Action urged as civil liberties board convenes

The White House’s new civil liberties board is just getting to work more than a year after it was ordered by Congress, dogged by criticism that it must act more quickly and forcefully to protect Americans’ rights in the war against terrorism.

Why so long? Oh, right. Because the government doesn’t want to leave the people’s rights alone.

The nascent Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, whose members were picked by President George W. Bush a year ago, has held four formal meetings since being sworn in on March 14 and has met top officials and prominent privacy and civil liberties advocates over the past two months.

“Right now, there’s a lot of consultation, coordination, outreach, and taking stock of issues and trying to figure out how to be as useful as possible,” said the board’s vice chairman, Alan Raul, a lawyer specializing in privacy issues.

Washington wants the PCLOB to examine the government’s actions and say, “Yeah, it’s good. Don’t worry, American people, warrantless wiretapping, surveillance, and arrests are perfectly legal and constitutional, just as President Bush has been saying since 9/11. And the fact that we’re an indepedent government-created government-investigation board that’s approving Bush’s bold and constitutional actions proves that his actions are legal and constitutional!”

The White House Web site says the five-member board's office space is under construction and it is hiring staff.

“Well, uh, we decided to have a say before we were created.”

Some critics and rights advocates say progress has been unsatisfactory considering the need for oversight of post-September 11 government policies, such as eavesdropping on U.S. citizens' international telephone calls and e-mails.

They—or the Western media, at least—call it “unsatisfactory.” I call it inexcusable, totalitarian, and unconstitutional—but then again, “unsatisfactory” means that in Western media doublespeak.

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