100% Surveillance of Congress
Apparently the NSA is under some heat for proposing to monitor the communications of a member of Congress thought to be meeting with terrorist suspects:
While the N.S.A.'s operations in recent months have come under examination, new details are also emerging about earlier domestic-surveillance activities, including the agency's attempt to wiretap a member of Congress, without court approval, on an overseas trip, current and former intelligence officials said. . . .
The agency believed that the congressman, whose identity could not be determined, was in contact "” as part of a Congressional delegation to the Middle East in 2005 or 2006 "” with an extremist who had possible terrorist ties and was already under surveillance, the official said. The agency then sought to eavesdrop on the congressman's conversations, the official said.
The official said the plan was ultimately blocked because of concerns from some intelligence officials about using the N.S.A., without court oversight, to spy on a member of Congress.
I have a counter idea. Why don't we monitor all the communications of all of Congress all the time and post it on a web site. If they want to exercise ultimate power over us, we can then exercise ultimate scrutiny over them. Unfortunately, in the world of the future, Congress is likely to be the only group exempted from monitoring.
