I noticed the Beacon yesterday edited part of the New York Times article on the Bush/Cheney illegal eavesdropping racket. This portion of the article clears up any arguments still remaining about whether or not the illegality was necessary because of 9-11.
A lawsuit was filed in federal court in New Jersey challenging the agency’s wiretapping operations. It claims that in February 2001, just days before agency officials met with Qwest officials, the N.S.A. met with AT&T officials to discuss replicating a network center in Bedminster, N.J., to give the agency access to all the global phone and e-mail traffic that ran through it.
The accusations rely in large part on the assertions of a former engineer on the project. The engineer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said in an interview that he participated in numerous discussions with N.S.A. officials about the proposal. The officials, he said, discussed ways to duplicate the Bedminster system in Maryland so the agency “could listen in” with unfettered access to communications that it believed had intelligence value and store them for later review. There was no discussion of limiting the monitoring to international communications, he said.
“At some point,” he said, “I started feeling something isn’t right.”
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…. lawyers for the plaintiffs say that if the suit were allowed to proceed, internal AT&T documents would verify the engineer’s account.
“What he saw,” said Bruce Afran, a New Jersey lawyer representing the plaintiffs along with Carl Mayer, “was decisive evidence that within two weeks of taking office, the Bush administration was planning a comprehensive effort of spying on Americans’ phone usage.” Link
"Within two weeks of taking office…" The Bush/Cheney/Rove rogue regime hit the fascism ground running in 2001. Their plans from the get go were to control communications, compromise the media, and politicize the entire federal goverenment. The larger plan was to set up a permanent Republican majority in the U.S. Eavesdropping on Americans illegally was, as the NY Times piece clearly explains, an integral part of this criminal group's plan. It's all warmed over Nixon criminality, paranoia and power lusting.
It's taken 7 years for even the slightest bit of truth to come out about this conspiracy to overthrow the Constitution and the U.S. government. The damage done to our once free and proud nation is immeasurable already…..and we've only seen tiny pieces of the plot exposed.
If the U.S. Congress and Courts do not hold these White House criminals accountable it will mark the end of America as we once knew it. To fail to hold traitors accountable for their actions now will mark the end of the rule of law in America. Lawlessness this severe by the executive branch of the federal government, unchallenged, will only lead us into more of the same resulting in the fragmentation and decline of the world's only superpower.
Twenty years from now, if my scenario plays out, Europeans will be as concerned with a failed America's leftover nukes as Americans once were with a failed Soviet Union's loose nukes.
UPDATE: As I finish this post, Harry Reid is bringing forward the "telco get out of jail free card" bill to the Senate floor. A so-called FISA update bill, which keeps all the lawlessness of Junior's White House and it's co-conspirators in the communications industry secret, while at the same time granting immunity for telcos from any attempts to hold them accountable for their willing participation in the lawlessness.
What's happening today on the floor of the Senate is what's wrong with America. It is a crystallization of the cancerous tumor that corporate/government fusion has matastisized, that has been growing for a long time and that has all but sapped the life out of the once great promise of liberty and justice for all.
The Senate of the United States of America are going to vote to grant amnesty to huge monied corporations who have committed, and continue to commit, massive actions of lawlessness against the American people, all in violation of the Constitution. Both Republicans and Democrats are acting for the sake of corporate interests and against the rights and guarantees of the Constitution.
Everything didn't change on 9-11, as so many insist. Everything changed, as the NY Times piece makes clear, on January 20, 2001. On that date America turned it's back on over 200 years of the rule of law, rejected it's history and foundational pillars as if they never existed and embarked on what, if the course is not reversed, will undoubtedly be the last chapter of America's history.
To those who would disagree with my evaluation……if laws do not apply to all equally, what could possibly be left to hold us together? Fear?
Chris Dodd, one of a handful of patriots in our Congress, will attempt a filibuster against this horrendous bill that enshrines lawlessness. A brave man in a sea covered with scum.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Monitoring global communications didn't start with the Bush administration. I know I've told you about Project Echelon, Project Minaret, etc. before, which ran under the Clinton administration (and which the NY Times then thought were so very necessary to national security. I wonder what changed, lol ?). So, why are you only telling your readers half the story ? Why all the misdirection ? Are you running for office ? You are talking about horses that left the barn long, long ago. Now, when there is actually some justification for this type of behavior (tracking terrorist activity), you decide the Bush administration is the worst criminal enterprise that ever graced the White House.
In addition, point me to the law that prevents the government from asking for telephone company records, please. There isn't one. The government has been getting those records for decades. What they were supposed to be debating in Congress yesterday was whether or not the phone companies can be sued for providing those records, not the legality of the request.
Wrong on both counts there King.
Do you believe that Americans have a right to privacy that's inherent in the Constitution and Bill of Rights? Everything hinges, I think, on the answer to that question. I believe we do have that right.
In addition, the 4th amendment is not negotiable. It says what it says. Probable cause….then a warrant….then an eavesdrop or search.
What they were debating in the Senate yesterday was whether corporations should be granted immunity from all civil lawsuits if they cooperate, knowingly, with an illegal order from federal officials.
Also under consideration was oversight of executive branch eavesdropping. The only issue that needed addressed was the foreign to foreign calls that went through U.S. located switches. Yes, the CIA, NSA, and FBI should be able to tap those calls. No one disputes that.
Bush/Cheney, in a big surprise, is trying to disinform in order to expand their already self-expanded powers. The White House's desire to grant immunity is for the sole reason of protecting any criminal information, evidence and testimony from being made public. This is only a continuation of what they've been doing now for 7 years. They care about no one but themselves.