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NSA Wiretapping Whistleblower
Kagu writes "ABC News is running a short piece about an interview with former NSA Employee Russell Tice and his allegations that the NSA wiretaps are more pervasive than believed and used in ways he believes violated the law. "
A lot more info on this subject, including a transcript of the interview of Russell Tice by Amy Goodman, can be found here.
From the interview:
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
In fact, there are commercially available engines out there that anyone can buy. Check out Collexis, which also has demos online. This isn't as advanced as what the analysts at the NSA are using but it's close. Plug something like this into ontology software such as Cerebra and you've got a decent tool for keeping dossiers on people.
Nothing about this is illegal until the information passed into it is acquired illegally. Like most people, I'm a little more than annoyed that our civil liberties are slowly ebbing. One thing I've learned from history is that freedom and liberties are often the hardest things to find once you've lost them.
Recently, I've relied on the ACLU and certain political groups to jump all over the president and anyone who is part of the government if they overstep these bounds. I sure hope Tice gets his wish to reform the intelligence community as to how they handle wiretapping Americans. They can wiretap everyone else in the world but I don't want our government wiretapping us without the usual requisite warrants.
Side note on Tice, I kind of admire him for doing this. He's not going to go to jail because he's (intelligently) not revealed anything classified. He's only saying that this is going on. Now, I hope he's prepared to not work there anymore because I imagine the rest of his career is going to be fairly cold with people treating him like a snitch.
My work here is dung.
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It doesn't bother me that they want to wiretap suspected terrorists, but why the no-warrant stuff? Can't they just get a classified warrant? I wouldn't care at all except that they appear to be going around the law that I had thought applied to everyone. I guess it applies to everyone except for enemies of the state, or anyone that is unfortunate enough to be flagged as one. For instance, that professor corresponding with his friend in the Phillipines that had his mail opened, read and re-sealed. Isnt' that a federal offense?
stuff |
A recent study (German) showed that 10% of all Germans or 16% of all Germans older than 18 years already use VoIP. Germany is placed 3rd in broadband use in Europe in absolute numbers, although it is the country with the largest population. This is a new trend, numbers are rising fast. I guess that the numbers in the US will be even higher. So switching to encrypted VoIP might be a viable solution for the near future.
Chriss
--
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In India, lots of piliticians are arguing that their phones are being tapped on the order from PrimeMinister Office. Is it worse than that?
They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me. -Nathaniel Lee
This is probably the number one commandment of the SIGINT Ten Commandments as a SIGINT officer. You will not spy on Americans.
Intelligence agencies instilling moral values in their agents. What will they think of next?
May the Maths Be with you!
LeftDot strikes again. God--er, Stallman forbid the US should be listening to the phone numbers on Kahlid Sheik Mohammed's cell phone. The horror, the horror!
I swear, some of you people are proof that nerds have no connection to the real world.
Russell Tice had his clearance yanked and was fired for being mentally unstable. He's a hack with an axe to grind, and he ought to be prosecuted for revealing classified information.
I think that the only way to get to the bottom of such serious allegations is to investigate the evidence. Perhaps if we could secretly intercept the communications between the administration and the NSA we might find out what is really going on.
Don't put off until tomorrow what you can leave until the day after.
"If you picked the word 'jihad' out of a conversation," Tice said, "the technology exists that you focus in on that conversation, and you pull it out of the system for processing." According to Tice, intelligence analysts use the information to develop graphs that resemble spiderwebs linking one suspect's phone number to hundreds or even thousands more.
It can be argued that people who don't want to have their conversations monitored will not use keywords such as these that tip off the eavesdroppers or technology that recognizes them.
And conversely, people may use meaningless conversations with many keywords to delay the processing of these investigations.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
"The mentality was we need to get these guys, and we're going to do whatever it takes to get them," he said.
The mentality is in relation to terrorists. Not average americans, but terrorists.
They may be illegally listening to average americans, but that's illegal as a technicality. Look at their above statement. "We need to get these guys" is not referring to americans. If you're listened to by the NSA, who cares really? YOU'RE NOT THEIR TARGET. Even if you had info that they could pull out to get terrorists, if you were phoning your aunt may and you mentioned that you'd seen something that looked suspicious, but you didn't report it, I'd rather they listened in on you, used your information and then got the guys they're after.
THEY ARE NOT AFTER *YOU* is the main thing to remember. It's illegality on a technicality like sharing music with friends so they can go buy their own copy of a CD. Not immoral and not reprehensible.
American citizens were spied on without warrant all the time!
OMG, if you put glasses on him, the man would be Peter.
Psychological concerns like, say, his inability to keep a secret?
"The first rule of SIGINT is you DO NOT TALK ABOUT SIGINT"
"The second rule of SIGINT is you DO NOT TALK ABOUT SIGINT"
"If you picked the word 'jihad' out of a conversation," Tice said, "the technology exists that you focus in on that conversation, and you pull it out of the system for processing."
.mp3s 'illegally'.
I'm not defending the intelligence community's tactis, per se, Americans deserve to know why warrants weren't requested.
OTOH, if all they were doing is looking for jihadists, then I'm not going to march on Washington just yet. I'm concerned about the word 'terrorist' being expanded to include people who smoke weed, bitch about the government, and download
We need to clean up the process, or if there is some classified reason why warrants just could not be requested...well, that needs to be declassified, explained, and reviewed by the media, congress, etc.
Thank you Dave Raggett
Famous last words of the ignorant masses.
http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Nothing was stopping Bush from doing this in a legal manner. NOTHING.
Bush, during campaign 2004 repeatedly told the American people he would never do such a thing, even with the mis-named Patriot Act in place.
Bush Logic: Since the Terorrists hate our freedoms, perhaps we should take away the freedom of Americans. That will show that Bin Laden.
Bush, worst president in US History.
Telephone calls to and from the subject are represented in a spiderweb model. Telemarketing firm calls suspect and several 10.000ths of other people. Others are called by other marketing firms again. Model explodes?
Or this one, just as interesting: The model takes marketing firms in account, a marketing firm employee is a terrorist (not suspected) and does the communication by calling terrorist one, communicate, than terrorist two, etc.. So what to do when you use the model? Include firm because of the second case, exclude firm because else about everybody except the UNA bomber is a terrorist (UNA bomber did not have telephone is his residence (-:, and he was working alone, so the model would not work anyway).
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
Whoa, the must be serving free doughnuts at the NSA!
Like most people, I'm a little more than annoyed that our civil liberties are slowly ebbing.
I whole heartedly disagree with this statement. Out civil liberties are not slowly ebbing. If you think you had more in the past, you are living in a dream world. All that's happening is that technology is allowing the easier gathering of information and in turn, it is allowing the populace to find out just how tenuous our civil liberties were to begin with.
To paraphrase from "The Usual Suspects", "the greatest trick the govt ever pulled was to make people think that their civil liberties ever existed".
All your communications are belong to us.
Mark my words, this will turn into a constitutional crisis, especially if Bush and Chaney are not impeached for their wrongdoing. What we have is not, as Chaney put it, a strengthing of the executive branch. This is a takeover of the democratic process itself. The president is acting as a dictator by being above the law. I have already written all my representatives on this matter, and I recommend that if you feel strongly that your rights were violated (either directly through spying, or indirectly by the violation of constitutional laws), you should also write your representatives. Oh, and the argument by Bush that he is protecting the homeland is hogwash, especially if you believe him when he took the oath of the presidency to "protect the constitution". If he truely is protecting the homeland, he must uphold his oath of the presidency and protect the constitution. By protecting the constitution, I mean also that he must abide by the constitution and it's laws.
This is sounding like marketing for an upcoming book.
The vidicon was the first small, lightweight cheap television camera, developed IIRC in the late 1950s or early 1960s. It was a vacuum tube, but it was "about the size of a hot dog," and it enabled the development of television camera that were about the size of a VHS camcorder and cost about $1000. It was a revolution and led to the use of closed-circuit TV cameras by serious amateurs, schools, corporations, and for surveillance. (It wasn't up to broadcast quality, and TV studios continued to use the gigantic iconoscopes and image orthicons).
When it came out, the press--I particularly remember an article in Time magazine--commented that this was the invention that would for the first time make it possible to develop "telescreens" like the ones described by George Orwell, and would usher in the era where Big Brother was watching you.
Of course the problem was always that as long as it takes a human being to interpret the information, the ratio of number of spys to the number of people spied upon is too large to be economical for intruding on ordinary citizens.
But now, all of Orwell's technical visions are starting to become true--courtesy of computer technology....
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Government conspires against citizens. News at 11.
Tracing calls inbound or outbound to known terrorist phone numbers, in itself is probable-cause, no?
...but not "Faux News"?
Why does this fact always get overlooked on CNN, NBC, CBS, MSNBC and the New York Times?
It's a media war children- Demos want their dynasty back. See'em play with Alito, showing their arrogance and transparency.
Just another non-issue. I should keep track of these, they're starting to get voluminous.
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
Why is this modded as flamebait?
ALthough the moderator may disagree with parents opinion (finding it naieve for example), the post is not a flamebait at all. Although I also disagreee with the opinion stated in the post, the text itself is honestly expressed, not meant to insult and should therefore not be modded as such.
If you disagree with the post, reply. Don't be a weazel and abuse your mod points
If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
is this supposed to be funny?
So incredibly off-topic...anyone who gives parent post positive mod points is just as bad. This is a by-the-book flamebait.
...is considered 'insightful'
This post was rated 'insightful'...yeah about as insightful as those 'bad bush' fad t-shirts during the election.
I hate Bush's policies and admin. style probably MORE than parent poster, but there is absolutely NO WAY anyone on the other side will listen as long as this bullshit:
Bush Logic: Since the Terorrists hate our freedoms, perhaps we should take away the freedom of Americans. That will show that Bin Laden.
Thank you Dave Raggett
former NSA Employee Russell Tice
In other news, authorities are investigating the disappearance of former NSA employee Russell Tice. He was last seen in the area of Ft. Meade in Maryland. "I don't know what could have happened to him," one neighbor said, "one morning he was outside getting the newspaper, and the next he was gone."
Seriously, shouldn't he be a little worried about having an unfortunate accident in the near future??
It's because the evidence isn't there to justify them. This is why Bush directed the NSA to go around FISA and just wiretap whenever they felt they needed to, oversight (and evidence) be damned.
The problem is that you won't have any real "evidence" until after the terrorist act is committed and people are dead. The question any politician must as is... "Do I want to be the one to tell the American people... yea, we knew about this guy, and we obeyed the law and didn't go get him, and he was able to kill thousands..?"
One of these wiretaps was able to stop a guy by the name of Iman Ferris who was plotting to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge. Can anyone imagine how horrific that would have been, especially during the recent NYC transit strike? The death toll would have easily passed that of 9/11. Personally, I don't care if the government found out that he had an outstanding parking ticket (as an example) to keep this guy off the streets so that he can't go and kill thousands of people.
This whole situation reminds me of when the IRS went and finally busted Al Capone. That agency was able to do what no other government agency could, and they did it by nailing him on tax laws for which you cannot use the standard courts to defend yourself (you go to U.S. Tax Court for that). I am sure that most of the people in Chicago were happy to have his butt off the streets, no matter what the reason was for initially nailing him.
In case of fire, do not use elevator. Use water!
You'd think that there'd be an inherent audio problem with wiretapping a whistleblower...
There is a lot of discussion going on over here in these offtopic political forums. As usual you have two sides bickering and fighting over non-sense.
What freedom have you lost? You can still make the phone call. You can still talk about whatever you want. You can publically bash our President. I think you have plenty of freedom.
A "whistleblower," under Federal law, is someone who, whilst still employed at the offending agency/company, brings illegal action to the attention of internal resources, the point being to remedy the problem. They then are protected from negative action being taken against them, since their intention is to help the organization improve and ferret out evil-doers. The point is not to throw the issue to the sharks in the media AFTER being fired. That's vindictive, not constructive.
--- "When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all..."
What makes all of this so much more painful to me is that the old intelligence system was turning up the information required. Terrorists were nabbed at the borders, and so on. The New York bombings were on the radar. It wasn't a lack of information that was the problem, it was a lack of analysis. How does taping a hundred, a thousand, a million more telephone conversations help? All of this information has to be mined, but each extraction that is not related to the criminal case comes at the expense of someone's rights.
We HAD a system that was balancing individual rights with the need for surveillance*, it was working in the sense that good information was being found without tapping one phone in 300.
