monitoring and blackmailing Civil Rights leaders (associating the movement with communism), especially MLK. Japanese internment during World War II was authorized by FDR's executive order 9066.<p>There is literally no <i>legal</i> basis for most of the NSA's activity. But there is plenty of extra-legal handwaving that justifies the NSA's behavior...executive orders, "secret court" FISA rulings, all culminating in the use of this intelligence to assassinate and indefinitely detain/torture those (citizens and noncitizens alike) who are a "continued and imminent threat" to the United States.<p>"Slippery slope" arguments used to seem weak and contrived. But I honestly can't help but feel we've reached pretty close to the bottom of that slope. In the sense that I feel like our government just kind of makes stuff up as it goes along and only occasionally responds well to the strongest forms of shame.