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[Real Reality]

Spy Agency Mined Vast Data Trove, Officials Report
The National Security Agency has traced and analyzed large volumes of telephone and Internet communications flowing into and out of the United States... The volume of information harvested from telecommunication data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has acknowledged, the officials said.
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES RISEN
New York Times (December 24, 2005)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/24/politics/24spy.html

NYT: NSA Spying Broader Than Bush Admitted
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051224/ap_on_go_pr_wh/domestic_spying

[Hater Depot]

Now that is one shocking headline.

[sundubuman]

In an age when international terrorists have pledged to give their lives to destroy America/Amricans, and a few years back, a dozen succeeded in murdering thousands, and no one doubts their willingness to use nuclear weapons on American cities (do they????)

I am not only not bothered by this, the latest attempt to tar and feather Bush, but am heartened.

And stories like the following, make me sleep better......


FBI Official Defends Radiation Monitoring

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer Fri Dec 23, 6:34 PM ET

WASHINGTON - A classified radiation monitoring program, conducted without warrants, has targeted private U.S. property in an effort to prevent an al-Qaida attack, federal law enforcement officials confirmed Friday.

While declining to provide details including the number of cities and sites monitored, the officials said the air monitoring took place since the Sept. 11 attacks and from publicly accessible areas — which they said made warrants and court orders unnecessary.

U.S. News and World Report first reported the program on Friday. The magazine said the monitoring was conducted at more than 100 Muslim sites in the Washington, D.C. area — including Maryland and Virginia suburbs — and at least five other cities when threat levels had risen: Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, New York and Seattle.

The magazine said that at its peak, three vehicles in Washington monitored 120 sites a day, nearly all of them Muslim targets identified by the
FBI. Targets included mosques, homes and businesses, the magazine said.

The revelation of the surveillance program came just days after The New York Times disclosed that the Bush administration spied on suspected terrorist targets in the United States without court orders.
President Bush has said he approved the program to protect Americans from attack. Reagan and George H.W. Bush."

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based civil rights group, said Friday the program "comes as a complete shock to us and everyone in the Muslim community."

"This creates the appearance that Muslims are targeted simply for being Muslims. I don't think this is the message the government wants to send at this time," he said.

Hooper said his organization has serious concerns about the constitutionality of monitoring on private property without a court order.

Brian Roehrkasse, a Justice Department spokesman, said Friday that the administration "is very concerned with a growing body of sensitive reporting that continues to show al-Qaida has a clear intention to obtain and ultimately use chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear" weapons or high energy explosives.

To meet that threat, the government "monitors the air for imminent threats to health and safety," but acts only on specific information about a potential attack without targeting any individual or group, he said.

"FBI agents do not intrude across any constitutionally protected areas without the proper legal authority," the spokesman said.

In a 2001 decision, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that police must get warrants before using devices that search through walls for criminal activity. That decision struck down the use without a warrant of a heat-sensing device that led to marijuana charges against an Oregon man.

Roehrkasse said the Justice Department believes that case does not apply to air monitoring in publicly accessible areas.

Two federal law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the program is classified, said the monitoring did not occur only at Muslim-related sites.

Douglas Kmiec, a professor of constitutional law at Pepperdine University, said the location of the surveillance matters when determining if a court order is needed.

"The greatest expectation of privacy is in the home," said Kmiec, a Justice Department official under former presidents
Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. "As you move away from the home to a parking lot or a place of public accommodation or an office, there are a set of factors that are a balancing test for the court," he said.

Despite federal promises to inform state and local officials of security concerns, that never formally happened with the radiation monitoring program, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

The official said that after discussions with attorneys, some state and local authorities decided the surveillance was legal, equating it to air quality monitors set up around Washington that regularly sniff for suspicious materials.

"They weren't targeting specific people, they were just doing it by random, driving around (commercial) storage sheds and parking lots," the official said.

[Bee Positive]

deleted by dave

[EFLtrainer]

The stupidity of giving up our freedom and the Bill of Rights because 3,000 people died is beyond measure. Do your really fucking believe that the Muslims are going to overrun the US?? Do you truly fucking believe that our way of life is harmed more by being on a defensve alert than by having our rights stripped from us? Do you have a fucking brain?

