Bush Spying on Americans
Wire tapping the telephones of American citizens without a court order is illegal.
They impeached Clinton for a minor dalliance in which he didn't even get to third base. But taking the Constitution and pushing it through the shredder, why that is just fine and dandy.
He really does believe that it is only a piece of paper, and he is the Prince of the Realm who may do as he pleases, isn't he?
The answer to Ben Franklin's comment about what sort of government the constitution enshrined--"A republic, if you can keep it"-- has been answered. We've lost it, folks. We've got George III in the White House. And, it is now often forgotten, that George was looney as the day is long, too.
' Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. '
That Bush was doing this wasn't even known. How much more is not known?
It was a good run, this United States of America with its Constitution and its Bill of Rights. How sad that a gang of unscrupulous criminals has been allowed to subvert its basic values altogether.
Is there even a single one of the guarantees in the Bill of Rights that Bush and his henchmen have not by now abrogated by royal fiat?
And why? Because of a single attack by a few hijackers from a small terrorist organization? The thousands lost in the Revolutionary War did not deter the Founding Fathers from enshrining these rights in the Constitution! The fledgling American Republic was far more unstable and facing far more dangers when this document was passed into law than the unchallengeable hyperpower that now bestrides the globe as a behemoth.
Have we lost our minds?
posted by Juan Cole @ 12/18/2005 12:09:00 AM
|
Facebook
20 Comments:
Unfortunately we find out that Pelosi has known about the whole thing all along...
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2005/12/17/pelosi_knew_about_domestic_spying.html
No one can stop them. The system has failed.
What the hell are they doing that we DONT know about?
"That Bush was doing this wasn't even known. How much more is not known?"
Why didn't anyone "know" this? This is hardly surprising considering the Lord Actonites have demonstrated an exceptional capacity for disregarding any and all conventions when it comes to governing. We saw this with Bill Jeff Blythe IV Clinton and his little episode with La Lewinsky. We can only look back with awe and wonder at the extremists' approach to that situation and then compare it -- and them -- to what is happening now. Of course, the plan (if there was one) was to make the public suffer scandal fatigue in order to have a few freebies of their own, as demonstrated by Hyde, Livingstone, Gingrich, Giuliani, et al. The operational conflict in Iraq is just about as close to sex and rape as one can get, the violent intrusion into the sovereignty of another. And where's the outrage? Jennifer? Paula? Monica? Juanita? All the radical rightists did was babble on about BJ's Babylonian bacchanal awaiting their turn with the their own version of "being all about sex" and their roamin' Roman orgy of wanton death and destruction. Needless to say, in spite of all of the Luddites on the Republicans' sides, they sure get off on those mechanical devices designed and configured for maximum thrust and greatest and deepest penetration. And they can only admire those jet jocks who have ready access to their "G" spots with every maneuver and bursting forth!
A little case of wire taps? A violation of the search and seizure laws? A little agressive instrusion? Employing elements of the government (the existence of which is supposedly by consent of the governed) to spy or eavesdrop on all of those innocent Americans? A little surreptitious voyeurism? And, if things are done withOUT consent, just who is being governed? Except by force? Only the Buscist supporters? And do they like the strong, imposing, invasive type? Were we mistaken about Bill Jeff being vilified; was he being ridiculed for not being extreme enough? Could it be that the tax issue is one that addresses no representation? Despite claims to be the President of all Americans? And on and on one might digress about such things. But. It's still "all about sex."
The question remains: why would anyone think that such scurrilous activities would NOT be employed? After all, was it not Ashcroft who chose to drape Justice, to hide her bare essentials from public view, in essence taking things to a dark and private place where the nitty-gritty could be examined and explored beyond public view? Ashcroft's public version of the quarter booth in the polticoporno shop?
