Frontline's new documentary about NSA spying is an important reminder of how Bush officials violated the Constitution.

Reuters

The PBS program Frontline has produced an exceptional documentary on NSA spying, beginning with the September 11 attacks and continuing right up to today. The whole thing is worth watching.

The recent history it presents is shocking, even if, like me, you were already aware of it. Frightened by terrorism, George W. Bush,Dick Cheney, David Addington, Michael Hayden, and others conspired to spy on U.S. citizens without a warrant. Doing so was felony behavior.

This refresher on their actions persuades me anew that they deserved, and deserve, to be prosecuted for their actions and imprisoned for an appropriate duration. As well, these men violated their oath to defend and protect the Constitution.

Their illegal spying nearly prompted a mass resignation at the Department of Justice. Numerous government officials warned them that their actions were illegal and unconstitutional. This did not deter them. A number of patriotic bureaucrats objected to the surveillance program within the government, and when it continued, some of the went to the press. For a long time, The New York Times under then-Executive Editor Bill Keller kept this a secret.

The most surreal moment in the documentary comes when then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, another Bush official who facilitated illegal warrantless surveillance, explained that he launched an investigation into the identity of the whistleblowers who leaked it to the press because "they broke the law," and "the job of the Department of Justice is to prosecute those who break the law."

As part of this investigation, former NSA employees who'd objected to the illegal program were suddenly confronted with FBI agents, guns drawn, raiding their houses. As a candidate, Barack Obama labeled the program illegal. After he was elected, Obama and Gonzales's successor Eric Holder presided over the persecution of people who exposed it. While opinions vary on Edward Snowden, its worth reflecting on the fact that this behavior is part of what prompted him to act.

More:
A Refresher: Warrantless Spying Was Blatantly Illegal

FILE - In this March 15, 2014 file photo, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaks at the California Republican Party 2014 Spring Convention in Burlingame, Calif. (Ben Margot/AP Photo)

SAN FRANCISCO -- Hundreds of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs heard a rousing defense of the National Security Agency from former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who on Wednesday vigorously worked to justify the security complex created during her tenure in the White House and lambasted recent whistle-blowing efforts to expose the agency's spying programs.

Rice, who also served as national security adviser during George W. Bush's first tenure and is now a professor at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, delivered the keynote address during the VentureScape conference in San Francisco. The conference, put on by the National Venture Capital Association, brings together venture firms, investment banks and entrepreneurs from across the country.

Rice spoke very little about venture or entrepreneurship, but did address two issues near and dear to the Silicon Valley tech community: privacy and security, and immigration.

On security, Rice staged a heated defense of the NSA, staking out a position sharply at odds with much of the tech community, whose leaders such as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg have called on President Barack Obama to end programs that have allowed intelligence officers to collect data from Google, Facebook, Yahoo and other tech companies to spy on American citizens.

Just before Rice took the stage, Aneel Bhusri, co-CEO of Pleasanton-based cloud software company Workday, said it was a priority to "get the NSA out of technology."

Rice also pulled no punches for whistle blower Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked information showing how the agency used spyware to collect data on U.S. citizens by monitoring their Internet activity and is currently living in Russia, where he has temporary asylum.

"Edward Snowden didn't go to work for Disney. What did he think the NSA did?" Rice said. "His shock to discover that the NSA was spying is a bit suspicious. It's also a bit suspicious that he ended up in Vladimir Putin's Russia."

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Condoleezza Rice defends NSA spying at tech conference