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Wiretap Whistleblower, a Life in Limbo?
Newsweek has an interesting report on Thomas M. Tamm, the individual who blew the whistle on the Federal Government's warrantless wiretaps. The piece takes a look at some of the circumstances leading up to the disclosure and what has happened since. "After the raid, Justice Department prosecutors encouraged Tamm to plead guilty to a felony for disclosing classified information — an offer he refused. More recently, Agent Lawless, a former prosecutor from Tennessee, has been methodically tracking down Tamm's friends and former colleagues. The agent and a partner have asked questions about Tamm's associates and political meetings he might have attended, apparently looking for clues about his motivations for going to the press, according to three of those interviewed."
Very chilling. Do not take your freedom for granted. I'll share my personal story to show how quickly a thriving democracy can turn into an oppresive regime, here in the US.
Remember the times that led to the invsasion of Iraq? American flags on every highway overpass?
I just happened to be in the process of getting my green card, which means my future was at the mercy of a faceless US government bureaucrat. A rejection and I'd have to pack with my family (including two US born children) and find another place in the globe to settle.
I had published a couple of letters to the editors in the San Jose Mercury News, discussing politics. I was reading foreign media which were hinting that US intelligence on Iraq WMD was bogus. Guess what? I stood very quiet, very silent. Who knows who was listening and how far the goverment was willing to go to silence dissent. If it had been just me, I would have stood up and fought for my rights, but with my family in mind, I decided to cave.
Think about this for a second: the best place on earth, and still scared of what the government might do to me. Call me paranoid, but it felt like a very real threat. It's only in the last two years or so, with Obama rising, that the oppressive feeling has left.
--
http://fairsoftware.net/
Am I the only one to notice the irony of having a guy named Agent Lawless at the Justice Department?
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
here's a clue: he believed it was illegal
Errr I'm taking a massive shot in the dark here but I'm guessing that the motivation would be
CONCERN ABOUT THE MASSIVE SUBVERSION OF INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND THE CONSTITUTION
I mean I know its a crazy mad sort of idea that someone might be motivated by decency and the desire for what is right rather than some political ideology. When George W. Bush and Dick Cheney talk about the principles of American freedom... well that is what this man has stood up to defend.
How sad that its the defender of freedom who is being shafted, while those who look to subvert the constitution are getting away scot free.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
He will be recognized as a hero for defending the constitution, like those civil rights advocates who once violated state/local ordinances on segregation.
Unfortunately, today is not that day. But he is a true hero none the less.
My rights don't need management.
How about basic patriotism?
blew the whistle on the Federal Government's warrantless wiretaps... [agent] looking for clues about his motivations for going to the press
Concern over illegality and the fact that his superiors didn't seem to care that it was? Isn't that the obvious answer? Are they expecting to find that he's a communist mole, sent to destroy us by exposing our blatant disregard for our own laws? I thought that's what whistleblowers were *supposed* to do. Who cares why?
Magic doesn't work in my presence. My power of disbelief is too strong.
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Print link.
And a damned interesting read, no matter your political stripe.
Some days it's just not worth
chewing through my restraints.
You mean Joe the plumber who didn't pay his taxes so my own tax burden is larger? I don't care about his library record, but if you are going to whine about taxes on the public stage and didn't pay them, expect to be given the big 'naughty, naughty'.
People love to be angry about hypocrites.
I think this statement says it all: "..If somebody were to say, who am I to do that? I would say, 'I had taken an oath to uphold the Constitution'..."
I think that counts for a lot. If the gov is doing something unconstitutional, then it's your duty to uphold that document first. As a gov official, you have an oath to that body of laws first and foremost. Loyalty to gove agencies or executives is secondary at best.
Health Insurance Quotes
With all the bad news I read about every day, it warms my heart to read about heroes. Even in terrible circumstances like this.
Thomas M. Tamm is a hero to the world and to the American public. He put the needs of the greater good above those of his own. He is fighting the fight that the vast majority of us are too scared to fight - a fight for his country, and a fight for freedom.
When the perpetrators of this current facism are vanquished, like they always are, we will look back and remember the good that rose to counter.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
Every second these people are allowed to live is another denial of any true justice.
These people should not be allowed to return to a life of luxury when so many people who actually worked for a living have lost everything they own.
I'd like to see these "men" marched out of the whitehouse forced to their knees and shot publicly. Anything less is a denial of justice.
I bet Obama pardons them all.
"Money stands for money, the devil for his own" -Billy Bragg
Realisticly every agent participating in this harassment needs to be fired and banned from holding a government job.
I've had quite enough of ineffective pussyfoot solutions.
Government officials of the American Republic swear an oath to the Constitution, NOT to the President or any other individual.
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
these are the correct treatments for the individuals who work for a government that has grown to see itself OVER and ABOVE its citizens, trying to intimidate them down, trying to subdue them.
disobedience. this is what such a government deserves.
this is what had happened in 1774.
Read radical news here
I will support and defend the Constitution of the
United States against all enemies, foreign and
domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to
the same; that I take this obligation freely, without
any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that
I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the
office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
'Nuff said. Still, it sucks to see Slashdot staff drinking the FBI's "National Security" kool-aid. He did what he believed was the right thing, and that was to call attention to illegal activity within the intelligence services.
Now let's say, in the near-too-distant future, that the United States becomes a full-blown dystopia and Slashdot's still around:
Would you, Pudge, help the feds round up all of the Slashdotters who have been known to post subversive opinion? Would you receive satisfaction from the doggie bones and pats on the head? Or maybe you're just making deals with the devil because you want that DUI expunged or you have a few foreign-born relatives you want to bring in...who knows?
