Wiretaps scary for blacks

By BRIAN GILMORE
KNIGHT RIDDER/TRIBUNE
The National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program should greatly concern blacks. It's a painful reminder of the government's history of secret surveillance in the black community.
Since the NSA's program was revealed, the black leadership has been slow to denounce it.
The New York Times first reported the program in December 2005. Its account said President Bush authorized the NSA to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States in an effort to search for evidence of terrorist activity. The president insisted that these were calls coming from or going to terrorists abroad.
USA Today has now reported that the NSA, with the cooperation of several phone companies, has been gathering data on millions of Americans without their knowledge.
The Bush administration asserts that the warrantless wiretap program is legally justified because Congress voted to give him authorization to use military force in the war on terror. But this argument is specious.
First of all, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act forbids it. And second, preserving freedom and security does not mean infringing on the civil liberties of Americans.
Such a program should be of concern especially to blacks because of the government's abuse of a similar system of surveillance during the civil rights movement.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the government placed many blacks -- as well as many American Indians and Vietnam War activists -- under secret surveillance through a controversial domestic program known as COINTELPRO.
In October 1963, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy authorized the wiretapping of the Rev. Martin Luther King during the height of the civil rights movement. King was not a violent threat to America. He was seeking equality for black Americans through nonviolent protest.
Targets
Likewise, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee -- two well-respected nonviolent protest organizations from the civil rights era -- became targets of COINTELPRO.
With the exception of Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, few black political leaders have spoken out on the issue.
"Winning the war on terror should not be at the expense of losing the war on protecting our civil liberties and constitutional rights," Waters said at a congressional hearing soon after the eavesdropping program was revealed.
This issue gets at the heart of two American ideals: privacy and freedom.
Blacks, as well as all other Americans, must be dedicated to preserving these ideals.
Brian Gilmore is a writer for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues; it is affiliated with The Progressive magazine. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune.