This is how the American republic ends

On the deep threat of lawless intelligence agencies

The nation is no longer a genuine democracy.
(Image credit: Gillian Blease / Alamy Stock Photo)

Barack Obama's most significant move during his short Senate career was betraying a promise to filibuster any bill containing retroactive immunity for telecom companies that had cooperated with President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program.

This was a telling decision, as President Obama would go on to embrace most of the Bush security apparatus and even extend it in some areas. He did issue executive orders banning torture, and made some perfunctory efforts to close the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay. But he refused to prosecute any of the torturers (itself a treaty violation), and he dramatically expanded the use of due process-free drone assassination and dragnet surveillance, as the Snowden documents revealed.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.