Now, the barn is on fire and everyone seems to want to spray water on the house.
*Need for surveillance -- I'm not convinced that the level of big brother spying conducted before the attacks was warranted. Frankly, the FISA courts scare the hell out of me. I don't like secret warrants more than gag orders or secret laws. I was willing to accept them -- part of the great compromise of democracy -- but they look like they were the slippery slope to today.
Use the Firehose to mod down Second Life stories!
I hope he's prepared to loose his house, wife, current job, sanity, life in general. Hopefully something good will come of it.
I vote for the Democrat Party all the time, but I cannot condone this guy's behavior. His actions have left us more vulnerable to terrorists around the world since they now know how we are tapping them. Is it any wonder there are many of us who are leaving the Democrat Party for the stronger on defense Republican Party. I didn't like it when George Bush barely defeated Gore in 2000, but Bush really stuck it to the terrorists when he invaded Afghanistan and liberated Iraq after those animals attacked us on September 11th. The worst thing we could ever bring to the terrorists is a living breathing working Democracy. And we've done it, look at Iraq; it's well on its way to thriving after being saved from the Islamofacist grip of Saddam Hussein. Fellow Democrats, I know we are supposed to vote like our fathers, but our fathers never had to consider living in a world where death could come at any minute from the hands of animals wuch as the ones threatening us today.
SIGINT officer? Do they also have SIGHUP officer? ... :-)
Well, as long as they don't send you a SIGKILL officer
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
matter of choice.
What choices we do make is what will define us as a people.
Some people are making bad choices and hurting and killing other people by the tens of thousands, some people are hurting far many more but killing far fewer.
I resent the fact that the president just couldn't be bothered to go and get the legal authorization 'post-facto'; perhaps because there was no authorization or justification to be granted; in which case he is a more paranoid bastard than Nixon ever was and doesn't deserve to finish his term in office (but the alternative is the veep? Would we really trust him?)
The alternative would be worse unless we would watch him like hawks.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
http://www.aina.org/news/20060106102431.htm
Getzen
The FISA court denied a total of 4 requests betwen 1979 and 2004, out of thousands. The could have gotten the wiretap order if the wiretap was done for legitimate reasons, or on a person they could reasonably suspect. If it was emergency, they could apply up to 72 hours after the beginning of the surveillance.
There's no valid reason to have done things like this. Orders were clearly legally required, and if they weren't obtainable for some reason, the Bush administration should have sought changes to the law, not ignored the law. That's not how the US works. And since you want to make this a Democat/Republican issue, when did the GOP become the party of violating the law whenever it wants to, without any expectation of punishment? Do you think because Bush is a Republican, he gets the power to just decide he doesn't need to follow a given law if it suits him? I know you'd be howling if Clinton had done the same thing (and don't say he did, because the single thing you can legitimately point to in that regard [the Ames case], was a physical intrusion that wasn't covered by FISA till 1995).
Looks like the Bush adminitration has been indicted. Information is here.
- the worst President in U.S. history was that prevaricating fornicator Clinton...
- you know, the guy who gave Iran nuclear weapons designs?
- who launched inept cruise missile attacks into Afghanistan?
- who let that murdering Islamist terrorist Bin Laden go?
- who desecrated the Oval Office?
- Bush is protecting America, and it is my sincere hope that every one of those murdering Arabs gets an early chance to meet Allah
Kidding aside, the overriding principle of intelligence in the U.S. used to be "Speak truth to power," once upon a time. The bending of those agencies' souls in the run-up to Iraq is terrifying to anyone who remembers the elder Bush's term at the CIA. George H.W. Bush didn't preside over an agency whose sole purpose was to buttress decisions already made by "instinct."
"Intelligence" groups do have their principles. They aren't what you'd call morality, exactly, but when they're distorted it ain't any good at all.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
President Bush, speaking on Sunday:
"If somebody from al-Qaeda is calling you, we'd like to know why"
If I was OBL I would instruct everyone to start phoning random Americans, or even better - American politicians, and just say something like "operation MARVIN is a go, allah be with you" and hang up before they can reply. It would be interesting to see how many end up on do-not-fly lists.
With enough manpower the NSA would be tied up for ages!
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB23/07-01 .htm
All your base are belong to Google.
Maybe you yourself can't do the audit, but without the source no one can.
"The mentality was we need to get these guys, and we're going to do whatever it takes to get them."
Like that's a bad thing.
Revealing classified information to the media is illegal. Stop. End of discussion.
There is a well established (as in legally defined) process for intelligence people to bring any problems that they might have to various review boards in the millitary, the DoJ, the NSA, and Congress as well. The "Domestic Wiretapping" program was actually already undergoing these reviews over the course of years.
Thanks to this "principled whistleblower" and his friends we have now lost a source of actionable intelligence. This on top of apparently arrests of people in Italy who were planning to launch attacks aimed at much greater casualty figures than 9/11. (You can go and ask the NYT why they didn't bother reporting this to you.)
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
"Disbelieve whatever the President says and believe whatever his enemies say"
That's the trouble when you lie sometimes. Not only do people disbelieve you all the time, they start believing your enemies. Which is why its a bad idea to lie in the long run.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
Here's a little article I'd like to share on the scope of the NSA 'wire tapping'. It's titled: Spy Agency Mined Vast Data Trove, Officials Report if you want to google it. It's originally from the NY Times but they like to lock up articles and make you pay for them. The original popped up in an obscure corner of the times on Christmas Eve. What great timing for such a story...
"We thought it was a STO; standard training operation"
I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
I view intelligence activity as an iceberg - most of it is hidden beneath the surface. That which pokes out normally indicates something much larger lurking beneath the surface.
Stop playing the fucking cheerleader, it's unbecoming.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
How stupid are you mods?
You do NOT own the information on who bought item X.
You, being the vendor, have more limited privacy rights than I as the private customer do.
Again, look at the vendors and the private customers.
Comcast is a public vendor so they don't own the info on my connection.
Comcast does own the info that they were requested to connect to
&
but
neither of them own my name.
Man, I love that guy!
Thank you, my American friend. So you think your government should go through the courts before spying on US citizens, but anything goes when it involves citizens outside the US? It's similar double standards that keep Guantanamo Bay up and running. As a wise person once said:
"Don't do to others what you don't want done to yourself."
May I conclude from your comment that (in return) foreign governments should also go through their courts before wiretapping their own citizens, but it's okay for them to spy on US citizens? For example by wholesale tapping of satellite communications? (yeah I know that's probably being done anyway, just asking about the ethics here).
If you think not, then you'll probably agree that the only fair thing to do, is to apply the same standards in every case. That is, to have all wiretapping activity supervised by independent courts, regardless of whether the subject is a US citizen or foreigner, has a long beard, is into fetish movies, has a goldfish called Wanda or playing golf for a hobby, or not. With wiretapping being illegal, unless it involves individuals whose name popped up in the course of a legitimate investigation, and okay'ed by an independent court, and no more than is absolutely needed for that investigation.
BTW: very much agree with your point on losing civil liberties.
--This comment scanned for anti-US sentiments, flagged and logged indefinitely for unknown purposes.The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Also known as the 4th amendment.
Bush ... repeatedly told the American people he would never do such a thing...
And you expect a politician (of ANY party) to not do exactly the opposite of what he says, huh?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
The millenium bomber was nabbed at the border because one agent thought he looked like a drug smuggler. (It turned out it was explosives and not drugs in his trunk.)
As for things working before 9/11 it obviously failed because they couldn't get the FBI to help look for two of the hijackers and they couldn't search the computer of the "13th hijacker".
The point is that these operations were not law enforcement actions. We're talking war here people. Arresting someone after they've blown themselves to smithereens isn't terribly effective.
Did you know about the bigger than 9/11 plot related arrests in Italy? Turns out that the information related to that was from domestic wiretaps in that country.
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
This link might help a little. Short version: Bush didn't establish this policy, it is not without precedence and executive orders legally permit this sort of thing.
I know for a fact that the Information Assurance Directorate of the NSA uses Starlight to model all kinds of really complex systems and to get their heads around hard-to-visualize connections.
I wonder what else they use it for....
When someone leaked Valerie Plame's name the libs said that was the worst damage done to national security since the beginning of time....despite the fact that she was riding a desk at the CIA for 5 years.
Scooter Libby is called a 'leaker' and is to be led away in chains.
We have tools that allow us to find the bad guys among us. We have not had a major incident since 9/11/2001. Now, we tap into the phone of the guy who was planning to blow up the Brooklyn bridge. The bad guys don't know we can do this.
A moonbat liberal lets that story out, gives aid and comfort to the enemy and lets loose with a majoe revelation about our technical capabilities.
He is called a 'whisteleblower'. He is a national hero among moonbats.
Moonbat Libs crack me up. You act as if 9/11 did not happen.
I would ask you to look at these pictures and ask the family members of these unfortunate souls what they think about the NSA wiretapping.
http://www.rangerjarhead.com/911jumpers
Thank God for George Bush.
I'm still working on a clever footer.
No Democrat calls his party the "Democrat Party". Lets review together:
A Republican belongs to the Republican Party.
A Democrat belongs to the Democratic Party.
"Republican" is both a noun and an adjective. "Democrat" is not an adjective. "Democratic" is.
That aside, the tone and style is quite obvious that this post is a troll or was written by a 12-year old.
Martin Niemoller on October 14, 1968:
"When Hitler attacked the Jews
I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned.
And when Hitler attacked the Catholics,
I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned.
And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists,
I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned.
Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church --
and there was nobody left to be concerned."
I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
What's the best way to change the balance in a political party or keep a government agency in line? Sign up.
Who gets second interviews at the NSA? What are they looking for in their candidates for hire? What kinds of positions are available at the NSA?
Honestly, though... is the technology used by the NSA really that far advanced from what's available in the commercial market? Everything in my experience tells me the opposite is usually true of government agencies. (Sort off off the subject... but I used to deliver flowers for a small florist in WIlliamsburg, VA. Once I had a delivery to a lesser known military installation that was widely belived to be a cover for a (notorious?) CIA installation. I tried to leave the delivery at the gate, but, bemused, they ushered me through.... No address or markings on any of the buildings... I was scared out of my mind (yeah, I used to get star struck, too. Living in L.A. cured that.). When I finally found the intended recipient, he was working in a single-wide portable unit (like a half-size residential trailer). I knocked on the door, which opened up to two or three guys working in very dim light (there were no windows) hovering over equipment with all manner of blinking lights and dials. I swear to God, it looked like it was built in the '50's and had been wide use since the early '60's. It was 1988.)
Granted... I don't think its very necessary for the NSA to be using cutting edge or "tomorrow's" technology to effectively do what everyone believes that they do... but the rumors of, say, having every phone call made digitally recorded and scanned for flagging for future analysis by some monster computers system for certain key words to be just absolutely incredible. Anybody see Closet Land? Interesting... but left me with the distict feeling of bullshit. (Feel free to disagree... or (my minds blank) offer up some other incredible rumors of their technology.)
The Admin and the Engineer
"Why do you so readilly believe the news media then? "
What news media would that be? Are you implying that there's a coverup that prevents Bush from telling us about the WMD's he's found? Or would that be the coverup that shows the Halliburton got the no-bid billion dollar deals through hard work and determination? Or would that be the smear campaign that shoed the administration worried more about eating dinner and their nordstrom clothes than actully looking after New Orleans? Or would that be fact that spying on people without warrants is a good idea?
I mean, poor george bush. The poor guy could be the greatest president ever, if not for that schemeing press.
It's all Clinton's fault anyway.
Warning! Do Not Feed the Trolls!
This erks me that they spy based on words. The better way would be to find the suspects and spy from there. Based off a word means nothing. It assumes that your targets are stupid. They aren't. As for the online game comment. There is more then enough smacktalk going around online games to keep them tied up for years. Funnily enough I have a real world example. I play CS:S monthly with friends. We rent out a small building (kind of scout den). Last summer it was pretty hot so we had all the windows and doors open. When we went to get food later on some of the guys noticed a special branch car outside (Like the FBI) but didn't think anything of it. About an hour or so later a plain clothes cop wanders in with a gun on his hip which you rarely or ever see in Ireland and says "Whats up lads?". After about 5-10 mins there he realises we are just playing games. Turns out the neighbours could hear shouts of "Plant the Bomb", "Kill the hostages", etc and thought we were up to no good and had called them earlier in the day.
