"When the government fears the people, you have liberty. When the people fear the government, you have tyranny."
~ President Thomas Jefferson
| Visit the U.S. National Debt Clock You better sit down before you read this one! | "There is dirt under every BUSH!" | Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 |
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COPS ATTACK AS SMASH EDO DEMO PAINTS THE TOWN RED AGAIN...
From A-Infos news service - Saturday, October 18, 2008 Over 400 people gathered in Brighton on a very wet Wednesday in the latest protest called by Smash EDO against local bomb factory EDO MBM/ITT. The last demo, in June (See SchNEWS 634), saw protesters invading the factory grounds and smashing windows. This time the cops were determined to have an overwhelming presence. At noon Sussex University campus was occupied by large gangs of cops as people arrived at the demo's start point at the uni entrance. Police tactics soon became obvious. As the crowd gathered they issued a Section 60 notice, giving them the power to remove masks. Trying to stamp their authority, they quickly set about the gathering crowd demanding people remove any kind of face covering, photographing everyone and generally using any tactics to intimidate, attempting to seize banners and alienate as many onlookers as possible. Initially shocked -- the mob soon found the resources to fight back and just after midday the march burst into life. The red and black-clad crowd sprang into action to the rallying call "Get behind the banner". Behind the sturdy, massive SHUT ITT! banner - reinforced with a wooden frame - and waving flags, the noisy bloc moved at pace through Stanmer Park and out onto the Lewes Road, filling both lanes. At least ten pairs of police evidence gatherers with long lenses, video cameras and spotter cards, including the Met's Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT) were in evidence from the start but spent most of the march foiled by FIT Watchers (See SchNEWS 639). Hundreds of copies of FIT Watch's spotter cards were distributed complete with photos, names, numbers and descriptions of FIT police likely to be in attendance. Whenever FIT teams appear, shouts of 'Block That Shot' is becoming a call to arms for activists sick of only being able to protest whilst constantly under surveillance. CAGE FIGHTING Multiple sound systems and makeshift instruments kept spirits up in the procession towards the factory. Police seemed to have taken a leaf from the anarchist book and handily blockaded the whole of Lewes Road for several hours, with 8 vans bumper to bumper, urging people towards their sanctioned 'protest pen' at the bottom of Home Farm road. Unsurprisingly the idea of being herded into a massive steel cage surrounded by a sea of fluorescent baton wielding cops didn't appeal to anyone. Determined to march on, people surged towards the police lines, pushing the cops back behind their line of vans. Heavy use of pepper spray and batons on those at the front took the sting out of the crowd, who, nursing bruised bodies and the ill effects of an impromptu chemical eye-bath at the hand of Sussex's finest, split into two groups. Half the crowd stood their ground, eyeballing the cops, whilst others in small groups gradually headed off-piste, up the slope and into the woods towards the back of the factory. PUT THE KETTLE ON Marauding bands of masked militants swarmed through the forest, whilst clueless coppers couldn't see the hoods for the trees. In a hail of irony, laser-guided paint-missiles bombarded the factory's roof - staining the factory walls blood-red in a spot of unrequested decoration. After scuffles in the woods and open fields where someone narrowly avoided castration via a police dog bollock-biting attack, a group of about 50 managed to reclaim Lewes Road nearer town before being joined soon after by other cross-country cells and marched towards town. By half two, the crowd on Lewes Road had begun to disperse and the police line had moved across the road, freeing up one lane of traffic. The remaining crowd were able to launch themselves down Lewes Road towards the Level. Fearing that 100 or so anarchists might not cause enough trouble, the cops kindly contributed towards the mayhem by sending some 25 vehicles to create a police traffic jam stretching halfway down the road. When the converged marchers arrived at the Level (traditional end point of Brighton demos), police backed off, thinking that the crowd had had enough. As it turns out, the up-fer-it protesters saw the police begin to disperse and made a break for it to storm the city centre, with the local Army recruitment centre as a goal. Still singing and chanting, they carried on, pursued by police until they were finally kettled near Queens Road. Seeing their plight, locals started harassing the cops, kettling in the kettle and throwing food and water to the stalwart marchers. Police eventually followed the protesters to the beach for their final push, where they nicked a pebble-thrower. With a total of around ten arrests, one sore scrotum, plenty of bruised knees, inflamed sinuses, and stinging eyes, the last 100 intrepid protesters completed the 5½ mile anti-arms trade mini marathon to bathe aching feet in the sea. Andrew Beckett, spokesperson said "We didn't let the police control events. We went where we wanted, when we wanted. All the police from four counties weren't able to stop us making our stand against EDO/ITT". * See www.smashedo.org.uk ------------------------------- Copied from SchNEWS 651 _________________________________________ A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E By, For, and About Anarchists Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list A-infos-en@ainfos.ca Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://ainfos.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en Read More [ permalink ] |
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URGENT: Oppose Telecom Immunity and Contact Your Senator
From Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) - Sunday, January 27, 2008 It's time to contact your Senators once again. As early as Monday, the Administration and its allies are trying to end Senate debate on FISA and telecom immunity and force a vote on the Senate Intelligence Committee's bill -- a bill that would broadly expand the executive branch's spying powers while granting immunity to telecoms that broke the law and assisted in the NSA's illegal domestic spying. Now is the time to urge your Senators to vote NO on "cloture" to keep the debate going! Every time you've taken action to fight against immunity, it's made a huge difference. In November, your calls and emails helped to ensure that the Senate Judiciary Committee did not include telecom amnesty in its surveillance bill, and in December your calls and emails helped convince Harry Reid to delay the vote until January. Both times, the pundits assumed we didn't stand a chance, and both times we proved them wrong. It's time to beat the odds again. RELATED: Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold On Republican Obstructionism on Fixing FISA Read More [ permalink ] |
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ACLU: Bush's wiretap bill violates Fourth Amendment
From RAW STORY - Tuesday, December 4, 2007 By Adam Doster The Senate plans to take up legislation as early as this week to rein in the Bush Administration's spying powers by reforming the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Caroline Fredrickson, director of the Washington Legislative Office of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), says that when Congress rushed through wiretapping legislation this past August, they made a grave mistake. "The Administration bill basically writes August's mistake in stone," she wrote in a press release Tuesday. "It does nothing to protect Americans' communications and violates the Fourth Amendment requirement that courts supervise any spying on American soil." "The surveillance program began in February of 2001. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the attacks of 9/11. These phone companies are cooperating with the government, not out of a sense of patriotism, but because they're being paid to do so. They're profiteers, not patriots. "If the Congress grants these companies retroactive immunity it will mean they have no regard for the rule of law they took an oath to uphold. I've taken no oaths. The rule of law will mean absolutely nothing to me if this comes to pass." -- A comment from a Digg.com user Tags: aclu, fisa, nsa, surveillance, wiretapping Read More [ permalink ] |
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Impeachment: If not now, when?
From Seattle Post-Intelligencer - Saturday, November 24, 2007 By LINDA BOYD Lawmakers need to stand up for the Constitution and support impeachment The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. -- Article II, Section 4 On Nov. 6, Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney on the floor of the House of Representatives. For one shining moment the will of the majority of Americans and the promise of this nation's founders were truly represented. The detailed charges were solemnly read from the House podium and televised on C-Span. House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer made a motion to table the bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lobbied hard for votes to table. In a stunning turnaround, House Republicans changed strategy and voted decisively to prevent tabling the impeachment resolution. Pelosi was defied by 85 Democratic members who voted against tabling the impeachment resolution. This includes John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and six committee members. The resolution was quickly voted back to the Judiciary Committee, where it is not resting quietly. Judiciary Committee member Bob Wexler wrote, "The American people are served well with a legitimate and thorough impeachment inquiry. I will urge the Judiciary Committee to schedule impeachment hearings immediately and not let this issue languish as it has over the last six months. Only through hearings can we begin to correct the abuses of Dick Cheney and the Bush administration." Impeachment is squarely on the table, and momentum is building. A year ago, almost no elected official breathed the word impeachment. Now impeachment has hit the House floor, and our electeds have gone on record. Millions of Americans are demanding an end to executive abuse of power. After six years of state of emergency, the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, continual war and occupations, our Constitution is deeply in crisis. Americans are in danger of losing our system of government and civil rights if they do not roll back the Bush administration's assault on the rule of law. Allowing Cheney and George W. Bush to finish their terms without being impeached means future presidents are free to copy their lawless behavior. Of course many important issues deserve the attention of Congress. But the Constitution is the foundation of our democracy, not just an issue. Without the Constitution, we have nothing. Polls show that 74 percent of Democrats and the majority of American adults support impeaching Cheney. "Never in our history have the high crimes and misdemeanors been so flagrant, and the people of our country know it," writes local author Richard Behan. Kucinich has targeted Cheney first, but investigations will implicate the president as well. For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50 percent of respondents say they "strongly disapprove" of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48 percent, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974. With these numbers, why aren't Bush and Cheney gone already? The vice president is accused of:
