I Spy

Some of these men had become abstrusely entangled
with the spying departments of other nations and would give an amusing
jump if you came from behind and tapped them on the shoulder.

- Vladimir Nabokov, The Assistant Producer

The
surprising thing was that it was a surprise. It just goes to show that
it's hard to predict who will be embarrassed by what disclosures when
governments operate outside the law.

Nouri al-Maliki, prime minister of Iraq, was distressed to learn from reading Bob Woodward's recent book, The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008,
that George Bush spied on Iraqi citizens just as he had spied on U.S.
citizens. That should not have come as much of a surprise since if
George & Co. had few compunctions about spying
on its own citizens there was little reason to think it would not have
had even fewer compunctions about spying on Iraqi citizens, more
especially since they lack the veneer of protection of that
Bush-discredited document, the United States Constitution. The
discreditation of the United States Constitution in favor of spying and
other extra-judicial conduct began early in the Bush administration.

On December 16, 2005, we learned from the New York Times
that George Bush had signed a secret order in 2002 that authorized the
National Security Agency to listen in on phone conversations held by
citizens and non-citizens alike even though some with old-fashioned
ideas of life in the United States believed such conduct was legally proscribed.
According to that report the NSA "has monitored the international
telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the
past three years in an effort to track possible dirty numbers' linked
to Al Qaeda."

As with much of what George Bush has done during his 8-year
tenure, the spying was not without its critics. Kate Martin, director
of the Center for National Security Studies, said:
"This is as shocking a revelation as we have ever seen from the Bush
administration. It is, I believe, the first time a president has
authorized government agencies to violate a specific criminal
prohibition and eavesdrop on Americans."

On June 25, 2008 it
was reported that the House Appropriations Committee had approved an
amendment denying money for the "National Applications Office."
According to the report that office is a Bush administration program
expanding the use of Pentagon spy satellites for domestic uses. Jane
Harmon, a California Democrat, chairs the House Homeland Security
Subcommittee on intelligence. Explaining the Committee's action she
told Newsweek: "We have to make sure this is not a back door for spying
on Americans." She and her colleagues worried that this program might
be used to impinge on civil liberties since, as with all things in the
Bush administration, things that look and quack like ducks often are
described by the administration as being swans. In light of the
foregoing it is hard to say why the Iraqis are so upset by Mr.
Woodward's book.

According to the Woodward book, the United
States spied on Prime Minister al-Maliki, his staff and other
government officials. Not surprisingly, Prime Minister Maliki was very
upset at the disclosure. An Iraqi government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh
said if the Woodward allegations were true, it would be evidence of a
lack of trust. (That is the sort of thing that a typical American
citizen said when learning that he or she was susceptible to unlawful
spying by George Bush or that concerned Jane Harmon when learning of
the newest proposal.) Mr. al-Dabbagh went on to state that "It reflects
also that the institutions in the United States are used to spy on
their friends and their enemies in the same way."

Not all of
the Iraqi spokespersons were as concerned as al-Dabbagh. Employing the
common technique of telling the press something the speaker is not
authorized to tell the press by not letting the press disclose the
identity of the speaker, an anonymous "top aide to al-Maliki said: "If
this is true, then we feel sorry about that. We look upon the Americans
as our partners. There's nothing of real value that would require the
Americans to spy on us. On top of that, we have nothing to hide from
the Americans to make them have to spy on us." A less circumspect
prominent Kurdish lawmaker, Mahmoud Othman said: "If it is true, it is
very dangerous and we will condemn it because how can a friend spy on
you? This is unacceptable for us."

I have news for Mr.
Othman. It is unacceptable for American citizens too. George Bush will
never be asked to explain how a friend can spy on you. He will never be
asked to explain how a United States president can spy on his own
citizens. The fact that he did it will simply become part of his legacy.