Attorney General Alberto Gonzales faced strong questioning today by Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and other members, in the attempt to determine whether President George W. Bush's program to spy on Americans via the National Security Agency is legal - or not.

Gonzales Faces Tough Questions on Spying

If you care about individual liberties, watch it live on C-SPAN and make up your own mind as to whether the program is legal or warranted.

It is pretty clear to me that the president has already admitted breaking the law. He just doesn't admit that what he did and is still doing is against the law. He is asserting, through the Justice Department, that he is above the law, while saying he is NOT above the law.

This is classic double-speak right out of George Orwell's book 1984. This is Big Brother, and it is a mystery why anyone calling themselves a conservative could support the administration on this issue. I thought conservatives and libertarians wanted the government out of our bedrooms, not listening in on our telephone conversations, land lines and cell phones, and reading our mail and e-mail.

The misleading defense of this specific NSA program is that only calls to and from abroad are included. But that ignores the larger issue of other agencies of the federal government, including the Pentagon, spying on peace groups, environmental groups, journalists and yes even bloggers.

If the Senate Judiciary Committee wants to get to the bottom of how this administration has broken the law rising to the level of impeachment of the president and the vice president, the inquiry should be exanded to include the other domestic spying programs. The probe should not just be limited to an inquiry of the NSA's sweeping program of searching for key words in phone calls and e-mails.

As has already been reported widely, most of the NSA's requests for a followup investigation by the FBI have been dropped because the target was clearly not associated with any real terrorists or al Qaeda.

But what I have been saying over and over again since before this Web site was started is that the Bush administration is intent on characterizing as a "terrorist" any activist who disagrees with Bush's policies.

Carefully read this post from Sept. 26, 2004, along with the links.

No One Likes a Critic; Democracy Demands Criticism

We suspect, although it is not yet coming out in the press, the media, or in the questioning of the Senate Judiciary Committee, that when administration officials say they are only looking at "al Qaeda" and "terrorists" and "their associates," what they mean is any opponent of the administration, especially peace advocates, animal rights activists and groups and individuals who oppose the administration's radical views that pose a grave risk to the national and global environment.