Slashdot Mirror
Federal Prosecutors, In a Policy Shift, Cite Warrantless Wiretaps As Evidence
schwit1 sends this quote from the NY Times "The Justice Department for the first time has notified a criminal defendant that evidence being used against him came from a warrantless wiretap, a move that is expected to set up a Supreme Court test of whether such eavesdropping is constitutional. The government's notice allows the defendant's lawyer to ask a court to suppress the evidence by arguing that it derived from unconstitutional surveillance, setting in motion judicial review of the eavesdropping. ... The practice contradicted what [Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr.] had told the Supreme Court last year in a case challenging the law, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. Legalizing a form of the Bush administration’s program of warrantless surveillance, the law authorized the government to wiretap Americans’ e-mails and phone calls without an individual court order and on domestic soil so long as the surveillance is “targeted” at a foreigner abroad. A group of plaintiffs led by Amnesty International had challenged the law as unconstitutional. But Mr. Verrilli last year urged the Supreme Court to dismiss the case because those plaintiffs could not prove that they had been wiretapped. In making that argument, he said a defendant who faced evidence derived from the law would have proper legal standing and would be notified, so dismissing the lawsuit by Amnesty International would not close the door to judicial review of the 2008 law. The court accepted that logic, voting 5-to-4 to dismiss the case."
How are we, the U.S., different from East Germany?
Easy. The US is using its national intelligence agencies to obtain intelligence on terrorists trying to kill people. The intelligence agencies themselves don't have police powers. The suspect in this case is accused of assisting a terrorist group. East Germany's secret police had both an intelligence function and police powers. Their primary purpose was to keep the East German Communist party in power. The secret police were referred to as "The Sword and Shield of the Party." You could be arrested and imprisoned for such things as making jokes about the nation's leadership, wanting to form a new political party, being a member of an unapproved church, trying to leave the country without permission (could get you shot on the spot), and many other possible infractions. It isn't a small gap between them.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Was that
A> warrantless wiretapping was only being done when it involved one foreign contact on the other end.
B> such wiretapping couldn't be used as evidence in any trial anyway.
Essentially a splitting of hairs but the US citizen be brought up on charges.
This is now turned on its ear - the Obama Administration is saying they can gather evidence on you WITHOUT permission (IE Illegally!) and they can charge you with a crime so long as they inform the accused they gathered such information... Illegally...
WTF has this country come too?!
How are we, the U.S., different from East Germany?
Easy. The US is using its national intelligence agencies to obtain intelligence on terrorists trying to kill people.
Except when they entrap people who are too stupid to find their way to the bathroom and lead them by the hand into a Hollywood terrorist plot that they never would have come up with on their own. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/nyregion/16terror.html http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/dec/12/how-terrorist-entrapment-ensares-us-all
The American people have the power to change this - UNTIL the second amendment is defeated. Have you noticed how the Democrats support gun control? Just like some National Socialist in the 1930's, at every opportunity our Democratic Socialist party today wants to undermine a free man's right to keep and bear arms.
The right to keep and bear arms is the defining difference between a free man and a slave.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Demolition Man (1993)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106697/?ref_=nv_sr_1
City police forces didn't respond to Tommy guns by purchasing tanks and bazookas.
No, many of them bought Thompson submachine guns and BARs - Browning Automatic Rifles.
You may be cheering for the police to be outgunned, but if you've ever been outgunned it isn't an experience you wish to repeat - and they generally don't. (And the infamous North Hollywood shootout is why many police departments traded in their shotguns for rifles in the current era.) And since the police are an arm of government, they are able to buy better weapons if they care to. Just think of it as an upgrade from Police Weapon 2.0 to 3.0.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Back when I became a naturalized citizen of the United States of America, my new government was still operating under the Constitution of the United States.
No more.
Under the Obama administration, I am sorry to say, the Constitution of the United States has become as valuable as soiled disposable diaper.
Actually, crap like warrantless wiretaps began under Bush shortly after the attacks in 2001, and Obama just expanded the scope of abuse.
It's also far from the first time that the federal government has shit on the Constitution. The WW2 internment of Americans with Japanese ancestry is one example -- and don't forget the Constitution-shredding fun of McCarthyism, the Subversive Activities Control Act, and the 1798 Alien Sedition Acts, just to name a few.
I'm not trying to downplay the seriousness of what's going on, to be clear -- just pointing out that the current problem runs much deeper than our current administration, and that it's not the first time deep corruption has fucked over a lot of Americans.
Now mostly at Usenet:comp.misc & SoylentNews.org (it's made of people!)