Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:23 pm
Lets not forget that they were spying on people suspected of having terrorist ties... so who really gives a damn about their rights... lol
George Bush: Master Spy
Unilateral president exposed in his ignorance of Constitution he's sworn to protect
by Nat Hentoff
January 6th, 2006 4:53 PM
The pursuit of terrorism does not authorize the president to make up new laws. Thomas G. Donlan , "Unwarranted Executive Power," Barron's, page 1, December 26
William Kristol, usually a reasonable conservative†™ ¢‚¬„¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¢†™‚¢‚¢¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¬¦‚¡¢‚¬Å¡‚¬†™‚¢‚¢¢¢¬…¡‚¬?staunchly defending the president's authorization of the National Security Agency's warrantless spying on telephone calls and e-mails into and out of the United States†™ ¢‚¬„¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¢†™‚¢‚¢¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¬¦‚¡¢‚¬Å¡‚¬†™‚¢‚¢¢¢¬…¡‚¬?declared in the January 2 Weekly Standard, of which he is the editor:
"Was the president to ignore the obvious incapacity of any court [including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court] to judge surveillance decisions involving the sweeping of massive numbers of cell phone and e-mails by high-speed computers . . . [during] the threat of imminent new attacks?"
Kristol ignored the fact†™ ¢‚¬„¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¢†™‚¢‚¢¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¬¦‚¡¢‚¬Å¡‚¬†™‚¢‚¢¢¢¬…¡‚¬?as the president continually has†™ ¢‚¬„¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¢†™‚¢‚¢¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¬¦‚¡¢‚¬Å¡‚¬†™‚¢‚¢¢¢¬…¡‚¬?that the law creating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court permits the NSA to conduct its massive searches without first going to the FISA court in an emergency. The NSA then has 72 hours to go to the secret FISA court and get the warrant. Moreover, as John Riley reported in the best single analysis of this action by the master-spy president ( Newsday, "Eavesdropping Tests Legal Limits," December 26), "Even longer periods [than 72 hours] are permitted in wartime."
I do appreciate, however, William Kristol's making clear that this unilateral, pervasive attack on what is left of Americans' privacy rights under the Fourth Amendment involves a huge, ever expanding data bank†™ ¢‚¬„¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¢†™‚¢‚¢¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¬¦‚¡¢‚¬Å¡‚¬†™‚¢‚¢¢¢¬…¡‚¬?the data mining of which was indicated by Washington Post columnist William Arkin:
"Massive amounts of collected data-†™ ¢‚¬„¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¢†™‚¢‚¢¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¬¦‚¡¢‚¬Å¡‚¬†™‚¢‚¢¢¢¬…¡‚¬?actual intercepts of phone calls, e-mails, etc.†™ ¢‚¬„¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¢†™‚¢‚¢¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¬¦‚¡¢‚¬Å¡‚¬†™‚¢‚¢¢¢¬…¡‚¬?together with 'transaction' data†™ ¢‚¬„¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¢†™‚¢‚¢¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¬¦‚¡¢‚¬Å¡‚¬†™‚¢‚¢¢¢¬…¡‚¬?travel or credit card records or telephone or Internet service provider logs†™ ¢‚¬„¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¢†™‚¢‚¢¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¬¦‚¡¢‚¬Å¡‚¬†™‚¢‚¢¢¢¬…¡‚¬?are mixed through a mind-boggling array of government and private sector software programs to look for potential matches." (Emphasis added.)
For more on how far and deep this data mining continues, though not acknowledged by Bush when he denounced The New York Times for its "shameful" breaking of the story of how he had let the NSA loose, see "Spy Agency Mined Vast Data Trove . . . Actions Without Warrants Are Called Wider Than Acknowledged" (The New York Times, page 1, December 24).
From that Times story: "A former technology manager at a major telecommunications company said that since the Sept. 11 attacks, the leading companies in the industry have been storing information on calling patterns and giving it to the federal government to aid in tracking possible terrorists. "
From:
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0602,h ... 587,6.html