These violations of the Constitution and international treaty are just the tip of the iceberg. More articles of impeachment can be added at any time, and ample evidence to convict is on the public record. Representatives need to introduce articles regarding:
It's astounding that our representatives to Congress carry on with business as usual knowing that Americans lack habeas corpus and a working code of law. I want my representative, Dave Reichert, to block the doors of the House until habeas is restored as a basic human right in this nation! In light of Bush's steady drumbeat for war with Iran, Kucinich said he will consider an impeachment resolution against him. "Impeachment may well be the only remedy which remains to stop a war of aggression against Iran," he says. "The most conservative principle of the Founding Fathers was distrust of unchecked power. Centuries of experience substantiated that absolute power corrupts absolutely. The Constitution embraced a separation of powers to keep the legislative, executive and judicial branches in equilibrium," Bruce Fein, a constitutional lawyer and associate deputy attorney general in the Reagan administration, said in the October 2006 edition of Washington Monthly. If Congress were serious about oversight, there already would be dozens of bills and resolutions calling for impeachment of Bush and Cheney. The "Unitary Executive Theory" violates the principle of balance of power in the Constitution. The president cites this "unitary" power in hundreds of signing statements that say he can ignore laws passed by Congress. The First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments are all now subject to the caprice of government officials. The Military Commissions Act allows U.S. citizens to be detained without due process if they are declared enemy combatants. Without our permission, this country has become an exporter of torture. Congress has failed to provide oversight and exercise its authority to rein in a criminal administration. Only swift action on impeachment can redeem it now. The people have done the heavy work of bringing impeachment forward. Representatives need only ask if the allegations are serious enough to warrant investigations. George Bush and Dick Cheney promote an imperial presidency. They assert that the executive is the most powerful branch of government, undermining the judiciary and Congress in violation of the Constitution's bedrock principle of shared power among three co-equal branches. This subverts the very nature of our system of government. "This is an attempt by the president to have the final word on his own constitutional powers, which eliminates the checks and balances that keep the country a democracy. ... That's a big problem because that's essentially a dictatorship," Fein said. Washington For Impeachment and Citizens to Impeach Bush and Cheney are working to inform the public, collect signatures to petitions, provide forums, and lobby representatives. Washington was the second state to sponsor a bill for impeachment in the state Legislature. Washington State Democratic organizations have passed resolutions in 11 Democratic legislative districts, five counties and the Washington State Democratic Central Committee. Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island, has received impeachment resolutions from almost every legislative district within his congressional district. When will he represent the will of his constituents and honor his oath to protect the Constitution? The national movement to impeach is a non-partisan effort to restore the Constitution and the rule of law. People across the political spectrum can unite to preserve the Constitution and civil liberties given to us by the founders. Impeachment is the peaceful, orderly, constitutionally prescribed way to rid ourselves of a lawless administration. The issue is not about removing Bush and Cheney as much as it is about preserving the Constitution and redeeming the office of the executive. The Constitution is the contract of governance between the people and the government. What happens when major portions of the contract are violated? Congress has failed to call the president and vice president to account, so citizens must turn up the heat. Members of Congress who fail to demand investigations are covering for criminals. Every elected official has sworn an oath to "support and protect the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic." Anything less than impeachment and a full repudiation of the Bush administration's crimes and violations of the law is a dereliction of duty and a betrayal of the public trust. If we want our democracy back, we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work to clean out the House. Linda Boyd is director of Washington For Impeachment, washingtonforimpeachment.org. Citizens to Impeach Bush and Cheney, in Olympia: citizensimpeach.org Related: A Time For Anger, A Call To Action EMERGENCY MEETING CALLED - Constitutional Crisis (video) The BEST Reasons to IMPEACH BUSH and CHENEY! Tags: impeachment Read More [ permalink ] |
