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Rookie |
http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2008/11/obama_wiretap
Bush Spy Revelations Anticipated When Obama Is Sworn In When Barack Obama takes the oath of office on January 20, Americans won't just get a new president; they might finally learn the full extent of George W. Bush's warrantless domestic wiretapping. Since the New York Times first revealed in 2005 that the NSA was eavesdropping on citizen's overseas phone calls and e-mails, few additional details about the massive "Terrorist Surveillance Program" have emerged. That's because the Bush Administration has stonewalled, misled and denied documents to Congress, and subpoenaed the phone records of the investigative reporters. Now privacy advocates are hopeful that a President Obama will be more forthcoming with information. But for the quickest and most honest account of Bush's illegal policies, they say don't look to the incoming president. Watch instead for the hidden army of would-be whistle-blowers who've been waiting for Inauguration Day to open the spigot on the truth. "I'd bet there are a lot of career employees in the intelligence agencies who'll be glad to see Obama take the oath so they can finally speak out against all this illegal spying and get back to their real mission," says Caroline Fredrickson, the ACLU's Washington D.C. legislative director. New Yorker investigative reporter Seymour Hersh already has a slew of sources waiting to spill the Bush administration's darkest secrets, he said in an interview last month. "You cannot believe how many people have told me to call them on January 20. [They say,] 'You wanna know about abuses and violations? Call me then.'" So far, virtually everything we know about the NSA's warrantless surveillance has come from whistle-blowers. Telecom executives told USA Today that they had turned over billions of phone records to the government. Former AT&T employee Mark Klein provided wiring diagrams detailing an internet-spying room in a San Francisco switching facility. And one Justice Department attorney had his house raided and his children's computers seized as part of the FBI's probe into who leaked the warrantless spying to the New York Times. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales even suggested the reporters could be prosecuted under antiquated treason statutes. If new whistle-blowers do emerge, Fredrickson hopes the additional information will spur Congress to form a new Church Committee -- the 1970s bipartisan committee that investigated and condemned the government's secret spying on peace activists, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other political figures. But even if the anticipated flood of leaks doesn't materialize, advocates are hopeful that Obama and the Democratic Congress will eventually get around to airing out the White House closet anyway. "Obama has pledged a lot more openness," says Kurt Opsahl of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which was the first to file a federal lawsuit over the illegal eavesdropping. One encouraging sign for civil liberties groups is that the Center for American Progress's president John Podesta is one of the top three heading Obama's transition team, which will staff and set priorities for the new administration. The center was a tough and influential critic of the Bush administration's warrantless spying. |
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General Manager |
Bush, and his Administration has done such mega damage to the rule of law and operating within it. I'm waiting for the full truth to come out. I've heard and read enough over the years to know how dismisive he and company have been to the rules of law and the Bill of Rights. When they couldn't get authorizing signatures, they forged them. They felt they could just bypass any law the wanted, and they often did. The warrantless wiretapping and the illegal capturing of domestic email to Gov't databases at will, siphoning up all emails of everyday people, making copies, is but one of many outrageous things they've done. |
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Major Leagues |
You witnessed all this, or did you read it on some republican hating website or news outlet. |
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Rookie |
It's called hearings on C-SPAN. Get educated. |
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General Manager |
Mainstream media. The siphoning off of domestic emails and phone calls into gov't databases, warrantless wiretaping, made national news and became a major battle between the White House and Congress in the renewal of the Patriotic Act. Bush threatened to veto any bill that didn't grant retroactive immunity to the telecoms who cooperated with the White House to wholesale copy and store the communications of we Americans. This is all public record. There were in fact numerous lawsuits against the telecoms re: carrying out the spying for the Bush Administration and is how it became a battle between Congress and Bush in legislation and threatened vetos. Here's a link from CNN about one of the lawsuits. The article also gives background history of what I've described. Here's a few lines: "Another lawsuit was filed in New York last week after USA Today published allegations of a separate program in which AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon provided the NSA with records of the billions of domestic phone calls." NSA - is National Security Agency. LINK - CNN.COM Some More Facts Amongst Many: On August 22, 2007, Mike McConnell, Director of National Intelligence confirmed that the telecoms assisted the Bush Administration in carrying out wholesale warrantless wiretapping. On a separate issue about warrantless wiretapping, Washington Post, 9/14/2008, in five page article about Cheney, cites that David Addington, the VP's lawyer, forged Alberto Gonzalez's signature to reauthorize warrantless wiretapping after Justice Department lawyers refused to re-certify Warrantless wiring as legal. Gonzalez was still Bush's legal advisor at the time. Here's a link to a PBS broadcast and transcript of Senate hearing testimony of Aschcroft's Assistant Attorney General on a component of this matter. LINK - PBS.ORG |
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Major Leagues |
CNN & PBS both as reliable to me as Fox News is to you
And what happens when dear leader doesn't stop the taps? This message has been edited. Last edited by: Serapheem, |
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General Manager |
Do you not know what's going on in your own government? Warrantless Wiretapping Warrantless spying and data collection of most all phone calls in the U.S., many emails of all of us illegally sent to gov't databases; Congressional hearings on this matter; sworn congressional testimony from the Bush administration; lawsuits against telecoms; yearlong threatened Bush veto of Survellance legislation that didn't include retoactive immunity for the telecoms. What news sources would you need to believe it when it's been covered by everyone including FoxNews since 2006? The PBS link is about some of that testimony. |
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Major Leagues |
Let the witch hunts begin.
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Major Leagues |
What happens if he does stop it and malls and schools and buildings start to blow up because we become lax on terrorism again. Certain things are needed at certain times. |
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General Manager |
Absolutely, surveillance is needed to protect us. But that must be done in accordance with law and oversight via warrants for due cause. There is a special court for that and I'm all for it. The law already allowed immediate surveillance without warrants for 72 hours so if threat or suspicion arose, our gov't could immediately respond withoout losing time to obtain warrant. The problem was the Bush Administration decided to wholesale ignore the law and illegally collect data on the whole country and store it in gov't datasbases without disclosure to the public. We're supposed to be the U.S., not the KGB. If protecting us from harm amounts to destruction of privacy rights and undue search and seizure without due cause, where the gov't ignores the Constitution and law and does whatever it wants, then the terrorists have indeed won. |
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Major Leagues |
How is my question not knowing what is going on?
I don't particularly like the tap but I don't have this dream where they stop on Jan 21st.SO... what happens when dear leader does the same thing? |
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General Manager |
If he does same thing, he fully deserves the same criticism and to be voted out of office. However, a recent law was passed to improve oversight and help curb abuses. Obama is promising to increase transparency and reinstate the rule of law in the Executive branch. Let's give him a chance to keep us secure and respect the rule of law, legislative and judicial oversight, and our Constitution. |
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Major Leagues |
I think that you are being naive. I really don't see a politician... any politician... giving up power voluntarily. I hope it happens but in my heart I know it won't
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General Manager |
Let's give Obama a chance. He can't give up power he doesn't have but can rescind power where Bush/Cheney and the Justice Department disregarded the law. I know Obama's transition team are combing through Bush's Executive Orders, and if I'm not mistaken, his signing statements (Bush's signing statements have been unprecented in number and scope). This is a long process to explore in depth and will take time. I do indeed believe Obama is committed to restore rule of law and bring back transparency where safe. I'm going to give him and his adminstration chance to keep promises and do right by us. If he doesn't, he'll lose support and votes in 2012. Bill Clinton lost my support, and Obama could as well. |
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