Here's an actual quote:
0 040420-2.html
"[T]here are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution."
President George W. Bush, 2004, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/04/2
This is breaking news in the Baltimore area this morning (and last night). For those of you are are defending Bush for ignoring the courts and ignoring the Constitution, based on the premise that the NSA is "only looking for terrorists" you may be surprised...
From NSA SPIES ON BALTIMORE QUAKERS
Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - FreeMarketNews.com
The National Security Agency has been spying on a Baltimore anti-war group, according to documents released during litigation, going so far as to document the inflating of protesters' balloons, and intended to deploy units trained to detect weapons of mass destruction, RAW STORY has learned. According to the documents, the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore, a Quaker-linked peace group, has been monitored by the NSA working with the Baltimore Intelligence Unit of the Baltimore City Police Department.
The actual court documents are online
And here's an interview with one of the primaries.
Granted, they didn't through them into Gitmo or anything (yet), but it's interesting because it's in zip code 21212, my own back yard ! (it's true what they say).
"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."--Benjamin Franklin
We can't have people whistleblowing whenever the government violates the constitution. That's treason!!!
I hold out little hope for that approach. I applied to the NSA for a job once. They sent me two letters, declining my offer. On both letters, they got my middle initial wrong, and it was on my fricking resumeact on it.
Argue with me that that's not a good enough reason to maintain privacy, and I'll be forced to report what my imaginary penguin told me about you to Homeland Security.
You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
The freedom of privacy
Free MacMini
A "whistleblower," under Federal law, is someone who, whilst still employed at the offending agency/company, brings illegal action to the attention of internal resources...
Isn't that exactly what he's claiming to be? Didn't he claim that they hauled him in for a psychological evalution after he complained frequently about this being illegal, labelled him paranoid, and stripped him of his security clearance which prevents him from doing his job? According to him, when he complained, they took steps to proactively discredit him and effectively fired him.
The thing about whistleblower protection is that it is almost entirely enforced after an employer has taken punitive steps against an employee. It's like all other laws that way. You don't enforce them until they've been broken.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
... that geeks worldwide post messages into public forums about killing processes with SIGINT, thus triggering their keyword filters.
The erroneous idea that "the ends justify the means" has become pretty deeply established in modern society. It is one of the main causes of our troubles. One of its many consequences is the disrepect of the rule of law.
Examples:
Holding 'enemy combatants' without trial and subjecting them to torture. "Who cares if it's against international law," his supporters say. "These are terrorists, and we'll be safer for it."
Or take Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco. For a time he was shooting out gay marriage licenses like some sort of machine of gun of love. It was clearly contrary to California law, but he didn't care. He and his supporters felt that such laws should simply be ignored.
Obviously the first example is more serious than the second. But in both it's the same type of problem at bottom. People are unwilling to compromise. So when put in charge, they simply do what they think is right regardless of what the law might say.
Does anybody see another Jam Echelon Day in the near future?
I seriously doubt it. Let's look at your list of right-wing talk radio buzzwords:
You seem to support the war in Iraq as having something to do with stopping terrorism, you accuse the secular dictator Hussein of being an Islamic fundamentalist, you constantly refer to people that threaten us as "animals," and you advocate strongly following tradition as a virtue (but one that is secondary to voting out of fear). Furthermore, you think that exposing the violation of our civil liberties is a bad thing compared to confirming what terrorist probably already suspected about the safety of their phone conversations.
You're obviously a rabid conservative and probably a devoted fan of Fox News talk shows or conservative talk radio shows based on the jargon you use. Your implied support for tradition, latent xenophobia, trust in unhindered law enforcement powers, and conflation of the War in Iraq as having something to do with preventing terrorism show extremely clearly that you're a conservative pretending to be a Democrat for astroturfing purposes. You're also extremely unclever at doing so. I'd suggest listening more to non-conservative points of view before attempting to ape them.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Ah, guys - there is a bigger issue here. Read between the lines here (and much of the comments). Data mining. Looking for key words. To be looking for key words, you must first be listening to EVERY conversation. They you can search out key words. If you are listening to EVERY conversation...
In other countries, they're taking personal information much more seriously.Law enforcement is entirely different. The FBI can get a warrant and get any and all information about such sales.
"Ownership" does not mean that the store cannot provide the info when served with a warrant.
"Ownership" means that the store cannot SELL that info or provide it to any 3rd party (non-law enforcement).Why not? Our country was founded on such idealism.They have it, but it is not their's.No it is not. Just as it is not "silly" to expect that your HR department won't go posting your social security number on the web along with your name and home address.Right now, they can do anything they want with it, in the USofA. Other countries are more strict. And there is no reason why we cannot become stricter.
(Boy, I'm gonna get flamed for my arrogance here, but damnit I do consider my nation, the United States of America, the single finest nation on earth)
Just a coincidence?
That if I proclaim, "Give me liberty or give me death!" that I might be labeled as a threat to society or a terrorist...and I firmly believe that I would prefer death to a lack of liberty.
Oh wait, that trick doesn't work anymore, so what's he whining about?
$NSA = "National Security Agency"; The NSA's job is to protect US National Security PERIOD! They have been in the intel biz for decades - this is nothing new. This was done with Congressional knowledge and approval. Certain people are "shocked" that this has occurred when in fact they were aware of this and past administrations have been doing the same if not much, much worse for decades. I am personally much more concerned about private companies abusing our privacy than the NSA. The vast majority of NSA staff are true patriots and are doing their best to protect us from the scum that are planning to smuggle and detonate nuclear weapons in the heart of our cities. This is serious people. Please wake up! There are people that hate us so much they want to utterly destroy us and our friends and allies and there is nothing anyone can do to get them to change their minds. These terrorists are NAZIs and they will attack us at every opportunity they get. This has nothing to do with anything we may or may not have done or our foreign policy or anything like that. There are a lot of evil people on this planet that wish to destroy us - this is a fact that we much accept. Terrorists cannot be reasoned with. If you give a terrorist an inch they will take a mile and more! We cannot give them what they want. They will never stop. Iran is already 0-48 months away from having 40-100 nuclear warheads and have been supporting terrorism for decades. Iran has already publicly declared they intend to destroy the US, Israel and Europe. This is not an empty threat, they are perfectly serious about it. Unless we do something to stop them the next 9/11 will certainly be a nuclear one. The free world needs to unite and defeat terrorists and terrorist states once and for all. You cannot appease terrorists or terrorist nations. The world is a mess and someone has to do something about it! Iran, North Korea, Syria and Lebanon need to be cleaned up, among others. Please stop playing politics with our national security! All parties need to grow up and stop playing politics with our national security! If certain people wish to hate the current administration that's their prerogative but if they compromise national security in the process then they deserve to pay the price. Live long and prosper!
Let's clear up the FUD, shall we?
I was assigned to an Air Force group at Fort Meade and worked inside the NSA. What I'm typing is based on my personal experience. Things may have changed but I really doubt they are more lax.
When I left the position at NSA, I was required to sign an agreement that I would not discuss the tasks/environment/etc. for the next 70 years. Any publications, speeches, etc. which referenced the NSA were to be vetted by the NSA prior to release.
That agreement, which was a requirement, is part of a whole parcel of laws and regulations concerning what might be termed "official secrets." In essence, there are things which the government does that are not, and should not, be made public knowledge. This applies to almost every level of government. For example, the local police don't tell the public where or how they are going to do investigations, stings, speed traps, etc.
So, this guy is in direct violation of that.
Additionally, the U.S. is in a legal state of war. There is no formal procedure or document required to create this condition and there never has been. That's probably a surprise to a lot of people because they've been exposed to the phrase, "declaration of war" in movies and such. Given there is no such procedure in the laws of the United States, and given that the powers granted to the President by the Congress on multiple occassions after the September 11, 2001 attacks inside the U.S meet and/or exceed the powers granted to President Roosevelt after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and given the U.S. was ina state of war after those attacks on Pearl Harbor, there can be no legal question that the United States is in a state of War.
Where does this put us now? The guy violated national security laws and regulations pertaining to U. S. national security activities during a state of war.
Is this guy a whistleblower in the legal sense of the term? Nope. "Whistleblower" has a very specific legal definition. Public exposure, like this guy did, is not a whistleblower activity. Whistleblowing is an internal procedure involving different "chains of command", if you will, between the person's operational supervision and internal investigators.
This guy most certainly is not a "whistleblower" at all.
So, this is a person who violated his sworn agreement, Federal laws pertaining to release of intelligence matters and has no legal status for protection as a whistleblower.
This is like an ex-cop who points out all the undercover cops to the drug dealers.
Yes, and the economies of scale associated with accessing that information are what have allowed both the private sector and government to take wholesale advantage of it. Maybe we need to be more proactive. Just the other day I stopped for some gas. Upon handing the attendant a $10 bill, noting which pump I'd be using, I was told that they don't accept cash. I could have whipped out my debit card and been done with it, but I went somewhere else instead. How many people would be willing to go the extra mile and actually shun some convenience in order to protect themselves? Damn too few, I'd argue. Convenience is like crack...it's a long-term addiction, and very difficult to overcome.
...the lot of you.
----
A Troll post for a Troll submission.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
And using them in ridiculous comparisons to US policy is sad.
But, why use logic and reasonwhen you can rely on hyperbole and loaded language?
How pathetic are you that you follow me from topic to topic and waste all your mod points at once modding me down?
It might be more accurate and helpful if we always refer to it as the "PATRIOT Act" to call attention to the fact that the name is an acronym. It at least encourages people to remember that it's an arbitrary set of letters designed to politically shield the Act from discussion. Are you going to argue against the "Patriot" Act? Are you not a Patriot?
"Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism": What are these tools? Any tool is innocent, but many can be put to good or bad use.
Heck, might as well propose the "PUPPY" Act (Put all Urban People Permanently in Yugoslovia) and see who complains. You're not against puppies, are you?
The weasel word is "unreasonable" though; the "War on Terror" is being used by this administration to exact an all-out assault on the definition of what is reasonable, and that is why the 4th ammendment is a little wimpy with respect to actually protecting privacy.
Congress is the only body that can declare war - it is in the constitution. Look it up sometime. You claim to have worked for the NSA, but are apparently ignorant of basic constitutional law. Every military action from the Korean war to Vietnam to the Gulf war was an authorized use of force by the congress, not a declaration of war.
The United States has not legally declared war since WWII. The congress authorized "the use of force" against IRAQ, but did not declare war.
It's the reason they couldn't prosecute Jane Fonda for treason during the Vietnam war - there was NO LEGAL STATE OF WAR - it was a "use of military force".
If they did declare war, they would be bound by the Geneva Convention, which would mean George Bush would be prosecuted as a war criminal for the torture at Abu-Garaib.
No declaration of war means no expanded war powers either.
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0204a.asp
"under our system of government although the president is personally convinced that war against a certain nation is just and morally right, he is nevertheless prohibited by our supreme law of the land from waging it unless he first secures a declaration of war from Congress. That was precisely why presidents Wilson and Roosevelt, who both believed that U.S. intervention in World Wars I and II was right and just, nevertheless had to wait for a congressional declaration of war before entering the conflict. And the fact that later presidents have violated the declaration-of-war requirement does not operate as a grant of power for other presidents to do the same.
What about the congressional resolution that granted President Bush the power to wage war against unnamed nations and organizations that the president determines were linked to the September 11 attacks? Doesn't that constitute a congressional declaration of war? No, it is instead a congressional grant to the president of Caesar-like powers to wage war, a grant that the Constitution does not authorize Congress to make.
Therefore, when a U.S. president wages what might otherwise be considered a just war, if he has failed to secure a congressional declaration of war, he is waging an illegal war -- illegal from the standpoint of our own legal and governmental system. And when the American people support any such war, no matter how just and right they believe it is, they are standing not only against their own principles and heritage, not only against their own system of government and laws, but also against the only barrier standing between them and the tyranny of their own government -- the Constitution."
Your post, sir, is exactly right. But I just have one quesiton:
Since they have 72 hours to retroactively go to the courts, why not do that instead of totally bypassing the FISA court?
I mean, I don't like LOTS of processes (and laws) that I have to go through. But I have only one option to address that: lobby to change the process (or law). I don't have the option of bypassing it altogether.
And that is the issue here. I think most ppl will agree with your post. There are new demands being put on the intel community and they do need to act quickly and effectively. But where we differ is this: If they are hamstrung by process, then they need to change the process. Not sidestep it.