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Bush Administration has more Spying Powers than first believed
From The Raw Story - Saturday, August 18, 2007 By Adam Doster Intelligence legislation passed earlier this month is angering a growing number of critics who say an end-of-session scramble inadvertently gave the Bush Administration wider spying powers than previously thought. According to Eric Lichtblau and James Risen of the New York Times, "by redefining the meaning of 'electronic surveillance,' the new law narrows the types of communications covered in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, by indirectly giving the government the power to use intelligence collection methods far beyond wiretapping that previously required court approval if conducted inside the United States." Read More [ permalink ] |
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EMERGENCY MEETING CALLED - Constitutional Crisis (video)
From TUMC Seattle - Tuesday, August 7, 2007 EMERGENCY MEETING CALLED - Constitutional Crisis IMPORTANT!!! PLEASE HELP disseminate this information TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!! WATCH THIS VIDEO ON THE INTERNET, ONLY on Thursday, August 9, 2007, at 10:00 pm PACIFIC time. The video from the emergency meeting that was held in Seattle, Washington on Wednesday, August 1st, will be shown on Seattle's Local Public Access Channel, SCANTV.ORG, ONLY on Thursday, August 9, 2007, at 10:00 pm PACIFIC time on cable channel 77. If you check the schedule the show will be aired during the time slot labeled "Social Justice Television (Political), Length: 0:58" If you will read these two articles, you will understand this issue is of the UTMOST IMPORTANCE! "Once this (latest Bush Executive Order) becomes law, he has all the tools Hitler and Stalin had to keep their respective populations in utter subjection to their will." Read the complete article: 30 days to absolute tyranny ...EVEN LESS TIME NOW!!! WE DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME written by Rev. Rich Lang of the Trinity United Methodist Church. Rev. Rich Lang is one of the speakers featured in the video! The Bush Administration has both the inclination and the power to cancel the 2008 elections A powerful Senate committee wants government regulators to find cutting edge technologies that can censor audio and video that flows over the internet -- bye, bye investigative reporting by alternative media and this web page you are now reading, also! "First they came for the terrorists but I wasn't a terrorist so I stayed silent and went about my business. Then they came for those suspected of terrorism, but I certainly wasn't a suspect so I stayed silent and went about my business. Then they came for those who defended those who were suspected of terrorism, but I wasn't defending such people so I stayed silent and went about my business. Then, one day, they came and began to "suspect" me, so I stayed very, very silent and went about my business. And that is how I lost my soul." Here is more information about these issues: Friday, July 20, 2007 JEFF KOSSEFF The Oregonian Staff -- Source: The Oregonian WASHINGTON -- Oregonians called Peter DeFazio's office, worried there was a conspiracy buried in the classified portion of a White House plan for operating the government after a terrorist attack. As a member of the U.S. House on the Homeland Security Committee, DeFazio, D-Ore., is permitted to enter a secure "bubbleroom" in the Capitol and examine classified material. So he asked the White House to see the secret documents. On Wednesday, DeFazio got his answer: DENIED. "I just can't believe they're going to deny a member of Congress the right of reviewing how they plan to conduct the government of the United States after a significant terrorist attack," DeFazio says. Homeland Security Committee staffers told his office that the White House initially approved his request, but it was later quashed. DeFazio doesn't know who did it or why. "We're talking about the continuity of the government of the United States of America," DeFazio says. "I would think that would be relevant to any member of Congress, let alone a member of the Homeland Security Committee." Bush administration spokesman Trey Bohn declined to say why DeFazio was denied access: "We do not comment through the press on the process that this access entails. It is important to keep in mind that much of the information related to the continuity of government is highly sensitive." Norm Ornstein, a legal scholar who studies government continuity at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said he "cannot think of one good reason" to deny access to a member of Congress who serves on the Homeland Security Committee. "I find it inexplicable and probably reflective of the usual, knee-jerk overextension of executive power that we see from this White House," Ornstein said. This is the first time DeFazio has been denied access to documents. DeFazio has asked Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., to help him access the documents. "Maybe the people who think there's a conspiracy out there are right," DeFazio said. LA Cops attack crowd - specifically smash every camera they find - but they don't get them all Cops shoot protester in the head with a rubber bullet - then laugh about it (until the video gets out) Cheney Determined To Strike In US With WMD This Summer US Police State: Congress Approves Extensive Wiretapping Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070717-3.html The outrageous gutting of FISA-- the foreign intelligence surveillance act. And by "foreign" they now mean domestic. Because if you are inside the US making an international call, the government can now monitor that call with only the approval of Alberto Gonzales, the Torture Guy. Bush Executive Order: Criminalizing the Antiwar Movement Bush Anoints Himself as the Insurer of Constitutional Government in Emergency Bush To Be Dictator In A Catastrophic Emergency Plan Iraq - Permanent Occupation Bush Directive for a "Catastrophic Emergency" in America: Building a Justification for Waging War on Iran? We ARE In A Constitutional Crisis lord bush Read More [ permalink ] |
