In 1954 the AEC held hearings to determine whether J. Robert Oppenheimer’s security clearance should be revoked. Unknown to him or his attorney, the FBI—authorized by J. Edgar Hoover—was illegally wiretapping his nightly conversations with his lawyer and providing the transcripts to the prosecutor every day.
In 2008, Congress is fighting the White House over legislation protecting
warrantless domestic spying. An amendment to the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA), the so-called Protect America Act (PAA) was signed
into law in August of 2007. The PAA eliminated, among other things, FISA's
requirement that government agents procure a warrant before tapping into the
phone and internet communications of people "reasonably believed" to be
outside the
Because of concerns about its long-term implications, the PAA contained a
sunset clause ensuring its expiration on February 17 of this year unless
Congress approved it a second time. It sailed through the Senate two weeks
ago, but faltered in the House. Frustrated by this failure and insistent
that the new version must contain legal immunity for phone companies that
help the government spy, the Bush Administration is now scheming to
bifurcate the measure in an effort to bring it back before the House for
another vote in the coming days.
If the House caves this time, the PAA will become permanent. The government
will have access to Americans' international phone calls and e-mails with no
oversight and no accountability.
The Oppenheimer case teaches us the kind of damage that warrantless
wiretapping can create for unsuspecting Americans. If a spying bill is to pass, it
should only be with the constitutional guarantee that the government must
obtain a warrant in order to spy on an American. Without such protections, the ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer will merely presage the ruin of many other innocent Americans.
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