The FBI can get a warrant to have a bank open your safety deposit box and take all your stuff.
The FBI can get a warrant to take your girlfriend's stuff from your apartment.
In both cases, the people forced to release the items do not own the items.What you do not own, you do not have any legal right to sell/distribute/etc.
What you do own, you may sell/distribute/etc, within the limits of the law. I take it that these are NEW concepts to you.
Well, that's about it for this thread.
Sorry I confused you for someone with a basic grasp of the issues. It won't happen again.
You and all your kind screaming about "illegal" wiretaps are all hypocrites.
The wiretaps haven't been found to be illegal. NO THEY HAVE NOT. And if you don't believe me, look it up.
Now, the facts as they are seem to indicate that the taps were illegal, but that's not my point.
My point is, if you've been screaming about "illegal" wiretaps, why is it that you've excluded the courts in your decision making?
Why is it that YOU het to determine what is illegal, and crow your head off about it, in absence of a court decision?
Isn't that what Bush is in trouble for here, failing to secure court approval?
So I guess it's ok to dismiss the legal process when it's Bush you're ranting against, but everyone else gets the protection of due process.
Like I said, hypocrites.
And for a teaser, read this
"Throughout his administration -- and especially since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- Bush has been aggressive in asserting executive powers. And part of his explanation for approving the spying program fits this pattern.
Bush said his decision was "fully consistent with my constitutional responsibilities and authorities." And the president's lawyers have maintained that the commander in chief has the "inherent" authority to act in the interest of national security, even if he overrides the law.
But the Supreme Court did not accept that claim when it was tested in the past.
In 1972, the justices unanimously rejected President Nixon's contention that he had the power to order wiretapping without a warrant to protect national security. The decision came in the case of three men who had allegedly plotted to bomb a CIA facility in Michigan. After the ruling, charges in the case were dismissed.
The 4th Amendment protects Americans from "unreasonable searches and seizures" by the government, said then-Justice Lewis F. Powell, a Nixon appointee, delivering the court's ruling, and such freedoms "cannot be properly guaranteed if domestic security surveillances are conducted solely within the discretion of the executive branch."
He said Nixon's lawyer should have obtained a search warrant from a judge before the government tapped the telephones of the alleged plotters.
"We recognize, as we have before, the constitutional basis of the president's domestic security role, but we think it must be exercised in a manner compatible with the 4th Amendment," Powell said.
But in the decision, Powell said the court was not ruling on the "president's surveillance power with respect to the activities of foreign powers, within or without this country."
See that? Save your "The Supreme Court said..." because the decision you'll try to refer to wasn't specific to this case.
Yeah, the wiretaps were probably illegal. But you don't get to circumvent the court any more than Bush does.
How pathetic are you that you follow me from topic to topic and waste all your mod points at once modding me down?
"It just shows you Bush's comtempt for the rule of law. They couldn't do what they wanted to do legally"
Really? And it's not just as contemptuous to make up your mind about legality without case law to support you? (no, the 72 Nixon decision isn't conclusive and only partially applies because it didn't cover international suspects)
Or, does the fact that it's Bush make it ok for you to ignore the courts and make up your own mind?
How pathetic are you that you follow me from topic to topic and waste all your mod points at once modding me down?
Whew, this is still not as bad as if we would have elected John Kerry! How would you prosecute a war on terror slashdot? Oh thats right, you wouldn't!
Since they have 72 hours to retroactively go to the courts, why not do that instead of totally bypassing the FISA court?
A good question... and the answer probably revolves mostly around the change in context (relative to the "traditional" use of FISA). A war footing, even one that's as hard to clearly frame as the one we now find ourselves in, makes this stuff more like war-fighting than ongoing preventative FISA-ish watching of foreign intel contacts in the US. That being said, it would be better, indeed, to keep everyone happy by evolving a process that leaves the right sort of paper trail without having to turn judges into intelligence analysts looking at the raw material collected (in huge amounts), daily, as the NSA and their bretheren wade through jillions of communications.
they need to change the process. Not sidestep it.
That's definitely where the semantics comes in. No doubt the administration will continue to argue that "the process" in question (because of the defense-related security issues at play in what amounts to a hot conflict) mean that the NSA's work is being done, now, under a different process authorized by Congress in the wake of 9/11. Many people will intelligently argue for against several variations on that theme, but no one can argue that the two legislative bodies' senior intel committee members don't know about this sort of thing. That the NYT decided to hang onto what they wanted to report for a year, timing their "news" to go with a book release under their publication, and that the "whistleblower" is a guy who had his credentials yanked for pyschological problems... I think that puts a little bit of the media stink, here, in perspective.
Yes, the administration should go about crafting a more clearly defined way of dealing with what is a new (in terms of the thinking behind FISA, originally) problem. But in the meantime, you've got actual, real people with actual shoe bombs (and much, much worse) looking for some high-profile action. And when that happens, all the NYT will talk about is how little the administration did to use intelligence to stop it. *sigh*
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
You are such a coward that you disgust me. You will destroy everything that made this country great, the very Constitution that men fought and died for, because you're so scared of Osama Bin Laden. Read the words of a true American and a patriot in an editorial he wrote for the Miami Herald. Then maybe you can understand what it is to be an American:
AFTER 9/11
Fear destroys what bin Laden could not
ROBERT STEINBACK
One wonders if Osama bin Laden didn't win after all. He ruined the America that existed on 9/11. But he had help.
If, back in 2001, anyone had told me that four years after bin Laden's attack our president would admit that he broke U.S. law against domestic spying and ignored the Constitution -- and then expect the American people to congratulate him for it -- I would have presumed the girders of our very Republic had crumbled.
Had anyone said our president would invade a country and kill 30,000 of its people claiming a threat that never, in fact, existed, then admit he would have invaded even if he had known there was no threat - - and expect America to be pleased by this -- I would have thought our nation's sensibilities and honor had been eviscerated.
If I had been informed that our nation's leaders would embrace torture as a legitimate tool of warfare, hold prisoners for years without charges and operate secret prisons overseas -- and call such procedures necessary for the nation's security -- I would have laughed at the folly of protecting human rights by destroying them.
If someone had predicted the president's staff would out a CIA agent as revenge against a critic, defy a law against domestic propaganda by bankrolling supposedly independent journalists and commentators, and ridicule a 37-year Marie Corps veteran for questioning U.S. military policy -- and that the populace would be more interested in whether Angelina is about to make Brad a daddy -- I would have called the prediction an absurd fantasy.
That's no America I know, I would have argued. We're too strong, and we've been through too much, to be led down such a twisted path.
What is there to say now?
All of these things have happened. And yet a large portion of this country appears more concerned that saying "Happy Holidays' could be a disguised attack on Christianity.
I evidently have a lot poorer insight regarding America's character than I once believed, because I would have expected such actions to provoke -- speaking metaphorically now -- mobs with pitchforks and torches at the White House gate. I would have expected proud defiance of anyone who would suggest that a mere terrorist threat could send this country into spasms of despair and fright so profound that we'd follow a leader who considers the law a nuisance and perfidy a privilege.
Never would I have expected this nation -- which emerged stronger from a civil war and a civil rights movement, won two world wars, endured the Depression, recovered from a disastrous campaign in Southeast Asia and still managed to lead the world in the principles of liberty -- would cower behind anyone just for promising to "protect us."
President Bush recently confirmed that he has authorized wiretaps against U.S. citizens on at least 30 occasions and said he'll continue doing it. His justification? He, as president -- or is that king? -- has a right to disregard any law, constitutional tenet or congressional mandate to protect the American people.
Is that America's highest goal -- preventing another terrorist attack? Are there no principles of law and liberty more important than this? Who would have remembered Patrick Henry had he written, "What's wrong with giving up a little liberty if it protects me from death?"
Bush would have us excuse his administration's excesses in deference to the "war on terror" -- a war, it should be pointed out, that can never end. Terrorism is a tactic, an eventuality, not an opposition army or rogue nation. If we caught every person guilty of a terrorist act, we st
I don't think this "may be" illegal, it most certainly is - I don't know why people keep equivocating on this.
But one problem with the story is his assertion that every single phone call domestic and international can be monitored in realtime for keywords. This is simply not possible, I don't care how far ahead you think the NSA is in computing power.
When I left the position at NSA, I was required to sign an agreement that I would not discuss the tasks/environment/etc. for the next 70 years. ... That agreement, which was a requirement...
A requirement for what? Leaving? What recourse would they have if you refused? I'm not trolling; i'm serious.
This is like an ex-cop who points out all the undercover cops to the drug dealers.
I'm not sure this analogy fits here. Maybe if the narcs are going around breaking the law and trampling on innocent peoples' civil rights, and the drug dealers only find out about the narcs because the ex-cop goes public with that information. Or something like that. Analogies usually suck.
"Our interests are to see if we can't scale it up to something more exciting," he said.
Umm, they're tinfoil hats. Tin has way more protective power than aluminum...
Ocean is land, covered with water.
Mr Tice is to be commended for speaking out.
It all reminds me of Nixon's misuse of the FBI and the CIA to spy on US citizens and groups which disagreed with him.
I don't argue with the need for intelligence collection and surveillance of those who would wish to do our country harm. But there are laws that clearly say that the NSA is not to eavesdrop on domestic communications, and that exceptions to this are to be authorized, after the fact if necessary, by a secret court.
Mr Bush chose to believe that the law did not apply to him in this case. That's for a court to decide. I, personally, feel that he's way off base, and about as arrogant as he is wrong.
Those in power are tempted to misuse the tools available to them. People like Mr. Tice are what prevents this country from turning into a totalitarian regime. We need to remember that Mr. Tice is no different from you or me. Would you have the guts it takes to throw away your job and career to blow the whistle on something you knew was wrong?
"I don't believe government has a right to video tape. I do believe, though, that anyone else is free to." -- very well said
This is very similar to how I respond about flag burning laws and free speech.
You should be free (as in liberty), from GOVERNMENT persecution, to burn flags as a form of free speech. However, this doesn't protect you from an a**kicking from a given individual.
----- If communism is a system where the government owns business, what do you call a system where business owns govern
"The remark was clearly intended to describe how we have become, like the soviets were, a police state."
Yes, and my remark was to draw attention to how ridiculous the comparison is. The very fact that he can make such a comparison is proof.
You see, people like you see flippant remarks about things like this as just some guy overstating his position for karma. Maybe.
But my point, and you can't deny this, is that many people actually believe such garbage. You appear to be one of those people.
"The only difference I ever saw between US Capitalism and Sovietism was in the US, the rich were powerful, and under the Soviets the powerful became rich."
Then you're an imbecile, and not worth talking to. Seriously.
My political agenda is to steer the discussion away from people like you, irrational reactionaries who see no difference between the Soviet Union and the US. You know, fringe kooks who ignore truth because lies get more karma.
And that list of "wars" was priceless. I haven't laughed at such an overt display of embellishment and distortion in a long time.
How pathetic are you that you follow me from topic to topic and waste all your mod points at once modding me down?
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Also known as the 4th amendment.
I got a smart homes junk mail catalog the other day. They had a product $1,500 for an 80GB DVR with 4 video cameras, said it would record 4 weeks of video. Alot of their products were webenabled as well. Just wait until those products come down in price and the average household has 4-8 cameras storing video on a webenabled 160-300 GB DVR. I can promise you that there will be an effort by groups in the government to covertly download that video.
Congress recently passed HR 3402 which was signed into law by President Bush on January 5, 2006. This law makes it federal crime to say anything annonymously that the government considers to be annoying or abusive using any 'telecommunications' device, which now includes the internet. The legal presumption in making annonymous comments illegal is that you forgo your right to privacy when using any telecommunications device. Therefore, the government now has a DUTY to spy on americans using telephones, radio, or the internet to be sure that they are properly identifying themselves in every communication and that their comments are not annoying or abusive.
Hollowed out fountain pens? Microdot.
I have Jihad such a lot of flab to be ergasted that bin-laden it could have hurt. terrorism. Thankfully the operation was attack carried out gently secret meeting place and the news broken one step at a time. Abu Hanza.
What ergasted me islamic state the most was my insisting semtex on a thread some suicide time ago on a forum AK 47 I have long since left, that 9/11 such technology would mobile phone be almost impossible bomb to implement. (Someone think of some more words for insertion will you; my imagination is severely limited millenium hand and shrimp.)