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A general strike has been proposed for 9/11/07. No work, school or shopping
From strike911.org - Friday, August 3, 2007 A general strike has been proposed for 9/11/07. No work, school or shopping General Strike Hit Digg.com Front Page! Endless War. Hundreds of Thousands of Dead Iraqis. Torture. Surveillance. Civil Rights and Habeas Corpus: Gone. Executive Privilege: No Accountability. 9/11 Questions? Corporate Media. Corporate Government. Tyranny. Fascism. Lies. The Time Has Come. To Say NO. While We Still Have a Chance. GENERAL STRIKE Tuesday 9/11/07 No Work. No School. No Shopping. Hit the Streets." Please share the following image with people! Send e-mail, post on blogs, social sites such as myspace, etc! More info here: How to create an Angry American by PUPPETGOV w/ Billy Vegas (video) Clicking this image will give you a very large image suitable for postering, etc.  Read More [ permalink ] |
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Suppressing Dissent: FBI Spying on the National Lawyers Guild
From JURIST - Monday, June 25, 2007 JURIST Contributing Editor Marjorie Cohn of Thomas Jefferson School of Law, president of the National Lawyers Guild, says that FBI surveillance of National Lawyers Guild members and activities between 1940 and 1975 - highlighted in a recent New York Times report drawing on newly-released documents - was motivated by a desire to blunt the Guild's criticism of the FBI and, if possible, to destroy the organization... Tags: spy Read More [ permalink ] |
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Internet Doomsday Creeps Closer - Big government pushes for total taxation and restriction on the last great outpost of free speech
From infowars.com - Wednesday, June 6, 2007 By Steve Watson SUPER IMPORTANT: Tell the FCC to Save the Internet from Dictatorship! Monday, July 16, is the LAST DAY to tell the FCC your story!!! Recent proposals in the U.S. Congress are taking a huge swipe at freedom in America once again by aiming to impose multiple different forms of crippling taxation and restriction on users of the internet. Several bills were introduced last week that could see all manner of new forms of internet taxation become a reality before the end of the year. Make no mistake, the internet, one of the greatest outposts of free speech ever created is under constant attack by powerful people who cannot operate within a society where information flows freely and unhindered. Both American and European moves mimic stories we hear every week out of State Controlled Communist China, where the internet is strictly regulated and virtually exists as its own entity away from the rest of the web. The Internet is freedom's best friend and the bane of control freaks. Its eradication is one of the short term goals of those that seek to centralize power and subjugate their populations under a surveillance panopticon prison. Tags: attack, congress, democracy, elections, free speech, freedom, government, internet, liberties, liberty, martial law, new world order, patriot act, surveillance, tax, tyranny Read More [ permalink ] |
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House OKs Expanded Wiretap Program
From Los Angeles Times - Friday, September 29, 2006 By Richard B. Schmitt The bill would allow easier monitoring of e-mails and phone records of ordinary U.S. citizens during terror probes. "They would allow more warrantless surveillance of Americans than has ever before been approved by statute in U.S. history," said Lisa Graves, a legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union. "The president wants to go on a fishing expedition," said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), "but he doesn't want to get a fishing license." Read More [ permalink ] |
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NSA Lawsuit - Stop Illegal Surveillance
From American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) - Friday, September 1, 2006 The ACLU is suing the National Security Agency for violating the U.S. Constitution. The illegal NSA spying program authorized by President Bush just after September 11, 2001, allows the NSA to intercept vast quantities of the international telephone and Internet communications of innocent Americans without court approval. Without a system of checks and balances, the government can monitor any phone call or e-mail they want, and they can collect and disseminate any data they find however they like. Just knowing that the government is spying without cause on innocent Americans sends a chilling message to all of us that our conversations are not our own. Read More [ permalink ] |
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VICTORY ... If we can keep it. Act Now.
