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by krapp 3662 days ago
"government" in general didn't decide US law enforcement and intelligence agencies needed to make terrorism a top priority, and it didn't decide the US needed "extrajudicial" options for dealing with terrorism, such as torture, kidnapping and indefinite detainment in a death camp in Cuba, and didn't decide to wage a war against "terrorism."

All of these things are the direct result of the Bush Administration taking advantage of post-9/11 fears to push the PATRIOT Act, and the "new normal" that terrorism posed such a grave and existential threat that nothing, not even the Constitution or the rule of law, should be allowed to get in the way of fighting it.
2 comments
Turing_Machine 3662 days ago
That would be the Patriot Act that was voted for by (among others) Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, John Kerry, and Ted Kennedy, and whose reauthorization in 2006 was voted for by Barack Obama?

Yep. The "Bush Administration".

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giancarlostoro 3662 days ago
You're missing some of the things that have been done before the Bush Administration. Operation Northwoods is alarming as it is, and that's back in the early 60's.
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krapp 3662 days ago
Sure, but the FBI demanding warrantless access to browser history in order to fight terrorism, and expecting to get it, is a direct result of Bush administration policy.
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Turing_Machine 3662 days ago
The FBI is an executive branch agency, under direct control of the President, who, for nearly the last 8 years, has been Barack Obama.
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atom-morgan 3661 days ago
Who started it is irrelevant if all following presidents continue to with it.
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