"You know what? You are right. Maybe I am a little biased against Bush. I think you are biased for Bush, and giving him a pass on an obvious mistake."
Why, because I rail against the rampant hypocrisy of the other posters here on Slashdot?
Find a pro-Bush post. Do it. I'm waiting.
You won't, because I'm not, so stop using that tired tactic.
Isn't it just possible that I DESPISE people who rely on overstatement to make their cases, especially when it's not necessary.
Or maybe I'm just Pro-due process. Did you ever think of that? ANd then of cours, if you check a bit, I've stated in another post that I believe the wiretaps are illegal. So no pass there, how did you come to that erroneous conclusion?
"Well, since we are at a disagreement, and there is no established case law, surely you are in support of an impeachment to decide whether or not the President broke the law?"
I'm in favor of whatever the law deems appropriate. If that's impeachment, then fine, I don't want a criminal for a President.
But "innocent until proven guilty" applies to the President too, or at leats it's supposed to. Apparently the other's screaming "illegal wiretap" have decided it doesn't.
How pathetic are you that you follow me from topic to topic and waste all your mod points at once modding me down?
Really? While I suppose it's possible I was under the impression that gas stations in particular would be only too eager to get rid of CC sales all together - they eat into veery narrow margins.
Besides doesn't the legal tender text on your sawback indicate that they have to accept the bill as payment?
No longer do we hear our leaders cry "Give me liberty or give me death!". Instead we hear only the quiet, secretive mumbling of career bureaucrats speaking to too-often-reelected officials in the halls of Washington, D.C., trading rights for goods. In Congress, men concerned only with maintaining their small piece of turf in the political landscape are fast becoming the creators of a new era, an era of suppression.
How long before these men too fall under the unrelenting purview of the intelligence machine? Or have they fallen already without our knowledge? How many have been compromised by information gathered surreptitiously and illegally? "Vote against this bill and your mistresses will be revealed." "Leave this unchanged or you will lose your Maryland home." "We know what your son did and we have the proof. Do what we want or he will go to jail." The mind boggles at the possibilities. Does anyone doubt this happening now?
You can also call it "Six Degrees of Separation" or "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" if you're into that. I'd be willing to bet that no one posting here has spoken on the phone to an member of the leadership of al-Qaeda. However I would imagine that a significant number of us have spoken on the phone to someone who has spoken on the phone to someone who has spoken on the phone to someone who has spoken on the phone to someone who has spoken on the phone to someone who has spoken on the phone to a member of the leadership of al-Qaeda. The whole idea of a web of connections makes us all suspects.
Now lets go to the next step. How many of you have talked on the phone with someone who has done a Google search containing the term "al-Qaeda?" Or sent an email containing the words "lets do it." If you have, you must be threat to the security of the country.
Support SETI@home
The old joke at Carnegie Mellon was that if you wanted a job at the NSA all you had to do was pick up any phone in the country and say "Hi. I'd like a job at the NSA."
I thought the president said the wars in Iraq ("Mission Accomplished") and Afganistan (control handed over to new government) are over.
Or, do concepts count for emergency powers?
hmmm... war on poverty, war on drugs, war on illiteracy, war on terror
Although you have an interesting argument, the wars are over.
Neither the Taliban or Sadam is in charge anymore. As for other presidents, Roosevelt didn't authorize spying on citizens AFTER WWII (he was dead), Johnson didn't authorize spying on citizens AFTER the Vietnam war (he wasn't the president when the war ended).
I'm curious, how long should a president have war power AFTER a war is over?
----- If communism is a system where the government owns business, what do you call a system where business owns govern
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doh sawbuck
"You can't always have your cake and eat it too."
You have many valid points but I feel you give way to much emphasis to "this is the way it is" versus a more normative approach. There are are problems and attacks on privacy that are definitely solvable... if the political will was present to make tough choices. If we don't do something about privacy--- paranoia and distrust will continue to fester in our society. Furthermore real threats exist to freedom. I think shrugging our shoulders on these issues only opens the door for government, corporations and private citizens to take advantage.
The two biggest problems.
1. Companies should not be allowed to monitor any of my activities without full disclosure. Sony can sell me CDs.... not install spyware without my knowledge or permission.
2. Although a government can spy on another nation... it should not spy on it's own citizens. (e.g. Visa can have free access to my credit card bills... government should not have access to those records without a warrant. Video feeds from traffic cannot be plugged into Homeland security directly. Email should not be monitored by HLS. Etc....This forces collusion which protects privacy and more importantly freedom.
There are two very coherent laws that could be passed tomorrow to assure this happens.
1. Make it a legal requirement that all source code for consumer use is open (not necessarily free). Software is just instructions after all. This is the ultimate form of disclosure. Leave consumers the ability to compile if they wish. There is no good reason for companies to hide source code. Anything windows does I can replicate easily.
2. A constutional ammendment to clarify privacy so the president or congress can't bypass the law. The government should ALWAYS require a warrant to retrieve data from differing sources. TIA is a problem not a solution. Force collusion don't trust government not to take advantage when no one is looking.... because they will do so. To those that suggest we need to spy on citizens for terrorism reasons I quote Ben Franklin..... "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" We stop protecting our freedoms if we give them up.
In other words...
"You can't always have your cake and eat it too."
There is still disagreement over whether or not the War Powers Act is constitutional; it's never been tested, and Congress has made matters worse by never actually declaring war on anyone since WWII.
Clear, Dark Skies
"Impeachment is just bringing up charges, it does not imply guilt. It's like a trial."
I know, what made you think I didn't? I simply suggested that the law handle it, what gave you the idea that I was ignorant of the definiton of impeachment?
"So, if we want to legally determine whether POTUS is guilty, we've got to impeach him."
Tell that to the posters who have already decided that the wiretaps were "illegal". That was my point. There has been no decision of legality, yet you can find at least a dozen posts (easily) that use the phrase "illegal wiretaps".
I think you need to re-read my post, you seem to have completely missed the point.
How pathetic are you that you follow me from topic to topic and waste all your mod points at once modding me down?
Another good post. Thanks for your reply.
Now...onto the comment. The problem I have is that we are NOT at war. While you can say it and imply it as much as you want, we are neither technically nor legally at war. Congress must declare war. And while you may have a good point about sidestepping things during wartime (I agree) -- we, simply, aren't in that mode at this point. Others will surely disagree and to them I only say this: if it's so obvious that we are at war, then why hasn't Congress declared?
If congress had, instead, declared war (officially) then I can assure you, we wouldn't be having this discussion. But they didn't. So now, we must all play by the rules. And those rules require going in front of the FISA w/ probable cause in order to spy on Americans.
I just don't see a scenario that give anyone the right to sidestep the process. I've thought about it and thought about it and I just don't see it. If we are at war, I can see why we would need to sidestep it. If we aren't at war, then there is no reason to sidestep. It seems fairly cut and dry.
And as far as the media comment, I don't really care. What really matters is that it DID / Did NOT happen. And from what everyone says, this most definitely happened. Does it really matter how or when we found out?
you are my hero
Um, lets remember that in the good 'ol USA, we elect representatives, NOT leaders.
We elect people to represent us, NOT to lead us. We elect a president to lead the armed forces. We do NOT elect a president to lead the populace.
Maybe the reason these guys obtain so much power is because they have convinced so many that they are leaders.
"we hold our leaders to greater standards than we hold ourselves". To rephrase, we hold our REPRESENTATIVES to greater standards than we hold ourselves. When I received my DD-214, the president stopped being MY leader.
----- If communism is a system where the government owns business, what do you call a system where business owns govern
you are a fucking idiot and it is now my personal goal to expose your lack of depth and understanding every time you post anything on here...
if you're thinking 'bring it on' then good, b/c I am...
also, consider this an invitation for you to do the same to me...b/c i know you don't have anything to bring, except stupid bumper-sticker and t-shirt level logic...
btw, I hate Bush as much as you do, you're just a fucking idiot in the way you express it. You don't know the details, you're inarticulate, and worst of all you get up-modded for it on here...
Thank you Dave Raggett
"Not using every means to track that stuff would be a dereliction"
Why is it not dereliction to arrest these individuals when you know who they are? If we know who they are, why are we tapping their phones instead of picking them up?
----- If communism is a system where the government owns business, what do you call a system where business owns govern
Would you care to explain precisely how this NYT report caused the loss of actionable intelligence?
Are you seriously suggesting that terrorist groups didn't know that the US used wiretaps?
The concern is not the wiretaps, but the lack of warrants. I really don't think Osama cares very much about whether the warrants are legal and illegal, and it's not like the NSA's existence was a secret.
Never forget that the first action that allowed Hitler to take dictatorial powers "above the law" was the Reichstag fire of February 27, 1933 that was blamed on Communist terrorists, but perpetrated by the Nazi party. History has a way of repeating itself.
The Reichstag Fire Decree read: "Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124 and 153 of the Constitution of the German Empire are suspended until further notice. It is therefore permissible to restrict the rights of personal freedom [ habeas corpus ], freedom of opinion, including the freedom of the press, the freedom to organize and assemble, the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications, and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed." Sound familiar?
-Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety deserve neither. -Ben Franklin
It has been an awfully long time, but I was a "radio communications analyst" back in the late 70's and early 80's. Though I wore an Air Force uniform and collected my paycheck from them, everybody in my units were tasked by, and reported directly to, NSA. My first 3+ years were spent doing real-time work in the far east and the last 6 months at Fort Meade at NSA HQ. I can assure you that all of us were aware of the fact that intercepting communications involving any "United States Persons" were strictly forbidden. If we did so inadvertently, we were required to destroy all such records and file a report detailing the circumstances, though not the content.
This was all codified in an "executive order" which was, ironically, signed by Richard Nixon. My best googling efforts have come up dry, but I'll bet someone here can find it. The definition of "United States persons" is easier to find and essentially means: a U.S. citizen located anywhere or anyone who is currently located in the U.S., regardless of citizenship. Our reporting requirements were strictly defined by exacting criteria and little was left to chance or personal judgement.
The whistle blower sounds like the real deal to me.
> We live in a world where Gitmo is not only tolerated,
Gitmo is more than tolerated by the sane people because we understand the difference between moonbat delusion and reality. For instance, we begin with the basic questions:
1. Are terrorists covered by the Geneva Conventions?
Answer: No. They are not uniformed soldiers serving under the flag of a signatory nation state of the Geneva Convention and are thus not entitled to any of it's protections. The fact we nevertheless treat our prisoners according to humane standards is a reflection of our Western Civilivation's values. Compare and contrast to their treatment of our captured soldiers/civilians/hostages/etc.
2. Should terrorists be covered by the Geneva Conventions?
Answer: No. Unless they at least make a minimal effort to act like a regular army with ranks, uniforms, etc. AND announce a policy to reciprocate with humane treatment for our POWs Otherwise it would make a mockery of the Geneva Conventions. They were a fairly successful attempt at defining some rules of warfare to minimize the horrors of war, and make surrender an option that was actually preferrable to death in an unwinnable situation. But the essential part of the Geneva Convention is that it was a mutual bargain, i.e. we all agreed that we would treat soldiers taken in battle humanely. However we also agreed that soldiers taken OUT of uniform, i.e. irregulars, spies, insurgents and such were OUTSIDE the scope of the Treaty.
If it was perfectly OK (from a legal p.o.v.) for the Germans to execute the French Resistance without mercy, explain why Al Queda deserves better treatement. I double dog dare you. During the initial invasion of Afganistan the Taliban was the defacto government, so if there were any uniformed Taliban soldiers, they should probably get POW status. But please, anyone, explain the legal or moral argument for these idiots blowing up stuff in Iraq getting anything more than a fast and nasty interrogation followed by a bullet in the brain.
3. Given the above, what DO we do with captured warriors from the legions of death?
Answer: The US legal system is currently insane. Executing them would be both legal and moral but a loss politically (our moonbats would raise the roof) so we keep em in US custody but off US soil until we can figure out a better solution. Hence Gitmo.
4. Given that we are at War with Al Qaeda(sp?) by both their declaration and as close to a real declaration of War as our modern Congress is ever likely to grant, ours; what should be the extent of our efforts to root out and destroy our sworn enemies?
Answer: Pretty much whatever it takes, so long as it isn't a permanent change. Which is why I support any extension of the Patriot Act so long as it isn't made permanent. The way to win a war, and win it with a minimal casualty count, is to get serious and play for keeps. Compare and contrast to WWII. Ok, in hindsight it was overkill to intern the Japanese Americans. But it shows the extent we were willing to go then. So far todays "Hate Bush" is about our spooks capturing phone lists and laptop computers and then tapping every phone number that turned up an fanning out from there even if one of those numbers called into the US or the circuit routed through the US. Big fat hairy deal.