Every other aspect of the "govern"-ment has been used to the Americans' disadvantage, making the Shi'a/Sunni/Kurd feuds and spats look tame compared to the partisanship ongoing in the District of Columbia. One would consider even partisanship to surpass cliquishness and address matters of "right" and "wrong" objectively, but when one has to keep the home team ahead, any sleight of hand or slight of man will do, eh? ("So, Mr Clinton. You thought you were something by being overbearing or overwhelming with the naive and innocent, did you? Well, just look at what REAL force is capable of!")
There was something a while back about Bush and Blair and history all being on the same side. Perhaps something by the gasbomb bombastic gasbag Churchill about the victors writing history.
"As Sir Winston himself declared: 'History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.'"* "If we are wrong, then we will have destroyed a threat that was at its least responsible for inhuman carnage and suffering,' Blair said. "I am confident history will forgive."* (Yes, Mr Clinton. The slacker armchair warriors are always the ones who seek excuses ... er, forgiveness.)
History is not an anthropomorphism, something made human in order to portray or display "human" characteristics. History is a relating of the available facts, usually supplemented and amplified by a free press. So far (at least until the endorsements were made plain in October-November 2004), the Buscists have had a free press ride. Obviously, when the "newspaper of record" is no longer even suitable to line a birdcage bottom any longer, the "free" dumbies are in for some great epiphanies. One of which will have to do with how much (dis)information goes into formulating national and foreign policy. Now, all we have to do is address that little matter of rape ... and the $Billions in hush money.
*From a simple search "Bush Blair History Iraq"
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?itemID=3930§ionID=15
But who will fulfill the role of John Cooke?
The trial of Charles I was a momentous event, and not only for Britain. After thirty years of continental war, the kingdoms of Europe had, by the Treaty of Westphalia in October 1648, given some guarantee of the rights of religious and ethnic minorities within their domains, but as sovereign states that would police themselves. It was fundamental to this treaty, the foundation of international law, that a prince could not be overthrown for violating the liberties of his own subjects. But the most important thing about the Treaty of Westphalia was that England was not party to it. Just a few months later, John Cooke devised a way of ending the impunity it guaranteed to sovereigns, crafting out of the common law and the law of nations and the Bible a theory which could bring hereditary dictatorship to an end. This message, filtered through the philosophy of Locke and Montesquieu, provided inspiration for the French Revolution and the War of American Independence: we can see it now as the precursor of a much more recent development which began at Nuremberg, namely the use of criminal law to punish heads of state and political and military leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
No Juan. We have not lost our minds. Ours are functioning well and easily found within our craniums. I know my mind is in there because it sends sharp pains to itself when is has to process the words "dick cheney" and "hero" in the same sentence. As for the rest of us, I could'nt say, but the early indications are 50/50. I hope that improves.
Thank you for all you have done. When this is over, perhaps the next elected president will recognize your efforts to save the constitution, and pin a medal upon your chest. After, of course, they take them back from george tenent ,tommy frank, and paul bremer. Thus restoring the dignity of the award.
The Watergate Authorization Act has many provisions for Patriots.
Thank you for expressing this. My first thought about this was to recall Benjamin Franklin's comment. From Franklin to Bush, its been a long way down.
Our minds seem to have been lost some time ago - it's our souls we're losing now....
You have pinpointed a serious concern:
"That Bush was doing this wasn't even known. How much more is not known?"
It is becoming increasingly difficult for concerned citizens to act on a major scale if our elected representatives in Congress do not face the reality of what is going on and act for the common good rather than for their careers, cash, or cronies. Some have no backbone.
Weapons for crowd control have been tested that could be used even against peaceful demonstrators and could injure their nervous systems permanently. The so-called mainstream media are not reliable or trustworthy, never mind dedicated to truth telling. Surveillance and databases already contain too much information about our whereabouts, travel, and contacts--instantly available to government officials determined to monitor and control. Fisk's visa was declared unsatisfactory when the U.S. did not want him to enter the country for a speaking engagement that would have presented information not favorable to the Bush admin smokescreen. Cellphones, BlackBerries, and cars have locators built in--individuals can be tracked and found instantly, for rescue or detention.
