Warrantless Wiretapping Now Legal
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Technology, The War On TerrorismIf you think this is just targeting overseas calls and emails, you’re kidding yourself.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 — President Bush signed into law on Sunday legislation that broadly expanded the government’s authority to eavesdrop on the international telephone calls and e-mail messages of American citizens without warrants.Congressional aides and others familiar with the details of the law said that its impact went far beyond the small fixes that administration officials had said were needed to gather information about foreign terrorists. They said seemingly subtle changes in legislative language would sharply alter the legal limits on the government’s ability to monitor millions of phone calls and e-mail messages going in and out of the United States.
They also said that the new law for the first time provided a legal framework for much of the surveillance without warrants that was being conducted in secret by the National Security Agency and outside the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the 1978 law that is supposed to regulate the way the government can listen to the private communications of American citizens.
“This more or less legalizes the N.S.A. program,” said Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington, who has studied the new legislation.
This is scary for a whole host of reasons.
- They collect everything. That doesn’t mean they hold onto it all, but they collect it all. So privacy is really a thing of the past.
- If you say certain key words or send email messages with certain key words, the government’s system will record your conversation.
- Ever heard of Echelon? Well, that’s legal now.
They’ll tell us that we need this, but they also tell us we needed Guantanamo, black sites, secret prisons, renditioning and, oh yeah…Iraq.
But hey, let’s keep electing people who will give our rights away for vague promises of securing our freedom.
I’m sure it’ll all work out in our favor.
This entry was posted on Monday, August 6th, 2007 and is filed under Technology, The War On Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 6th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Oh, my Lord! You mean the Democrats are just as hungry for power?
August 6th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
What do you have to hide Justin? I have nothing to hide, and there has never been such thing as total privacy anyway. Now you have to deal with it. It’s the changing face of a world full of paranoia.
August 6th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
The Democrats’ inaction, or Democrats in action? They could have stopped this, but maybe they are banking on winning 2008 and realize that they will need this legeslation more than Bush does now in order to protect the homeland (since they will try to retreat into a defensive foreign policy regarding terrorism).
By passing the bill on to President Bush they can always blame him for any political fallout, and then use it to their advantage after 2008.
August 6th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
another step towards losing the Constitution. God have mercy on us, what have we become? our own leaders are stripping our personal rights away in the name of “terrorists” - it’s a ridiculous WITCH HUNT at this point.
THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS KILLING OUR RIGHTS AND THIS CONGRESS IS ACTUALLY LETTING THEM DO IT!!!
August 6th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Mike, then go live in China. I’ll continue to live here where we the people are supposed to control the government, not the other way around.
Also, it’s not about hiding things, it’s about not letting people WE hire into parts of our lives they have no business seeing. I don’t want anybody reading my email, looking in my bank account or listening to my phone calls. Why? Because it’s MINE, not theirs.
And agreed with everybody who blame the Dems on this one as well. But at least some of them have put up a fight. How many Republicans have opposed these measures? Ron Paul?
August 7th, 2007 at 8:55 am
The whole attitude of “I have nothing to hide” really irks me as well. Since when did I need a REASON to keep my personal life and information PRIVATE. When did this become the norm?
And I agree with Justin. Move to a place where the individual doesn’t exist. Or better yet, why don’t you post your personal login information for your email and bank account for everyone to see and go live in a glass house if you truly have “nothing to hide.”
People like you absolutely disgust me Mike. You’re first in line to sign away yours and others rights for the right price.
August 7th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
We are being asked to trust that this power will never be abused. I will barely believe that someone deserves that trust if they want to add a condition to the law that states that abusing that power is a felony with a life sentence and no possibility of parole as the punishment for everyone involved in the abuse and any conspiracy to commit the abuse.
August 7th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
Mike obviously thinks America should return to the McCarthy era where
you left the living room drapes open for all to see, otherwise you might just be one of those Red bastards.
This is nothing new folks, America has always had to have an “enemy” within to fight. The enemy used to be Anarchists and then there was Communists and now we have Terrorists. It never mattered and still doesn’t matter whether you are actually any one of these things, if you
were considered a muckraker or one of those trouble maker types, they had “reason” to believe you might be one of these enemies within.
It’s pretty effective, it scares people into being passive and learning to “go along” or risk being black listed and excommunicated from the whole. Every time you hear one of these people like Mike stand up and say things like “What are you hiding?”, you are seeing this “fear policy” at work. The message is” Don’t ask nosy questions, don’t question what you think is wrong. Just do what we tell you and everything will be fine.
I’ve got nothing to hide, and I’m sure as hell not going to hide in fear and let this administration and it’s war mongering, unjust spying and unraveling of our hard won civil liberties go unquestioned. That is, I’m afraid! what a REAL America would do, not sit around and cower in a ball of fear waiting for this weeks terror color. Whom are the real terrorists anyway? I’ve been far more “terrified” by this administrations disregard for America and its constitution than I have been of the so-called “terrorists.” Are there terrorists who wish to harm America and Americans? You bet your ass there, but does that mean America should forfeit every fiber of its being because of a few radical maniacs? I say no, I say HELL NO!
Do we need spying to safeguard America? of course! But does anyone trust a blanket spy policy in the hands of this administration, an administration that has shown zero regard for due process of law and civil rights. Our attorney general is going around and firing people simply because they didn’t want to “bend” the law for Bush.
I’m an American and I’m not afraid, and you Mr. Bush are everything I believe America stands against, not for. Take you and your illegal spying on Americans back to the communist bloc it once came. That’s what the FISA court was created for, to keep politically zealous presidents like Nixon from abusing executive powers. Does anyone believe Bush can be taken at his word? Pleasssssssse!
The author Sinclair Lewis once said, “When Facism comes to America it will be wrapped in the American flag and carrying a cross.”
We are here people, we are here. Wake up! and fight for our America, no one else is going to do it for you.
August 10th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
Yet another reason to distrust the holy alliance between AT&T and the illegal spying Bush regime. How is it AT&T, this administration spy arm “accidentally” censored anti-Bush lyrics? So much for freedom of speech in these American states.
Censoring of Song Was an Error, AT&T Says:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/10/business/media/10censor.html
August 11th, 2007 at 9:12 am
Jerermy - I’d challenge you to actually cite that quote from Sinclair Lewis - not all google quote searches render the truth. Now what Sinclair Lewis did say was this:
A bit different…
August 11th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
DosPeros, there is much debate as to whether Sinclair Lewis can be attributed as saying: “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.” in his book: “It Can’t Happen Here” (1935).
Using Googles Advanced search: http://www.google.com/advanced_group_search?hl=en
You will see many references to this quote. It’s hotly debated whether S.L. even said these words, yet, the quote is widely attributed to him nonetheless. Indeed, some variations on this quote are even attributed to Huey Long.
You may be 100% right. S. Lewis may have never uttered these words or anything close to them. I have never read “It Can’t Happen Here.” I certainly planned to know.
Nonetheless, I believe the quote is still as poignant and apt today as it ever might have been. It speaks volumes that this quote is so widely used and attributed to Sinclair Lewis, even though he may have never uttered such a quote. It holds true in many peoples’ minds, and it’s no wonder why.
Oddly enough, I didn’t first hear of this quote on Google, I heard this quote on C-SPAN during a Book Notes broadcast and looked it up immediately on the internet. It seems almost everyone attributes this quote to Mr. Lewis, perhaps, wrongly.