This leak needs to end one of two ways. Either this asshat has some real dirt, of such that unambigious nature that Bush should be impeached or he needs to be tried, convicted and executed for treason. Any middle ground sends a bad message that we aren't serious about protecting sensitive national security assets.
Democrat delenda est
All right, you sniveling little geeks, I'll show you Trolling. God forbid that /. users would ever read a diverging opinion.
Dark Reflection
Nothing requires anyone to accept anything in exchange for anything, though.
Normally, at gas stations, you pump first, so you owe them the money, so they'd have to take whatever legal tender you wanted to use (Unless they said otherwise in advance.), but his example rather read like that wasn't true, that he was paying in advance, at which point they can legally require payment in his own urine produced while reciting the alphabet backwards and standing on his head.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
The War on (some) Terror is no more a "war" than the War on Poverty or the War on (some) Drugs.
Better that hundreds of innocent people should be tortured than one guilty person go free, eh? Especially morons who want to take down the Brooklyn Bridge with a blowtorch. It never ceases to amaze me how many people repeat the insipid argument that the drafters of the Geneva Conventions could not have foreseen non-state threats. Does the "Black Hand" ring a bell? Any assassinated royalty leading to wars? Any monarchies falling to internal coups, linked perhaps to international conspiracies?Terrorism is not new, Europe has dealt with its modern incarnation for decades. Britain dealt with the IRA without invading Boston.
In World War II, Germany did treat allied POWs better than eastern front POWs, because of a concern about how German POWs would be treated. The important issue that you're missing here, though, is that humane treatment of prisoners is morally correct.
You forgot to mention the speeding ticket... Or - perhaps it [exceeding, or atempting to exceed, the speed-limit] is no longer just a civil infraction, and you get arrested, as part of the deal. Things are a bit backlogged, at the clink, and - since Habeas corpus has been deemed to be a crock of liberal whiner b.s., you just get thrown into a cell, somewhere in a sub-basement, and forgotten, for a while. Occasionally, your days are spiced up when one of the guards decides to practice officially sanctioned interrogation techniques on you - until you run out of fingers, &c....
Nothing to fear... of course. When the current body of law, includes everything from extortion to spitting on the sidewalk; assult to wearing a distracting mustache; making "annoying" phone calls to "enticing an unmarried woman to commit lewed and lacivious acts" ("seduction" laws - 2yrs, in e.g. MI)... and the laws ain't gettin' fewer.
Nothing to fear... of course. When the government insists that it has the right to "detain" individuals, indefinitely, without even having to charge them with a crime.
Nothing to fear... of course. When the government insists that it has the right to "interrogate detainees" using methods which would, without the "spin" be referred to as "torturing prisoners"... Especially when there may not even be enough evidence to charge these "detainees" with a crime.
When our society has legislated damn-near every possable behaivior, and citizen's lives are under constant survelience, no one is safe.
When the government claims that it has the right to detain, and torture, and kill (e.g. Menezes, in london, Alpizar, more recently, in the US, &c.), anyone - without having to justify it's actions (and makes questioning, or talking about this a crime, as well, ala PATRIOT), and any criticism of governmental practices is deflected with FEAR/HATE mongering that would make Benito Mussolini blush (ok... maybe I'm stretching things a bit, there)...
The only thing we have to fear is...
Because of that sentence in that section, it entirely depends on whether the authorization to use military force in Iraq constituted a declaration of war, and for 2001 to 2003, it entirely depends on whether, in the document's words, the "authorization to use military force against the persons or nations or organizations who were involved in the September 11 attacks and the people or nations that harbored them."
The 2001 authorization, should it be interpeted as a declaration of war, would last until every person involved in the 9-11 attacks are captured, and Bin Laden, and maybe one or two others, are still out there, so soon enough it would be like we have "declared war," from Bush's lawyers' point of view, on one person, which has happened before, when we declared war on the leader of a Mexican revolution one or two centuries ago.
No, rather than just the 19 that hi-jacked the planes, because it says organizations, we are after the entirety of Al-Qaeda, and that "declaration of war" will last until every member of that organization is either caught, killed, or dead. It will last until every nation that has harbored Al-Quaeda members has surrendered. It will last until every organization that harbored Al-Quaeda is defunct, their membered killed, or their members dead. It is the sheer broadness of this that leads me to believe that this is a war we cannot win.
Furthermore, according to the Rules of Construction outlined in Title 1, Chapter 1, Section 1, "person" includes societies, organizations, companies, firms, and partnerships. A society is a group of people who share similar beliefs. Would you not say terrorists, are, then, a society? If Bush wanted to stretch this for all it's worth in the world, when he says we are in the middle of the War on Terrorism, does he really, honestly, believe we are really in the middle of a War on Terrorism?
The media, or at least the visual media, has not mentioned this provision of FISA, but once, to my knowledge, in the entire time since this scandal came to light, when MSNBC quoted Bush's lawyers and Alberto Gonzales explaining that Bush has had the authority to do this because they interpret the authorization as a declaration of war. This took two paragraphs. The other times it has been dumbed down, in saying the president says he can do it because of an article of the Constitution invested in him the power of commander-in-chief, which doesn't tell anything at all. They're trying to dumb it down for you, but hopefully, since this is news for nerds, this post will make it up to the top.
I sent a letter to my congressman, Jim Cooper, on this on the 22nd of December and received no reply. I expect you all to send letters to your congressmen and women, too. Here is the letter I sent, explaining the same as above, but with more references to statues, bills, and resolutions:
Dear Mr. Cooper,
When the Authorization for Use of Military Force, S.J. Resolution 23, was passed in September 2001, I was greatly disturbed by the phrasing of Section 2, Subsection a, because of its usage of the word "persons." Title 1 Section 1 of the United States legal code defines "person" to include "societies," which, although I think legally undefined, is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as, in that context, "A group of humans broadly distinguished from other groups by mutual interests, participation in characteristic relationships, shared institutions, and a common culture," or "An organization or association of persons engaged in a common profession, activity, or interest."
Under this notion, President Bush could be said to be able to continue this military authorization until all necessary and appropriate force has been taken against the society o
Section 8 - Powers of Congress ... ...
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html
----- If communism is a system where the government owns business, what do you call a system where business owns govern
If we know who they are, why are we tapping their phones instead of picking them up?
Because finding out who they're talking to, what the larger group is planning, and following the money/support trail back to the source is very, very valuable. You take out one foot soldier, you have not only not stopped that person's several buddies, you've tipped your hand as to how/when you found out about the cell or network of cells they're a part of, and probably driven them into deeper cover.
If the people monitoring a particular bad guy have reason to think that person is about to directly act, they arrest them. Just like Spain after they lost all those people in the train bombs. The Spanish intel people knew who the bombers' associates were, and were watching them very closely... and you'll recall that when they had followed up all the leads they could, they moved in on all of them at once. They arrested some, but others blew themselves up in their apartment rather than be arrested. But if they arrested them one at a time as they uncovered them, they'd end up ultimately missing out on a lot of the rest of them.
For what it's worth, by the way, you've actually identified exactly why it's important to have "black" facilities where they can stash someone like that... so that his associates don't hear through the grapevine that Ahmed is being held in lockup somewhere when they do have no choice but to arrest him. Most of them (the cells) are getting too smart for that now, though - they assume anyone not in touch has been apprehended, and then they have to regroup. But if, for a few days, say, they can work with what that person knows before his team is aware he's been picked up, the whole team may go down. The problem (back to your original question) is that sometimes it takes longer to run down all of that person's communications, contacts, financial records, travel, etc... and before the analysts have learned the big picture, his cell is aware he's busted. So, they let them move around and talk (the more the better), and work on getting the bigger picture. It's exactly the same way they deal with organized crime, pedophile rings, etc... except, in this case, some of the contacts are making calls from Pakistan or Indonesia, etc., and the NSA is in the perfect position to connect the dots.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
That's brilliant! Now... to figure out how to say "Grant all control of the country to me forever" with the acronym of "GODBLESSAMERICA". The paper the bill will be written on will have to also have a waving U.S. flag. And maybe a bald eagle. Or a bald eagle CARRYING a waving flag. And the Statue of Liberty in there somewhere too.
Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
So, we are conducting the "war on terror" using the same time proven tactics as the "war on drugs".
----- If communism is a system where the government owns business, what do you call a system where business owns govern
I vote for the Democrat Party all the time, but I cannot condone this guy's behavior.
How do you know he's a democrat? Also, he's not a politician.
His actions have left us more vulnerable to terrorists around the world since they now know how we are tapping them.
See subject.
Is it any wonder there are many of us who are leaving the Democrat Party for the stronger on defense Republican Party.
Good riddance?
I didn't like it when George Bush barely defeated Gore in 2000, but Bush really stuck it to the terrorists when he invaded Afghanistan and liberated Iraq after those animals attacked us on September 11th.
First off, GWB didn't defeat Gore in 2000. That fact is well known among anyone willing to look at the facts, and a highly partisan SCOTUS decision landed him the job he still has to this day.
The worst thing we could ever bring to the terrorists is a living breathing working Democracy. And we've done it, look at Iraq; it's well on its way to thriving after being saved from the Islamofacist grip of Saddam Hussein.
Your use of the phrase "islamofacist" (sic) betrays the fact that you are, at best, a dittohead and obviously a troll. Instead of actually regurgitating what pundits say, try using your head once a year or so. To label Saddam an islamofascist is incredidly misinformed, and once again it shows that you are not an independent thinker. While I hardly think Saddam was anywhere close to good, the fact was that he was a highly secular leader and the *REAL* islamic fundamentalists hate him. Iraq is more a theocracy now than it was when we invaded in March 03.
Fellow Democrats
While your use of the phrase "fellow democrats" is HIGHLY dubious, let's examine what you've said in your post:
Democrats are weak on defense (straw man argument)
Bush really "gave it to the terrorists" after Sept 11. How? By doing a half assed invasion of Afghanistan and launching an illegal war in Iraq? By holding people without charges or legal counsel? By *spying* on Americans, in direct violation of the constitution? By his neverending attempts to expand executive powers under the guise of protection and war-time authority? Yeah, he's really giving it to the terrorists... If by "it" you mean our freedoms.
If you are a democrat I am the reincarnation of Charlemagne.
I know we are supposed to vote like our fathers, but our fathers never had to consider living in a world where death could come at any minute from the hands of animals wuch as the ones threatening us today.
Yes, because never before in the history of mankind have you had to worry about somone else causing your death. Before 9/11, we all got postcards telling us when and how we will die.
You use an awfully broad brush, and the overall quality of your painting suffers as a result.
No wonder you posted AC, I wouldn't want my name associated with that kind of drivel either.
Just like driving a car:
(D) to go forward
(R) to go backward
As if motives make something someone says true or untrue. Has there ever been a "whistle blower" who wasn't estranged from the power structure that was trying to keep her or him quiet? That's the whole dang point.
As far as the insanity thing goes, let me give you a personal example -- posting as an AC, which I rarely do, because my experience was really close to the bone for me.
I got "investigated" in association with a harassment complaint once. The person complaining did not know which person (among five) from my department had been the offensive one -- she didn't recognize us by name -- so what happened was, HR called us all in for a little talkin' to. We were given papers to sign about how we understood inappropriate touching or comments were out of line, and so on. Those papers got filed in our company records.
I knew that I wasn't the person who'd conducted himself badly. It was obvious who the culprit was, but to have the complainant actually forced to identify the jerk would have constituted "retaliation" in some sense or other. But we all got the papers in our records.
So, we then embarked upon a long spring and summer in which all of us on the team were scrutinized like hawks. HR watched our key cards to see if we were working exactly the right hours, and so on. Previously happy working relationships became strained and formal. We were, all of us, feeling pressure.
Maybe three months into this process, during one of my one-on-one meetings with my supervisor, he suggested that my attitude was suffering. I explained that everyone on my team seemed to be suffering from a certain amount of paranoia over the whole thing.
He suggested that I get some counseling. Seriously. Because obviously I needed to talk to someone, right?
That an institution like the NSA would label a whistle blower "psychologically unstable" or "a personality problem" wouldn't surprise me in the least. That's how close-knit groups deal with the morality of someone in their midst whom they need to exclude for some reason.