Europe has dealt with major terrorism for DECADES without the overreaction and bullshit that Bush and the stupid fucking American public has engaged in. There has been, to my knowledge, a grand total of TWO significant foreign terrorist attacks in the US *in our entire fucking history.* By contrast, 25k die in car accidents, almost 700k from heart disease (significantly affected by diet, exercise and smoking), 106k from varous accidents, 65k from the flu... get it?????

Wake the *beep* up. You are losing your country.

[Hollywoodaction]

[The Bobster]

Here's from a rather interesting reaction piece on the MSN/Newsweek website that examines the indifferent reaction most Americans have displayed about this, rather similar to sundubuman's thought above. In this case, the writer is comparing the attitudes to those of white South Africans back in the years of struggle against apartheid.

[igotthisguitar]

[Pligganease]

[dulouz]

[Pligganease]

[igotthisguitar]

Oops! - Bush Unaware Mikes Were Still On
Sat Feb 11, 10:08 AM ET

CAMBRIDGE, Md. - The eavesdropping tables were turned on President Bush on Friday. The president apparently believed he was speaking privately when he talked about listening in without a warrant on domestic communications with suspected al-Qaida terrorists overseas. But reporters were the ones doing the listening in this time.



The incident happened at a House Republican retreat. After six minutes of public remarks by the president, reporters were ushered out.
"I support the free press, let's just get them out of the room," Bush said, intending to speak behind closed doors with fellow Republicans and take lawmakers' questions.

When reporters left, Bush spoke about the National Security Agency program that he authorized four years ago and which has drawn criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike.

However, the microphones stayed on for a few minutes. That allowed journalists back at the White House to eavesdrop on Bush's defense of the eavesdropping. His private statements were basically no different from what he's said in public.

"I want to share some thoughts with you before I answer your questions," Bush began. "First of all, I expect this conversation we're about to have to stay in the room. I know that's impossible in Washington."

He was right.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060211/ap_on_go_pr_wh/eavesdropping_on_bush;_ylt=AnLlAy3OycFbxtouYw8YjaMGw_IE;_ylu=X3oDMTA4NGRzMjRtBHNlYwMxNjk5

[gdimension]

[igotthisguitar]

NYT Sues Pentagon Over Domestic Spying
Mon Feb 27, 6:11 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Times sued the U.S. Defense Department on Monday
demanding that it hand over documents about the National Security Agency's domestic spying program.



The Times wants a list of documents including all internal memos and e-mails about the program of
monitoring phone calls without court approval.

It also seeks the names of the people or groups identified by it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060227/ts_nm/security_nsa_nytimes



http://www.watchermagazine.com/?p=3816

[igotthisguitar]

Feds Drop Bomb on AT&T/NSA Spying Lawsuit
By Ryan Singel and Kevin Poulsen
27B Stroke 6
April 28, 2006

http://www.watchermagazine.com/?p=4710

THE federal government intends to invoke the rarely used "State Secrets Privilege" � the legal equivalent of a nuclear bomb � in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's class action lawsuit against AT&T that alleges the telecom collaborated with the government's secret spying on American citizens.

The State Secrets Privilege is a vestige from English common law that lets the executive branch step into a civil lawsuit and have it dismissed if the case might reveal information that puts national security at risk.

Today's assertion severely darkens the prospects of the EFF's lawsuit, which the organization had hoped would shine light on the extent of the Bush Administration's admitted warrantless spying on Americans.

The government is not admitting, however, that AT&T aided the National Security Agency
in spying on American's phone calls and internet communications.

"[T]he fact that the United States will assert the state secrets privilege should not be construed as a confirmation or denial of any of Plaintiffs' allegations, either about AT&T or the alleged surveillance activities," the filing reads. "When allegations are made about purported classified government activities or relationships, regardless of whether those allegations are accurate, the existence or non-existence of the activity or relationship is potentially a state secret."

The Justice Department has not formally invoked the privilege yet. Today's notice was intended to inform Northern California US District Court Judge Vaughn Walker that the government was intending to assert the privilege in order to seek dismissal of the case.

The complete paperwork justifying the government's decision will be filed by May 12.

Full filing (.pdf)

http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/USA_statement_of_interest.pdf