Burden Of Proof

"The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come. When in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin. When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is not endangered, and his States and all their clans are preserved." ~ Confucius

A couple of days ago, on another post, I stated my belief that no law has been broken in collecting records of phone calls by the NSA in wake of the attacks of 9/11. Liam, who is a very intelligent, insightful, thoughtful, and respectful commenter on this blog, posed this question:

Mark, can you post a link to the conclusive evidence that no law has been broken please?

It is a reasonable request, but to tell the truth, I haven't had lot of time to do a lot of research, since the recent changes in the operations where I work. So, I was going to just blow the request off. I still don't have time to do that, but I have given the matter some thought, and it occurs to me that it isn't my responsibilty to supply evidence.

Liam lives in England, so possibly the British Justice system is a bit different from ours, but over here in America, jurisprudence dictates that the burden of proof is on the prosecution. Since the Bush haters are trying to say that his actions are illegal, they are his accusers. The gathering of evidence is their responsibility, not mine. I have defended the Presidents position on this matter. That makes me part of the defense team, as it were.

In other words, I do not have to look for proof that Bush is innocent. Those who accuse him of breaking the law have the burden of establishing whether or not he is culpable.

So go for it. Prove with conclusive evidence that he broke any law in allowing the NSA to collect phone records to ascertain where potential terrorists may be lurking right here in America.

And while your at it, try to find one American who has been arrested, detained, or otherwise inconvenienced by this so-called intrusion into their personal lives.

Just one.

And as long as we're on the subject, I might add that Verizon and Bellsouth are both saying now, that they never handed any phone records over to the NSA. But USA Today says they did! Maybe you should do the necessary research to discover who is telling the truth here. And if someone isn't telling the truth, why?

Then just ask yourself if you feel any safer knowing that terrorists now know about another of our tactics to thwart their attacks by searching through their phone records.

I know I don't.

While you're at it, try to find out what else the media will eventually do to undermine the NSA's efforts to keep America safe. And what other charges the Democrats will use to attack Bush and his attempts to keep terrorists out of our backyard and keep their hands tied. And why the Democrats are so determined to play fast and loose with National Security in the interest of making sure President Bush doesn't know about their late night phone calls to phone sex companies.

And see if you can find out why this story, that was originally reported in the New York Times back in December, has resurfaced now, scant hours after the announcement of Gen. Michael Hayden as head of the CIA. Seems a bit of a coincidence to me.

So roll up your sleeves, Bush haters. You've got a lot of work to do.

The burden of proof is upon you.