Using our right to vote to effect changes for the good of a larger community has become more difficult. Massive campaign funds control the media, reporters let themselves be manipulated, sorting out facts from disinformation can be tricky, and propaganda is broadcast as news; even the Pentagon is spending our tax monies for its own channel. Electronic voting machines cannot be relied on by the individual voter to register a vote for the candidate he/she voted for.
I was startled to learn that a student who requested a book for his history research paper via interlibrary loan was visited shortly thereafter by Department of Homeland Security officials--who had the book but would not give it to him (it was NOT a recipe for a bomb or such information, but merely the sayings of Mao Tse-Tung--students trained in critical thinking do not become terrorists by reading about ideas, but for emotionally compelling reasons, such as to redress wrongs, invasion and occupation of one's country among possible wrongs).
Without habeas corpus, people can "disappear" just as in dictatorships. Now that Congress has foolishly OK'd testimony gained through torture, Guantanamo and rendition centers may as well set up franchises (hey, it would broaden the tax base for our spendthrift commander in chief).
In the future, will it be possible to get out of the U.S. should the administration ever stage a 'lockdown' of our borders? The names of peaceful protestors are said to have been left in the FBI database, classified under "domestic terrorism," and no one, as far as I know, is clearing out the names of innocent citizens from those bloated federal databases. The list of potential terrorist names to check at airports is expanding enormously; any U.S. traveler with a similar name is going to have, or be given, a hard time. Now so-called VIPER man and dog teams will cover other forms of transportation too; under the guise of protection, ordinary citizens are gradually becoming part of an armed camp in which military power prevails. In this way, the hapless frog ends up boiled in the pot.
Every so often, you will note that Bush floats the trial balloon of military rule in the streets...recently, for example, for Katrina (where armed Blackwater mercenaries were brought in fresh from Iraq), or hypothetically to preserve quarantine (not that the microbial realm cares about martial law) in case of a future pandemic. To judge by the way many Katrina survivors were treated under this administration, would those victims of contagion not simply be sequestered to starve and die in isolation?
If the U.S. respected the human rights of all human beings, including 100% of its citizens and inhabitants, and worked for the common good of the world, then there would be fewer oppressed people(s) who have no other recourse but violence against their occupier or repressor. In centuries past, one could have fled to the hills, but those are mostly subdivisions now, and even the Arctic wilderness is shrinking under global warming.
If action is not taken now to protect our (now pretty much nominal) American rights and liberties, this increasing government overcontrol will be very hard to overcome. (I said "overcome," not "overturn"; note also that I love this country, ALL of it, not just Texas or the Occupied Territories).
Alex Hardin
As the government response to hurricane Katrina illustrated, the U.S. is one WMD attack away from collapse. The country has never been closer to destruction. The Bush administration is not even close to doing the minimum amount necessary to keep Islamic terrorists at bay, let alone defeat them. Under these circumstances, the incessant sniping at the counterterrorism efforts that ARE being made is a serious problem. Political leaders have too little incentive to take needed action as it is, without being attacked at every turn. We need to be more realistic about the magnitude of the threat that we face. We can't expect a clean, low-cost victory in the war against Islamic estremism. History shows that winning a war entails massive civilian casualties and other collateral damage, and it is high time that critics of the war effort come to terms with the reality that we face and accept that winning the war is going to be messy, costly and unpleasant, but still a better alternative than losing.
Is this really that much worse than J. Edgar Hoover's work?
I got a personal story to share.
Just a few days ago, my arab friend who lives in Houston, Texas , told me her friends received strange calls from people who said they were FBI. They were asking personal informations about her.
Next day, they called her directly. She was accused of sending emails to someone in Kuweit. Or at least that's what she told me.
It turns out those people were NSA, one of her friend works at the FBI and he was rather pi**ed, saying globally that these people didn't have the right to do that. The FBI was aware it seems.
Anyway , the guy she sent emails to was her brother . Who was serving as a US soldier.