From TrueMajority - Saturday, August 19, 2006 By Matt Holland Thursday was a bright day for those of us who believe in the principles America's founders put into the Bill of Rights. We want to say a big "THANK YOU" to our friends at the ACLU, whose lawsuit led to the first court decision putting the brakes on the Bush Administration's [Pentagon's NSA] ever-expanding spying program.[1] There's more to do, though. Led by Vice President Dick Cheney, some Senators are preparing to end-run the decision, and permanently strip away some of our rights in the process. Tell the Senate to Reject the Cheney Spying Plan The Administration's warrantless wiretapping program violates some of the basic rights America was founded on. Ever since the program was uncovered, patriotic Americans have been protesting that we aren't willing to give up those rights. Now a U.S. District Court judge has agreed that the domestic spying violates the Constitution itself. Instead of working harder to carry out their responsibility as a check on Presidential power, though, some members of Congress are ready to erase those very rights so that the spying program would be OK after all. The Cheney-Specter [2] and Cheney-Wilson [3] bills, currently in the Senate, would expose our homes, cell phone records and email inboxes to new kinds of spying that are currently completely illegal. Tell the Senate not to erase our rights Matt Holland TrueMajority Online Director Footnotes: [1] Judge Finds Wiretap Actions Violate the Law http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/washington/18nsa.html [2] National Security Surveillance Act of 2006 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:S.2453: [3] ACLU's page on this issue http://www.aclu.org/hadenough Click here to take action! Read More [ permalink ] |
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Federal Court Strikes Down NSA Warrantless Surveillance Program
From American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) - Thursday, August 17, 2006 DETROIT -- In an American Civil Liberties Union case, a federal court today ruled that the Bush administration's program to monitor the phone calls and e-mails of Americans without warrants is unconstitutional and must be stopped. This is the first ruling by a federal court to strike down the controversial National Security Agency surveillance program. "Today's ruling is a landmark victory against the abuse of power that has become the hallmark of the Bush administration," said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "Government spying on innocent Americans without any kind of warrant and without Congressional approval runs counter to the very foundations of our democracy. Now Congress needs to do its job and stop the president from violating the law." Today's ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor agreed with the ACLU that the NSA program violates Americans' rights to free speech and privacy under the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, and runs counter to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) passed by Congress. Judge Taylor also rejected the government's argument that the case could not proceed because of state secrets, saying that facts about NSA wiretapping have already been conceded by the government. Read More [ permalink ] |
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Judge's Refusal to Dismiss EFF's Spying Case Sets Stage for Congressional Showdown
From Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) - Friday, July 21, 2006 Ruling Comes as Senators Consider Dramatic Changes to Surveillance Law San Francisco - A federal judge has refused to dismiss the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF's) case against AT&T for collaborating with the NSA in illegal spying on millions of ordinary Americans, setting the stage for a congressional showdown over proposed dramatic changes in federal surveillance law. EFF filed the class-action suit against AT&T in January, alleging that the telecommunications company has given the National Security Agency (NSA) secret, direct access to the phone calls and emails going over its network and has been handing over communications logs detailing the activities of millions of ordinary Americans. The government intervened in the case and asked that it be dismissed because the suit could expose "state secrets." But Thursday, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker refused: "The compromise between liberty and security remains a difficult one. But dismissing this case at the outset would sacrifice liberty for no apparent enhancement of security." Read More [ permalink ] |
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On Independence Day, ACLU Notes Cause for Celebration and Concern
From American Civil Liberties Union - Monday, July 3, 2006 By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director On the Fourth of July 230 years ago, a group of brave Americans launched a bold experiment in freedom - the United States of America. Among the reasons they cited for their unprecedented break with the British Empire was a king who had 'obstructed the Administration of Justice' and 'refused his Assent to Laws' the American colonies had freely passed to assure their safety and prosperity. These days, we in America face a presidential administration that insists on its right to engage in unprecedented and widespread abuses of power. The Bush White House has consistently ignored the rule of law -- authorizing surveillance programs that fly in the face of the Constitution and our laws; permitting the illegal kidnapping of individuals; holding prisoners without trial; allowing and engineering the torture of detainees; and repeatedly ignoring its duty to enforce laws passed by Congress. Read More [ permalink ] |
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Where is the Oversight?