The government may not classify something to prevent disclosure if it would cover up an illegal act. That's not the right wording, but it is the gist of the law. Basically, classifying info to cover it up is, in itself, illegal. The problem is that the people who are classifying the material are most likely the ones doing the illegal act in the first place, and adding a cover up charge is relatively inconsequential to the actual illegal activity. It's like perjury - if you lie and lose, you're no worse off; if you lie and win, you generally are scott free (since, based on the evidence available, you didn't actually lie).
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
ATnT was the biggest contributor to the party conventions (well to the DFL; don't remember if they were #1 for GOP.)
Fix the money and then politicians who will not compromise their ethics can get somewhere. When they compromise in order to win it makes you wonder just how far they will let their ethics lapse and if they will get worse with prolonged exposure to corporatism.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
You don't think it's Jason Wesley Lawless of 43164 Crosswind Ter. Broadlands, VA 20148, born 12/31/1972 (birthday's coming up), at (571) 333-3347, do you?
It seems awfully stupid to go after a guy that the majority of Americans will end up calling a patriot when you haven't gone so far as to have an unlisted number. That said, there was a Jason W. Lawless, ADA, in Tennessee, and the Jason W. Lawless in Broadlands (DC suburb) did live in Nashville before. No doubt members of the press already know how to contact him...
Bank of Georgetown
5236 44th Street
Washington, DC 20015
Everyone who cares about freedom in the US should chip in. I'm going to (despite being quite strapped at the moment).
Your god may be dead, but mine aren't!
...is gonna kick this guy's arse.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
"After the raid, Justice Department prosecutors encouraged Tamm to plead guilty to a felony for disclosing classified information -- an offer he refused. More recently, Agent Lawless, a former prosecutor from Tennessee, has been methodically tracking down Tamm's friends and former colleagues. The agent and a partner have asked questions about Tamm's associates and political meetings he might have attended, apparently looking for clues about his motivations for going to the press, according to three of those interviewed."
uh, that's maybe supposed to sound all spooky and scary and stuff, but that's stuff that happens BEFORE you even get a clearance!
It's always amazes me how those who scream bloody murder about privacy around cases such as this, especially when there is evidence of wrongdoing... throw caution to the wind and blatantly violate someone else's privacy.
Oh right... it's ok for you to do it because... Lawless is bad and Tamm is good? Because you agree with one and not the other? One persons privacy is more valuable and should be protected over another?
If not... haven't you just lost the ability to cry if someone investigates you or posts your personal information online?
Do tell the class... what is the point of your posting agent Lawless's personal information here? Harassment? Intimidation?
Ahh moral supremacy at it's finest!
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
totalitarian, authoritarian
You keep using those words. I do not think they mean what you think they mean.
From my perspective, the man is a hero. The Constitution was put in place to protect the people from a tyrannical government. In the spirit of the Constitution, he saw a tyrannical government on the horizon, and with a sworn duty to protect the Constitutional rights of the people, he made a sacrifice to stop it. That's the definition of an American hero. Anything else that the Bush administration tries to state about him and is actions is nothing more than the Bush administration trying to cover their own asses.
I think it's indicative of just how fouled up the government is when one's motivations are investigated when you spill the beans on blatantly illegal government activities. Seems to me that questioning one's motivations in a case like this isn't too far removed from the old Soviet Union's practice of labeling anyone that criticized the government of being mentally ill.
Tamm wasn't an elected official and likely never had to swear to uphold the Constitution, the laws of the land, and all that, but I am sure glad he took it upon himself to call the New York Times when he found out what the government was up to.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
This is exactly like a woman jaywalking on the way to the police station to report her own rape. When she gets there, the police not only refuse to arrest or even investigate her rapist, because the rapist is the chief of police, but they do make strenuous efforts to investigate her jaywalking while running to the station to report the rape. Those at the Justice Department (no irony in the name huh ?) who are abusing their authority to harass a genuine Patriot should be sacked, disbarred, and charged themselves. Perhaps our new Chief Executive can do something about this, I don't think he will though. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Like his vote on telcom immunity.
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Why would the Slashdot editors delete public information of a public official obtained from public sources?
Was there a black-friday 2-for-1 sale on bags of stupid that I didn't hear about?
Remember Valerie Plame?
If it was so important to find and punish the leaker (Richard Armitage, who BTW was never charged with any crime) who outed her, then why aren't you defenders of law and freedom crying out for the prosecution of this leaker?
Oh, I forgot, it doesn't count if it makes a Republican look bad.
If everyone who ever had anything to do with Tamm (to the best of their admittedly human and therefore fallible memory can recall) got word to Agent Lawless that they might have something to contribute, said Lawless (Agent) might suddenly suffer an overabundance of leads to follow.
The fact that he (Tamm) apparently smuggled his sister out of a research hospital aboard a Firefly class ship would probably be at the extreme end of such reports. Most would probably be more plausible. "He told me he knew how to make free long distance calls." (Later - He said all I needed to do was call those that started with 800.)
Tamm might go down for this. The guy who did the same to the tobacco companies did too. But, they made a movie based on it ("The Insider") so people could know there was a story, and all the billions of dollars the tobacco companies paid to the states (most subsequentely wasted by the states) were a pay off they made before the statute of limitations expired and their true culpability became known. One day it will.
Hopefully Tamm will get picked up by a large enough concern to protect him. There are, after all, corporations that are large enough to deflect such puny attempts at law enforcement, whether questionable or not.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B