This is what John le Carré said almost 3 years ago:
"America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember"
I agreed then and I do now - the answer is yes - we have as a nation lost our minds.
The whole thing is here.
This is the line of no return. Not only the difference between Democracy and Dictatorship but also between Republic and Empire. The Framers understood that no matter how well intentioned the Man, Temptation is greater and that there is no greater temptation that absolute power. Worse be it when such power falls on those less apt to wield it.
These are the signs of our time.
I am aghast that the NYTimes chose to sit on their story for a year at the administration's request. Not surprised...just horrified. For all the blather about the Liberal Media Conspiracy there's no question that the major news operations are bought and paid for by corporations and the government. These are not liberal organizations.
Bush is chastising the leakers for exposing his machinations because now the terrorists know what he's up to? Right...before these revelations they were confident that they could operate in the open since they believed they couldn't possibly be under surveillance while inside a "free" country. Good thing our freedoms (those things 'they' hate) are now in protective custody.
I had to laugh at today's headline proclaiming the Vice President's first POSTWAR visit to Iraq! I almost forgot the war ended when W. climbed out of that plane on the deck of an aircraft carrier. Sometimes the sneaky liberal media manages to convince me that there's still a war going on with all that focus on the bad news.
Merry Mithras!
How interesting that just yesterday I came across John Dean's book "Worse than Watergate" where the convicted felon, Dean, Counsel to the POTUS RMN says that the Bush White House makes the Nixon era look like child's play.
And who should know better than Dean? He himself conspired to cover up Nixon's activities against the Democratic Party and the antics of the Plumber's units in the Ellsberg case along with many cases of campaign mischief that forced Ed Muskie out of the race in '72 so that Nixon could run against the much weaker opponent George McGovern.
This country ought to be ashamed of itself. King George has abrogated at least 7 of the 10 fundamental rights of Americans as outlined in the Constitution's Bill of Rights. Here they are, in my opinion:
Amendment 1- "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press". By stating "you are either for us or against us," Bush and his cronies paint a picture that anyone who exercises free speech is "unpatriotic" and "aiding in the terrorist cause". Is this censorship in it's worst form or did I suddenly move to Russia?
Amendment 4- (In it's entirety) "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. The guarantee against unwarranted search and seizure under the guise of "ferreting out terrorists whereever they hide in America" involves my library book usage and my medical records? Do my medical records somehow record I have a blood type known only to terrorists? I thought patient confidentiality was a given but think again...
Amendment 5 states that "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury nor " be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. " How about all those folks in Gitmo or that the CIA spirited out of the country? How about the two American Citizens that have been held without charges or representation for over three years?
Amendment 6- "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial"; Once again, is being held without trial for over three years speedy and public?
Amendment 7 states that "In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. " Well, I guess since the 9/11 attacks did much more than $20 worth of damage, then any defendant is allowed a jury trial and not by a MILITARY TRIBUNAL.
Amendment 8-"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted". If being held without charges and without bail and with access to your family for over 3 years such as the detainees in Cuba isn't cruel and unusual punishment, I don't know what is. But don't forget there are two American citizens languishing in jail without bail or charge now as well for over three years. Don't they count?
Amendment 9- "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. " So if the Constitution guarantees your right to treatment as a human being, then where is the compassionate conservative that Bush touted himself as in 2000 and 2004?
I am not a Constitutional scholar but I can recognize abuse when I see it. And the Bill of Rights has been shredded in the name of the fight against Al Quada. Remember them? Osama Bin Laden and his cronies did the work of 9/11 and there has been NO linkage between Iraq and Al Quada... none... nada... nyet... zip.
So why does Bush trot out 9/11 as the excuse for his abuses? Because he thinks if he picks at the scab, we will get mad all over again. He says he needs the covert surveilllance to, as Condi Rice put it today "seal the gap in intelligence that caused 9/11..." Didn't the field offices of the FBI in Phoeniz, Minneapolis and Miami try to alert Washington that certain foreign nationals were taking flying lessons and were not interested in small aricraft but jet engine ratings? Didn't those memos get sent and ignored? Didn't the gap exist not because of some chasm in intelligence gathering but because the FBI chose to ignore it's field officers?