From HouseDemocrats.gov - Thursday, June 29, 2006 Most of the conclusions in the Republican drafted, so-called New York Times resolution about the financial transaction surveillance program are not the result of Congressional fact-finding or rigorous oversight. That is in the unfortunate tradition of the Republican Congress' approach to its oversight responsibilities when it comes to intelligence activities and its selective displeasure over possible leaks of classified information. Congressman Barney Frank, the senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, offered our substitute to the Republican resolution. The Democratic resolution expresses Congress' support for appropriate surveillance of terrorist financial transactions and our concern that unauthorized disclosures of classified information may have made it more difficult to locate terrorists and terrorist networks, and disrupt their plans. Watch House Democrats speak out. Read More [ permalink ] |
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EFF's Class-Action Lawsuit Against AT&T for Collaboration with Illegal Domestic Spying Program
From Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T on January 31, 2006, accusing the telecom giant of violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the National Security Agency (NSA) in its massive and illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications. In December of 2005, the press revealed that the government had instituted a comprehensive and warrantless electronic surveillance program that ignored the careful safeguards set forth by Congress. This surveillance program, purportedly authorized by the President at least as early as 2001 and primarily undertaken by the NSA, intercepts and analyzes the communications of millions of ordinary Americans. Read More [ permalink ] |
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SPIES AND LIES: STEAL YOUR DATA, STEAL YOUR VOTE
From gregpalast.com - Thursday, May 18, 2006 By Greg Palast How you go about jerry-rigging a democracy has a lot to do with two other, seemingly unrelated stories, in the news this week: illegal surveillance of our phone records and the new border war against immigrants. The glue between these three stories -- elections manipulation, War on Terror and War on Immigration -- is a four letter: data. Read More [ permalink ] |
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Seymour Hersh On NSA Spying
From The New Yorker - Wednesday, May 17, 2006 By Seymour M. Hersh Former AT&T technician Mark Klein offers a firsthand account of his alleged discovery of a secret room routing American internet traffic straight to the NSA -- and provides documents he says prove his case. Former AT&T technician Mark Klein is the key witness in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's class-action lawsuit against the company, which alleges that AT&T illegally cooperated in an illegal National Security Agency domestic-surveillance program. Read More [ permalink ] |
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Court Deals AT&T a Setback
From Wired News - Wednesday, May 17, 2006 By Ryan Singel A federal judge Wednesday shot down telecom giant AT&T's efforts to recover and suppress internal documents that a former AT&T technician says demonstrate the company's collusion in the illegal spying program of government wiretapping surveillance. Read More [ permalink ] |
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AT&T Whistle-Blower's Evidence
From Wired News - Wednesday, May 17, 2006 Former AT&T technician Mark Klein is the key witness in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's class-action lawsuit against the company, which alleges that AT&T illegally cooperated in an illegal National Security Agency domestic-surveillance program. Read More [ permalink ] |
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Feds Go All Out to Kill Spy Suit
From Wired News - Tuesday, May 2, 2006 By Ryan Singel The powerful state secrets privilege is the executive branch's nuclear option -- and experts say it's almost always upheld by the courts. Now a legal remnant from the English throne may doom any lawsuit over the NSA's extrajudicial domestic surveillance. Read More [ permalink ] |
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AT&T Seeks to Hide Spy Docs
From Wired News - Wednesday, April 12, 2006 By Ryan Singel The telecom giant asks for the return of technical documents that purport to show how it helped the NSA install internet wiretap gear as part of a secret domestic surveillance operation. Read More [ permalink ] |
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Wiretap Whistle-Blower's Account
From Wired News - Friday, April 7, 2006 Former AT&T technician Mark Klein has come forward to support the EFF's lawsuit against AT&T for its alleged complicity in the NSA's electronic surveillance. Here, Wired News publishes Klein's public statement in its entirety. Read More [ permalink ] |
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A Pretty Good Way to Foil the NSA
From Wired News - Monday, April 3, 2006 By Ryan Singel How easy is it for the average internet user to make a phone call secure enough to frustrate the NSA's extrajudicial surveillance program? Read More [ permalink ] |
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Does the White House NSA defense come from John Mitchell?
