Monday Newsbreak: 7/14

--Two deaths have saddened me this week. On Friday, Dr. Michael Debakey, simply one of the greatest figures in the entire history of medicine, passed away Friday of undisclosed natural causes at age 99. Dr. Debakey’s long, incredible string of contributions to cardiovascular surgery go back to 1932, when he invented the roller pump (which enabled open-heart surgery). He also invented numerous devices associated with artificial hearts and was a top heart transplant surgeon. On Saturday, journalist, commentator, and former White House press secretary Tony Snow died of colon cancer. I often disagreed with his politics, but I respected that Tony spoke from his convictions and was courageous and generous in the midst of his personal crisis with cancer. I wish there were more like him in public life!

--The Pakistani foreign minister has stated in an interview that the U.S. is not hunting for Osama Bin-Laden in Pakistan, and that the Pakistani government will furthermore not permit it to even if it wanted to. So, please help me figure this out: The United States attacked Afghanistan following 9/11 and drove out that country’s Taliban government for giving sanctuary and support to Al-Qaeda in return for its help in defeating the Taliban’s political opponents. Now take the current Pakistani regime: aren’t they giving sanctuary to Al-Qaeda and Bin-Laden while reaping the benefits of this terrorist presence (assassinations and harassment of the political opposition there)? But we’re supposed to regard Pakistan as our “friend”. Barack Obama was right to recently point out our “friend’s” recalcitrance in helping us find and capture the perpetrators of the attack on our country on September 11, 2001.

--The Senate renewed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act with a provision granting immunity to telecommunications companies cooperating with the government in its eavesdropping activities. Republicans supported the bill (which President Bush happily signed) as a bloc, while Democrats were badly split. I believe that one of the legitimate functions of government is to protect its citizens from terrorists, and that is the stated purpose for this bill. But I also know that laws can be perverted to suit the agendas of different presidents. George W. Bush is leaving office in January next year, and (as far as I can tell) he stands to benefit in no improper way from FISA. From where things stand now, a Democrat is just as likely as a Republican to succeed him. And who will come after that? The problem with FISA is not how Bush wants to use it (I believe, all criticisms notwithstanding, that his motives with it are pure), but rather how this law is constructed so that it can easily morph into something that some future national figure will be able to use to truly subjugate the American people (through the use of databases and files to build up dossiers, KGB-style).