We are, and have been, lied every step of the way; WMD's in Iraq; a link between Iraq and Al Quada; Osama Bin Laden and his hide-out in the dictatorship of Pakistan run by one of the most ruthless, unlelcted leaders on record, Musharef;the secret and covert surveillance of American citizens email and phone conversations; the loss of life in Afghanistan without a word while all our attention is focused on Iraq; the lies by Condi Rice as NSA advisor and Colin Powell as Secretary of State to the world through the Security Council and the UN General Assembly; the secret flights of the CIA to other countries where torture is not only tolerated but encourages; the detainment of "enemy combatants" in Cuba so we can say they are technically not on American soil...
When will it end?
Only with the impeachment of King George...
Why is everyone so surprised that "dirty tricks" are being done by the Bush Administration. Has everyone forgotten how Gonzales' distortions of the law led to Abu Graib. These people came from Nixon's White House. They have had years to feed their rage. They still believe that Nixon was "done to" as we were reminded by Ben Stein on a recent CBS Sunday Morning. They do not take personal responsibility. Bushes speech tonight will buy him some time when his numbers go up because the gullible once more will fall for his fake sincerity. But what I heard was his arrogance in believing he has been right all along and history will call him a hero and he is staying the course. Hang in there a little longer. His foundation started to crumble during Katrina and Rove doesn't have enough thumbs to plug all the holes.
Impeachment is overdue.
First Cheney. Then Bush.
Cheney for promoting (and hiding) torture, producing false documents to lead us into war in Iraq, secretly hiding facts from congress as required by the Constitution, war profiteering, just for starters. He also made sure we couldn't find out how little had been done to protect Americans in the intervening 4 years.
We get rid of Cheney, then go after Bush. This way we can clean house. If we do Bush first, we get Cheney, and then Cheney invokes martial law, and it's King Dick the First. (Should we call him Richard III?)
Yes, since I have traveled abroad, I do anticipate a knock on my door.
I fear that 50 years of Cold War have changed the nature of US society and US government. We have become used to an imperial presidency, a servile legislature which mostly wields guanxi, secret wars, etc. To go on to a full-blown police state is not hard. Not that Bush is Hitler, Stalin, or even Saddam Hussein. Maybe he's another Ferdinand Marcos. But I lived in the Philippines during the early years of the Marcos martial law regime, and that was bad enough.
Zhuge Liang
George W. Bush: He hates our freedoms.
Lets be clear.
We are talking about millions of connections, messages or transmissions / transcripts an hour here.
We are talking about capturing all communications carried by the major carriers. That includes bank transactions, wire transmissions (cables), phone calls, email, etc. etc.
That also includes video conferences, teleconferences, conference calls and so forth.
Now, in my honest opinion, if even one of those millions of conversations was between members of the opposite politcal party, and somehow made its way into Republican Party (Rove's desk, etc) hands for Political Use, then we have a new Watergate case here.
Likewise, if even one of those millions of conversations was between business interests (law firms, oil corporations, etc) and it somehow made its way into Business hands for Competitive Business use (Cheney's desk, etc) then we have a new case, where some businesses will be shown to have benefitted commercially from intelligence gathering paid for by tax payers.
Also, if there are current data feeds or data streams (bundles of information fed live, like cable tv channels) between this intelligence gathering activity and other government agencies like the IRS or Department of Commerce or Federal Reserve, then we have an entirely different and even more gravely unconstitutional case here.
I think we probably have all of these and alot more. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg, and that the "Government Investigation" is meant to shut up anyone who might otherwise feel free to testify before Congress - in other words it seems like flagrant violation of due process and flagrant executive branch interference in the congressional investigative process.
Just my view
Thanks
Post a Comment
<< Home