It happened to me.
"You're equating impeachment with criminality, which are not nearly the same thing."
I get it. You simply misunderstood my post.
I was using the OTHER definiton of impeachment, the one that reads
"Main Entry: 1impeach
Pronunciation: im-'pEch
Function: transitive verb
3 : to remove from office especially for misconduct"
If prez is criminal then impeach his ass. The usage is fine, even if you're not familiar with it.
How pathetic are you that you follow me from topic to topic and waste all your mod points at once modding me down?
"Saying I think this guy did something illegal,"
is completely inconsistent with "innocent until proven guilty". How you fail to see that, or why you won't admit it, is pretty hard for me to understand.
YOU have no idea whether the taps were legal. In the absence of such a decision, he is INNOCENT until proven otherwise. It's called due process.
Do you understand now?
"what would you suggest we can do about it, if not apply public pressure"
Public pressure is not discarding the Constitution. You don't get to make up your mind about guilt or innocence until he's had his day(s) in court. Calling the wiretaps "illegal" is a determination that you DO NOT get to make. that's a really nice try at rationalization, but you know very well you can apply public pressure without making determinations of guilt or innocence.
Stop relying on lazy thinking.
How pathetic are you that you follow me from topic to topic and waste all your mod points at once modding me down?
Anybody with the name OakDragon probably looks like a troll.
Besides you seem to smart to believe that Bush didn't lie about the WMD. If you actually read and just didn't listen to Rush Limbo (a.k.a. pumpkinhead), and Bill O'Really (O Really, I'm selling cheesy crap to you on my web site), then you'd understand that the morning after 9/11, Bush went to his advisors and said "Iraq will pay for this". His advisors said "Mr. President, there is no evidence that Iraq had anything to do with this". He said "Just get me the evidence".
We were plunging into a trillion dollar war because we have a dumb moron running the country. That's why you were moderated a troll.
You're welcome!
The fact is that they actually had gotten actionable intelligence from it.
The idea that there were wiretaps was certainly known, but the methods and technologies being used in this case were not. Details in the book actually point to this being more of an effort to get information about where calls and emails were coming from and to as opposed to the actual content of the calls and emails.
As for warrants and FISA, read up on some analysis of the program by people over at volokh.com and you'll see that it's not simply "They HAD to get a warrant." cut and dry in this situation.
We were also getting information from Osama's sat phone until there was a news report about that one too.
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
this
But hey, who cares if they blow us up, eh?
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
Please stop trying to perpetuate the lie that Valerie Wilson was not undercover. Politics aside, you do a disservice to the country when you spread false information intended only to defame a former agent who was simply doing her job. Her job was classified information - that's what Patrick Fitzgerald found, and it is notable that the only people who are claiming she wasn't are right wing pundits. The Bush Administration is not even making this argument; it doesn't hold water. The FBI interviewed the Wilsons' neighbors and relatives and nobody knew of her work for the CIA. The New York Times also investigated this question and found that nobody knew of her status; they found that she was a NOC -- "non-official cover," meaning she was without diplomatic protection if she got into trouble. A lot of people spew crap about her driving to CIA headquarters; former CIA agents have said that such people are totally ignorant of how the CIA operates; that many people who go to CIA HQ are nevertheless undercover. Some claim that she had to live outside of the country for several years to be considered undercover -- that is a legalistic nitpick (it is only relevant to whether a particular law was broken, not to whether national security was undermined) and it is false anyway; it is likely that she left the country (not to live but to operate undercover) during the requisite time period. Some general claims to have met Joe Wilson in the green room at FOX dozens of times turns out to only have been there at the same time as him once, for fifteen minutes, hardly time to get into Wilson's wife's covert employment. This general supposedly holds on to this information for weeks, then tells an obscure right wing radio show after the libby indictment (why didn't he present his evidence to the FBI or to Fitzgerald?) The general, it turns out, once wrote an article about distorting information in order to win a "mindwar" against one's enemies. There are several other pundits with similar stories and they all fall apart under scrutiny. This is a smear campaign. The CIA considered her undercover or they never would have asked the Justice Dept to investigate in the first place.
She also was working under cover of a front company, which was exposed -- meaning all the agents she worked with were compromised. Also compromised was whatever operation she was working on - of course we don't know details, but we do know it had to do with reducing the proliferation of WMD. Precisely what Bush was supposedly protecting us from when he started a preventive war in Iraq. On top of the immediate effects look at the longer term picture -- how is the agency supposed to recruit more NOCs and others to do undercover work when they know their cover could be compromised at the political whim of whoever is in office?
Please put your politics aside and look at this clearly. This is not a left wing, right wing issue. If the Clinton Admin had exposed a CIA agent to get petty revenge on an opponent of the admin, the impeachment hearings would have been over in minutes. Democrats would have joined Republicans condemning him for severely undermining U.S. national security, and the case against him would have been a slam dunk. Apart from whether it was illegal according to a certain interpretation of the law, and apart from what party one belongs to, the fact is, exposure of undercover agents by their bosses in the administration should not happen. Period.
Because Merriam-Webster is where I got the definition from, and since thhat's a dictionary, and you're some guy on a web board who assumed he was right and isn't, I'll ignore you.
"Impeachment by the Congress defined very clearly, you can't substitute any old meaning in there when you're talking about a specific legal action."
And there's your mistake, I wasn't talking about the legal action. YOU assumed I was, and then tried to correct me.
If you thought I WAS talking about the legal definition, and not the vernacular, you should have ASKED first instead of assuming you knew what I meant.
Seriously, what's with the attitude? You were wrong, get over it.
Stop tryin to be such a fucking know-it-all, or at least make sure you're correct before you correct someone else.
MERRIAM-WEBSTER, look it up.
How pathetic are you that you follow me from topic to topic and waste all your mod points at once modding me down?
"Are you serious? You do realize "innocent until proven guilty" refers to a person's innocence/guilt in the eyes of the law, right?"
Well since the thread has been about the legality of Bush's actions, what did you think I meant, and why are you discussing anything else?
His actions aren't illegal, and you have no court decision that says otherwise.
If you were discussing something else tha the law, I wasn't, so don't.
How pathetic are you that you follow me from topic to topic and waste all your mod points at once modding me down?
of the current (and probably last eight or so- maybe more) administration of the US is the failure to understand the most basic precepts of the constitution.
Namely, that The rights of the individual are paramount, and that trust should be placed foremost in the individual and only ceded to the state grudgingly and in a limited fashion.
In other words, Bush, his cronies, and most of the last centuries adminsitrations have seemed to operate on the theory that they inherently know more than the average joe. Point of fact, they have done everything possible to keep it that way, from denying transparency due to "national security" and "Official secrets" (which of course are known by the enemy 99% of the time and are almost never secrets to anyone but the general public) to rigging the educational system to produce a general lack of critical thinking and self-determination skills. (Read the writings of our first secretary of education on the need to produce "not enteprenuers, but workers") This is in direct contrast to the ideas of the founding fathers, who implied a great trust in the individual coupled with a grave distrust of goverments, secrets, and those who would accumulate personal power at the expense of the public.
To put it another way- Instead of the state being the servant of the people, these fools have begun to believe the state is the master of the people- and it's just about time to rudely disabuse them of the notion.
I just hope enough people wake up in time to do so, or the process will be long, bloody, and painful.
Then again, didn't some one once say "the tree of liberty must occasionally be watered with the blood of patriots"?
Oh, yeah, one more thing: Scince has proved that all politicians are addicted to sucking dirty goat cock.
Just sayin'.
"No, because it's so startlingly and blatantly obvious that Bush broke the law when he ordered/authorized these wiretaps."
Then you would help me out and direct me to a court case that says so. And if you're going to refer to the 72 Nixon case, be sure to read the section that talks about this
"The president claims two sources of legal authority: Congress' post-Sept. 11, 2001, resolution authorizing him to use force to repel terrorist threats, and his inherent constitutional power over military and foreign policy matters.
The standards that the court set for future cases in its 1972 ruling don't resolve either of those claims. The court did not anticipate a law such as the use-of-force resolution, although the justices rejected a similar argument by the Nixon administration that the existing wiretap law allowed the president to order surveillance for national security.
As for the constitutional issue, Powell's opinion specified that the court was considering only the president's authority over domestic security, and was expressing no view about foreign intelligence"
See that part? See how it says the issues in this case may not apply to the previous Nixon decision?
Or did you not know that? Or do you not care?
Why have you made up your mind, and ignored due process? Are you secretly a Constitutional schaolr, and even if you are SO ARE THE PEOPLE WHO I QUOTED. Your opinion holds no more weight.
I want the court to make up its mind. Why? Because that's what it does. Because there are arguments here that I want to see made. Because I want to HEAR what everyone has to say before I make up MY mind.
Apparently you do it a different way.
"Yours are a good example."
Cute, but point it out smart guy. Being trite is pretty fun, but what have you proved apart from a quick wit? Point out the pro Bush parts, and I'll print them and eat them.
But "disagree with the lynch mob" doesn't equal "pro-murderer" and "disagree with you" doesn't equal "pro-Bush". Why you insist on thinking that way is an interesting question.
How pathetic are you that you follow me from topic to topic and waste all your mod points at once modding me down?
Ignorance is strength! ... Right?
I think that one misunderstands the concept of a right to privacy. IANAL, though... This is not about protecting ownership of information, but about protecting the public and the lives of private persons from the undue encroachment of the law.
Once again, IANAL. Any legal opinions in this post are to be deemed useless from a practical point of view....
The concept of the right to privacy is based in several areas of the US Constitution. These include the right to be secure in one's person, posessions, and papers against unreasonable search and siezure, and the right not to be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. The question of the NSA wiretaps represent a potential encroachment the first ground.
Now, the general approach used in search and siezure issues is one of balancing legitimate expectations of privacy with the interests of law enforcement or other parties. While warrants are generally required, there are notable exceptions. For example, I don't think that people consider the possibility that bags may be searched at an airport to be unreasonable.
Also the standard for searching a backpack or a purse at a public high school is lower than it is to search one's house, and the US Supreme Court in these cases has established the idea that a search on school grounds must be based on "reasonable suspicion" and that the search must be appropriately scoped.
The courts have generally held that evesdropping on telephone conversations are subject to the same requirements that any other search.
So the question is whether the search of telephone conversations by the NSA violates constitutional rights, i.e. whether they are per se illegal. In this area there is clear guidance not only from the Courts but also from Congress as well. While the courts have provided for a fairly comprehensive framework for such surveillance, this is somewhat complicated and not all searches require a warrant. Congress furthermore has passed the FISA which creates a special court for secretly hearing search warrant requests, and also allows for warrantless surveillance for limited times in the event of an emergency. These wiretaps do not appear to fit within the FISA framework.
Nor does the Bush Administration suggest that they are. Instead they look to the Authorization to Use Military Force for the justification to do this. This act states:
"That the President is
authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those
nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized,
committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11,
2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any
future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such
nations, organizations or persons." (Emphasis Mine)
In other words, the Bush Administration asserts that the AUMF provides him with the power to engage militarily against any persons, nations, or organizations he chooses solely on the justification that he states that they were behind the terrorist attacks of 2001. This authorization was cited in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and the Supreme Court declined to suggest that it was a blank check allowing for unfettered presidential power against US citizens. Similarly, this authorization has been used in Padilla v. Hanft arguing that the government has the right to detain a US citizen on home soil indefinitely and without trial. Finally they cite this act of Congress in asserting the legality of the NSA wiretaps.
If the AUMF is to be read in the way that the Bush Administration continuously asserts, then my opinion is that it would lead to a United States ruled under a dictatorial system of martial law, where neither Congress nor the Courts could effectively reign in the Executive. Whether or not one believes in Bush's good intentions, one must necessarily consider that we cannot expect that we will always have wise and just leaders. Our Constitution as ammended
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
> Really.... I thought it was to stop them from using weapons of mass destruction on us...
> no, wait, that was all a lie.
Good grief, you don't actually believe that drivel do you? So why do you expect me to debate it? The War had many reasons, all of them good ones:
1. Finally getting rid of Saddam. He was a perpetual pain in the butt and everyone knew he was only going to get worse over time. When all was said and done, Saddam just 'needed killin'.' Too bad our knuckle draggin, raping, killing, torturing machines in full body armor couldn't bring themselves to just put a bullet in his sorry ass when they drug him from his hole. Yup, we don't give a shit about human rights but we saved that piece of human filth.