Friday, March 31, 2006 By Glenn Greenwald Among the witnesses testifying at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today on Sen. Feingold's Censure Resolution is former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean. Dean has frequently compared the abuses of the Bush Administration generally to those of the Nixon Administration, and has specifically compared the illegal eavesdropping activities of the two Administrations. While we know that the eavesdropping ordered by President Bush is exactly the eavesdropping which FISA makes it a criminal offense to engage in, we do not yet know -- thanks to the frenzied efforts of Bush defenders to suppress any and all investigations into the Administration's eavesdropping activities -- the nature and extent of Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program. We do not, for instance, know which Americans were eavesdropped on, how many Americans were subject to this illegal surveillance, how it was determined who would be eavesdropped on, what was done with the information, whether purely innocent Americans had their communications intercepted without judicial approval, etc. Read More [ permalink ] |
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Bush Keeps Privacy Posts Vacant
From Wired News - Thursday, February 2, 2006 By Ryan Singel While domestic surveillance is growing, neither the president nor Congress is racing to fill key privacy and civil liberties jobs in Washington. Read More [ permalink ] |
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AT&T Sued Over NSA Eavesdropping
From Wired News - Tuesday, January 31, 2006 By Ryan Singel The EFF files a class-action lawsuit on behalf of customers allegedly caught up in the NSA's domestic surveillance program, claiming that AT&T illegally gave the government access to customer databases. Read More [ permalink ] |
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NY TIMES KEPT BUSH SPYING SECRET FOR A YEAR!
From Common Dreams - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 Illegal Bush Spy Scandal article was delayed from being published by one year! New York Times Newspaper knew about the ILLEGAL White House Spy Program for over one year before the article was published! The New York Times Newspaper delayed publishing the Illegal Bush Spy Scandal article on request of the Bush Administration! The New York Times newspaper complied with requests, by the very criminals breaking the laws, to keep quiet about the Illegal Bush Spy Program! The Bush administration initiated warrantless wiretaps on hundreds of people within the U.S. -- including U.S. citizens -- even though a federal law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, expressly forbids the government from doing so. Read More [ permalink ] |
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Wiretapping Overview > Taps, Traps, and Pens -- Electronic Surveillance Overview
From CDT - Sunday, January 1, 2006 The federal wiretap law was enacted in 1968, and has undergone major revisions (example: US Patriot Act) since then as Congress has tried to keep pace with changing technology. Congress has tried to balance the often competing interests of law enforcement, privacy rights, and technological innovation. Technology continues to change, however, sometimes in ways that interfere with law enforcement surveillance, but more often in ways that enhance government capabilities. Most American citizens, for example, are relying more and more on electronic communications for a range of purposes from communicating with their workplace to researching term papers to scouting out the best of the new movies for a weekend date. In the process they are exposing more details of their lives to potential law enforcement surveillance and are leaving increasingly revealing and easily captured "electronic footprints" wherever they go. Read More [ permalink ] |
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