You keep missing the part where I specifically use the term "as policy." I believe there have been incidents of everything imaginable under the sun involving the U.S. government; however, pre-9/11 these were not standard government policy in a time of peace.
Assmasher I really think we are in near agreement. I guess we just disagree about the definition of the phrase "as policy". If the President condones it, leaders in Congress condone it, the Attorney General condones it, the Joint Chiefs of Staff condone it, the directors of the FBI, CIA, and other 3 letter agencies condone it, then I consider it standard policy of the government. Just because they didn't make a press release announcing they were going to violate the constitution doesn't mean it wasn't the policy of the government to violate the constitution.
This is entirely the reason behind the bullsh** title "War on Terror" - it can never ever end, so justification of behaviors that could be potentially stomached as short term aberrations can continue ad nauseum.
There has always been a war on terror, it was just called something different. Replace terror with communist. Replace terror with drugs. I agree that the US government uses "war on X" to justify criminal acts. I just believe that it started long before 9/11.