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The NSA Wiretapping Story Nobody Wanted

Posted by Soulskill on from the since-privacy-is-such-a-minor-issue dept.

CWmike writes "They sometimes call national security the third rail of politics. Touch it and, politically, you're dead. The cliché doesn't seem far off the mark after reading Mark Klein's new book, Wiring up the Big Brother Machine ... and Fighting It. It's an account of his experiences as the whistleblower who exposed a secret room at a Folsom Street facility in San Francisco that was apparently used to monitor the Internet communications of ordinary Americans. Amazingly, however, nobody wanted to hear his story. In his book he talks about meetings with reporters and privacy groups that went nowhere until a fateful January 20, 2006 meeting with Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Bankston was preparing a lawsuit that he hoped would put a stop to the wiretap program, and Klein was just the kind of witness the EFF was looking for. He spoke with Robert McMillan for an interview."

3 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Your daily instructions are ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Bash Bush.

    We will contact you again tomorrow for your next assignment but you should assume that
    tomorrow you will do the same as today, Bash Bush.

    Signed,

    MoveOn.org

  2. Your just as guilty for leaving out information by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    "The bill also allows any warrantless wiretapping program to be reviewed by a secret federal intelligence court; requires a spy agency to purge any intelligence involving an American unless it gets a court warrant; and, for the first time, requires intelligence officials to get a court warrant if they wish to target an American living abroad. Read what's in the FISA bill"

    "Obama did vote for an amendment offered before the final vote by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Connecticut, that would have stripped the immunity provisions from the bill, but the amendment failed."

    When pressed to explain his change in position by an angry questioner Thursday, Obama defended his vote, saying he opposed the immunity for the companies but ultimately voted for the bill because he felt that the revisions to the intelligence law were necessary to protect the nation's security.

    REF: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/11/obama.netroots/index.html

  3. Re:Not even Barack Obama by ppanon · · Score: 0, Troll

    Well it also helped a lot that John McCain picked Bush III as his running mate.

    --
    Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire