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# Letter: Defending Bush's wiretapping program against critics of NSA surveillance
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/030106-story-20060301/
- Published: 2006-03-01T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T17:18:58.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Billy Woody Santa Monica*

Joseph Hanania’s letter to the editor (SMDP, Feb. 27, page 4) again speaks volumes as to the amount of hate these folks have toward Bush and the amount of hypocrisy they are willing to spew. There are 300-plus million people in this country, and if your crowd at your vigil really thinks the feds are worried about what they type in a Google search engine, well I have some more swamp land to sell these folks. As for the one lady who “thought” her phone was tapped, she probably has a drawer of aluminum helmets to keep the government from reading her thoughts too.

Please, I implore you, read some of your American history. What is being done by this president, during a time of war, is right in line with what every other president and administration has done.

And as for this quote from the Constitution, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated...” The “...” you have in your version of the quote leaves out something interesting: “upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation.” In fact, in 1928, the Olmstead case concluded that wiretapping was not within the confines of the Fourth Amendment. The Federal Communications Act, passed six years later, upheld this but restricted the public distribution of information obtained within the wiretap. Later, in the Katz vs. United States case, the courts upheld the idea that the government could not directly wiretap citizens without a warrant. It did not include the wiretapping of phone calls originating from outside of the United States.

Imagine if you will, people like Joseph being around during the American Civil War or the American Revolution. Would Lincoln be as loved today if there were vigils held trying to tell people he was a criminal for doing what he had done? I think Joseph and his underlings are missing the bigger picture. If we do not protect this country and protect our freedoms, we will have no country left for him to hold his vigils. Next time he has one, it may be under the rule of some Muslim faction and he may very well find himself being put to death for his views instead of just having his search engine’s searches logged.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 1, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/030106.pdf?ref=smdp.com)