2. WMD. Everybody thought he had em. There was zero doubt that he HAD them in the past. The UN inspectors believed he was holding out. Every intelligence agency on the planet believed he had some and was hellbent on increasing his inventory.
3. Afganistan just wasn't big enough or hard enough to defeat to send the message we wanted to send to the world. Somebody else just had to get thrown against the wall and if you were looking for a poster child for whipping boy, Saddam is yer guy and Iraq was the perfect country to make an 'example' of.
4. But the big one was the Drain the Swamp stategy. Iraq was and is ideally suited for remaking into a Republic at peace with itself and its neighbors. Give em a role model of what their own country could be without the Mullas and dictators running the place into the toilet. This one wasn't the one pushed in the mainstream media for reasons so blindingly obvious I won't bother stating them here, but all of us in the VRWC got the memo a year before the first shot was fired, guess you aren't on the mailing list.
Democrat delenda est
"Privacy" is just the affirmative way of saying "Freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures".
Listening to my phone conversations is a search. Being free of such listening without a court authorized warrant is privacy.
And this right is absolutely fundamental.
The enemies of Democracy are
Thankfully, most Americans understand that if they have no affiliation with terrorist groups, they have nothing to worry about.
Yeah, right.
I know a nice housewife who converted to Islam a few months before 9/11.
She participates in a number of Islamic political discussion web sites and mailing lists - where she is a voice of reason, explaining to Muslums how various actions look to Americans and giving them helpful suggestions. Especially this includes how to make it clear to us if they really are opposed to terrorism.
On a couple occasions a radical jihadist mailing list has arbitrarily added her to their distribution list and not removed her despite repeated requests.
The NSA says is doing traffic analysis. That means looking at who talks to whom and when - without looking at the contents of the transmissions.
Think about how the bogus jihadist mailing list subscription and her attempts to get off it makes her look. Bunch of email from a terrorist organization, lots this mail followed in short order my of email from her to them...
(Her solution: After they fail to remove her after a couple attempts, complain to the FBI, attaching the offending email. B-) But the NSA won't hear about that. So unless her mail to the FBI shows up in the traffic analysis and is analyzed correctly (or incorrectly in a way that makes her look to the NSA like an FBI informant or a double-agent) she'll still look like a jihadi, won't she?)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I am now going to begin every phone conversation with: "I am a radical Islamic movement of one, and I hereby declare Jihad on Richard Cheney's testicles!!!", And end it wiht the observation: "Science has now proved that all politicians, whether democrat or republican, are hopelessly addicted to sucking filthy goat cock!" (I'm betting it won't be half as funny when I'm being tortured at gitmo, but still, it's funny enough to be almost worth it...)
"What? I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the constant beeping of my bullshit detector..."
Back in the day.... (when the sun was young and the Soviet empire was still around) this was called "NSA Food" and was attached in signatures to email and USENET postings. Typically it would reference things like kremvax, kgbvax, uranium, trigger, afganistan, etc.
Sorry- reposting this as myself because posting it anonymously seemed...well, cowardly. The biggest failure of the current (and probably last eight or so- maybe more) administration of the US is the failure to understand the most basic precepts of the constitution. Namely, that the rights of the individual are paramount, and that trust should be placed foremost in the individual and only ceded to the state grudgingly and in a limited fashion. In other words, Bush, his cronies, and most of the last centuries administrations have seemed to operate on the theory that they inherently know more than the average joe. Point of fact, they have done everything possible to keep it that way, from denying transparency due to "national security" and "official secrets" (which of course are known by the enemy 99% of the time and are almost never secrets to anyone but the general public) to rigging the educational system to produce a general lack of critical thinking and self-determination skills. (Read the writings of our first secretary of education on the need to produce "not enteprenuers, but workers") This is in direct contrast to the ideas of the founding fathers, who implied a great trust in the individual coupled with a grave distrust of goverments, secrets, and those who would accumulate personal power at the expense of the public. To put it another way- Instead of the state being the servant of the people, these fools have begun to believe the state is the master of the people- and it seems it may be just about time to rudely disabuse them of the notion. I just hope enough people wake up in time to do so, or the process will be long, bloody, and painful. Then again, didn't someone once say "the tree of liberty must occasionally be watered with the blood of patriots"? Oh, yeah, one more thing: Science has proven that all politicians are addicted to sucking dirty goat cock. Just sayin'.
"What? I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the constant beeping of my bullshit detector..."
Agreed, it's not a position I would want to be in either. And I certainly understand your comments about a fighting non-nation armies (Al Q). It is quite different from "going to war with Germany". But it isn't so different from Vietnam. And we faced the same issues there. Cries of "illegal wars" and non-supervision of government activities (Cambodia). And after the fact, I think the nation agreed that Cambodia and the secret activities going on there -- were a "bad thing". So what is so different now that "secret activities" shouldn't be overseen?
I still go back to the same premise: given all this uncertainty, wouldn't you WANT some supervision as to how these investigational activities are being handled?
I understand the need for speed. But I also understand the need for control of the process. And we don't have to look very far back in history to see processes out of control. I just can't see how you can argue that going around the FISA court is acceptable in a time such as this. If we were at war (declared), perhaps I would agree. But this "ambiguous" wartime footing makes me think we need to be watching even closer than if we were at war.
> aren't all captured EPWs entitled to an Article V tribunal to determine their status?
Haven't read the whole thing, but I suspect that if we were being pendantic about it, that yes they are. But being realistic the first question would be "To which country do you claim to be a soldier fighting in a fashion that is compliant with the requirements of the Geneva Conventions?" At which point they either frown sullenly at their captors and are led away or they spout some nonsense and the named country adjectly denies the accusation within milliseconds. Not very useful in either case.
International law just hasn't caught up with terrorists yet, mostly because the "International Community" spends most of it's time appologizing for and coddling terrorists instead of fighting them. Until it does there really aren't any rules other than that of the jungle. They seem to prefer it this way. So be it then, no mercy given or received.
Democrat delenda est
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
That sounds like a pretty clear right to privacy to me. It may apply only to the government, but apply it does.
Especially in the case of this domestic NSA surveillance -- certainly someone can come up with some different definition of "privacy" and say that the 4th amendment doesn't cover it, but that's a straw man. The 4th amendment specifically, and explicitly, prohibits this sort of government behavior.
Bush thinks he's Colonel Jessup (boy, am I glad they spelled it with two S's!) from "A Few Good Men".
Colonel Jessup didn't realize he'd done anything wrong, either. And Bush doesn't do that good of a Jack Nicholson inpersonation, anyways.
Just like the definition I quoted.
God you're a pompus twit.
Listen we all see what happened. You were going to try to knock me down because you thought the definition I quoted wasn't accepted, and when I proved it was, you were stuck.
Next time make sure you know what the fuck you're talking about and you won't have to resort to arguing about the context of the argument with the person who started the argument in the first place.
How pathetic are you that you follow me from topic to topic and waste all your mod points at once modding me down?
[...] information on George W. illegally bypassing said court [...]
One of the issues currently in play is whether it IS illegal for the whitehouse to "bypass said court" - or even if congress CAN prescribe by law that the executive branch must ask such a court for permission to wiretap FOR FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.
There's no question that the congress can prescribe how the executive branch does wiretapping for CRIMINAL JUSTICE purposes - (except that the constitution may completely prohibit warrantless wiretaps FOR THAT PURPOSE, so even congress couldn't authorize warrentless taps if the info goes to criminal cases).
(And - assuming the administration's claim is correct - one thing that's wrong about the Patriot Act is that it allows info obtained on the claimed-to-be-lower foreign-intellignence standard of suspicion to leak into law enforcement's operation, with its high requirements for suspicion and warrants.)
To say (as you do above) that the wiretapping in question is illegal is to take one party's side in an argument about a point of law. That point will only be settled when the Supreme Court rules on it.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
It was disclosed on FOX news that Russell Tice has been diagnosed by a psychiatrist to be psychotic. I wouldn't believe anything the fruit cake says. It has also been alleged he abused his wife.
argue
v. argued, arguing, argues
v. tr.
1. To put forth reasons for or against; debate: "It is time to stop arguing tax-rate reductions and to enact them" (Paul Craig Roberts).
2. To attempt to prove by reasoning; maintain or contend: The speaker argued that more immigrants should be admitted to the country.
3. To give evidence of; indicate: "Similarities cannot always be used to argue descent" (Isaac Asimov).
4. To persuade or influence (another), as by presenting reasons: argued the clerk into lowering the price.
I realize that "apologist" is not in everyone's everyday language - but I thought argue would be. Sorry for taking that leap without quoting the dictionary to you. I won't make that mistake again.
The rest of my argument is about as reasonable as this, albeit I admit I can't quote a dictionary to show you why your pathetic victimhood is self-imposed
-stormin
The Southern Baptist Convention has creationism. On Slashdot, we have porn.
I don't see how it's so different from the other meaning. With pumping your population full of nationalism, you're making them easily manipulatable by painting a chosen target as un-yourcountry whenever you want, and the patriots will be happy to run off and die in droves.
I am not athenian or greek
but a citizen of the world
{Socrates}
the sun is god
With neo-cons and conservative republicans controlling the show any "fact-finding" will no doubt be like the 9/11 commission. More cover-up than truth.
For all the talk surrounding civil liberties and powers of government,
esp. the executive, arguing whether we are in a state of war or not,
whether our leadership has jeopardized the principals of upon which
our Country rests and pointing fingers as to who among us has become
the most brainwashed; no one is asserting that
both groups are in massive denial and and our political system has been totally corrupted beyond all credibility.
First, w/respect to this topic, I'm surprised that no mention of
D. Ellsberg has come up. Like Tise, a govt. employee who 'went public'
and effectively helped to end the war in S.E.Asia. Traitor or Hero?
Second, despite his actions, despite the dissent and the war's end,
what really changed beyond a new face and name? The game stayed the same.
Business and propaganda as usual. Cambodia labelled a genocide but no mention of
our sanctioning and funding of Timorese slaughter. Marcos and Pinochet
and Manuel were our men, just like Saddam. People who basically wanted
to be free from oppression/domination (read 'confessions
of an economic hitman') got labelled marxists and found themselves
disappeared all across South and Central America with the blessings and
training and weapons stamped 'made in the good 'ole U.S.A'.
This is the bigger picture that needs examining. Not what's happening here
in our country. Save that for last and start with what our country has
been doing to the rest of the world for the past 50 years. How the world
percieves us, the largest dealer of guns and drugs and fantasy.
This has become the legacy of the American Dream; the consolidation of power
and wealth in the hands of a few at the expense of the rest of the world.
Re-writing history into a myth that tries to cleanse our blood-stained hands.
Packaging and selling that myth in the hopes that we will never come to realize
what we've been doing to ourselves.
As trite as it sounds we, the lumbering middle-class of every major
industrialized country (but mostly us in the U.S) are living in the
matrix. We are the batteries that fuel the machine. All our discussions
are moot because they ultimately center on just another set of controls.
Nothing that we do, short of disconnecting ourselves, will alter
our habits of consumption, or redress the conditions that most people can
hardly wrap their heads around.
This is the reality: A global ecology that is on the brink of extinction and
collapse. An over-populated world growing ever more dependent on energy and water resources
in decline. A world in which 2/3'rds are considered disposable and living in starvation
and destitution. A world where 1% owns nearly 1/2, 5% owns nearly 2/3'd of all
resouces controled and consumed (and sadly, it only takes a six-figure income to be
in the top 5%). This is reality. We do not see it in it's magnitude. We channel
surf around it, cross the street to avoid it. We go shopping. We have that luxury. For now.
There may be no "elite conspiracy", but make no mistake; the successes of the
"New World Order" and its IMF, WTO, NAFTA/CAFTA, G8, GATT spawn are all designed to
ensure that globalization and 'open markets' provide them with the lifeboats with which to flee
our leaking Titanic. That is their solution to the problems they've created.
A trans-national refuge that suffers neither taxation nor oversight, Or, from the
matrix analogy: a new program to keep the machine in power.
We can discuss American politics ad infinitum and ad nauseum. Call it what you will:
Pax Americana, the End of History, the Idea of Progress or Full Spectrum Domination.
Political and Social ideology w/out economic consideration is irrelevant. And it is the
economics, our economics, the nefarious, insidiousness of globalization, that is
being r
resist propaganda