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FBI, DoD, NSA: All Spying on You
(Joel Bleifuss, In These Times, January 26, 2006)
Quietly, the war on terror, in which everything is permitted, has laid the ground work for the Bush administration to intrude into the political life of citizens. . . . Over the last several months, it has been revealed that the FBI, the Pentagon and the National Security Agency have each set up apparently independent covert operations to monitor the constitutionally protected political activities of citizens opposed to the Bush administration's war in Iraq. . . . The Washington Post discovered that under authority granted by the U.S. Patriot Act, the FBI has been issuing what are known as "national Security letters" that allow the bureau to spy on U.S. residents. The November 6 Post reported, "The FBI has issued tens of thousands of national security letters, extending the bureau's reach as never before into the telephone calls, correspondence and financial lives of ordinary Americans. Most of the U.S. residents and citizens whose records were screened, the FBI acknowledged, were not suspected of wrongdoing." . . . Christopher Plye, a former Army intelligence officer who exposed Pentagon infiltration of the anti-war and civil rights movements during the Vietnam War, told NBC, "This is the J. Edgar Hoover Memorial Vacuum Cleaner. They're collecting everything." . . . And we have been down that road before: The FBI's surveillance of Martin Luther King, infiltration of the anti-Vietnam war and civil rights movements by federal agent provocateurs, three incidents of NSA spying, and, in 1972, Watergate, a covert operation that involved agents of the Nixon administration breaking into Democratic Party headquarters. . . . These covert operations are a sign that the neoconservatives who set administration policy have adopted the policy of victory over all opponents by any means. . . . As a result, we now have a government that doesn't respect basic rules of constitutional government. Or, to put it another way, our government has redefined the Constitution in such a way as to justify its actions--and to provide legal protection for those who violate what used to be constitutional rights. . . . As with the war in Iraq, all of this has some people in the intelligence community worried. Hence, the leaks. . . . Eleanor Hill, a former Pentagon inspector general and the staff director of the joint congressional inquiry into 9/11, said that members of Congress had repeatedly asked the administration to recommend reforms of FISA. "The question was always asked of these witnesses: 'What do you need?' ... There was plenty of time to raise this issue. You don't just take it upon yourself to circumvent FISA. That attitude ignores the absolutely critical need for oversight." . . . Yet the trump administration's trump card remains: terrorism. "This authorization is a vital toll in our war against the terrorists," said Bush. . . . The very terrifying nature of terrorism turns those who question the Bush wars on into enemies of the state. . . . Simplistic political discourse a la Bush may not be so much a sign of the lack of presidential intelligence as it is a strategically important way to garner support for global war. What it does is disarm people. It belittles our critical capacities. It invites us to forget about criticism. I think this is one of the reasons why so many people, including progressive and radical people, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, could not mobilize the moral resources to speak out against Bush. . . . A similar dynamic seems to be playing out with the domestic spying scandals. Surveillance of potential terrorists is necessary, therefore our rights take second place. . . . The administration makes no bones about this. Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, as head of NSA, testified to Congress in 2002 that he met with his staff after 9/11: "I told them that free people always had to decide where to draw the line between their liberty and their security." Today, Hayden is the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence.

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
-- Benjamin Franklin

. . . Read more!

posted by LoZo 10:04 AM

 

NSA Spied on Millions of Americans
(Brian Ross, ABC News, January 10, 2006)
Russell Tice, a longtime insider at the National Security Agency, is now a whistleblower the agency would like to keep quiet. . . . I specialized in what's called special access programs," Tice said of his job. "We called them 'black world' programs and operations." . . . But now, Tice tells ABC News that some of those secret "black world" operations run by the NSA were operated in ways that he believes violated the law. He is prepared to tell Congress all he knows about the alleged wrongdoing in these programs run by the Defense Department and the NSA in the post-9/11 efforts to go after terrorists. . . . Tice says the technology exists to track and sort through every domestic and international phone call as they are switched through centers, such as one in New York, and to search for key words or phrases that a terrorist might use. . . . "If you picked the word 'jihad' out of a conversation," Tice said, "the technology exists that you focus in on that conversation, and you pull it out of the system for processing." . . . According to Tice, intelligence analysts use the information to develop graphs that resemble spiderwebs linking one suspect's phone number to hundreds or even thousands more. . . . President Bush has admitted that he gave orders that allowed the NSA to eavesdrop on a small number of Americans without the usual requisite warrants. . . . But Tice disagrees. He says the number of Americans subject to eavesdropping by the NSA could be in the millions if the full range of secret NSA programs is used. . . . "That would mean for most Americans that if they conducted, or you know, placed an overseas communication, more than likely they were sucked into that vacuum," Tice said. . . . The same day The New York Times broke the story of the NSA eavesdropping without warrants, Tice surfaced as a whistleblower in the agency. He told ABC News that he was a source for the Times' reporters. But Tice maintains that his conscience is clear. . . . "As far as I'm concerned, as long as I don't say anything that's classified, I'm not worried," he said. "We need to clean up the intelligence community. We've had abuses, and they need to be addressed." . . . The NSA revoked Tice's security clearance in May of last year based on what it called psychological concerns and later dismissed him. Tice calls that bunk and says that's the way the NSA deals with troublemakers and whistleblowers. Today the NSA said it had "no information to provide."

[ALSO SEE: NSA Whistleblower: Millions of Americans Potentially Watched Without Warrants

. . . Read more!

posted by LoZo 7:21 AM

 

FBI: U.S. free speech activists are commiting 'domestic terrorism'
(Asheville Global Report, Jan. 09, 2006)
According to new documents released on Dec. 20 by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the FBI is using counterterrorism resources to monitor and infiltrate domestic political organizations that criticize business interests and government policies, despite a lack of evidence that the groups are engaging in or supporting violent action. . . . The ACLU said that the documents released on Greenpeace, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) show the FBI expanding the definition of "domestic terrorism" to include citizens and groups that participate in lawful protests or civil disobedience. . . . "Labeling law-abiding groups and their members 'domestic terrorists' is not only irresponsible, it has a chilling effect on the vibrant tradition of political dissent in this country." . . . Among the documents were more than 100 pages of FBI files on PETA. Multiple documents indicate ongoing surveillance of PETA-related meetings and activities, including a "Vegan Community Project" event at the University of Indiana during which the group distributed vegetarian starter kits to students and faculty; an animal rights conference in Washington, DC, that was open to the public; and a planned protest of Cindy Crawford's decision to become a llama fur spokesperson. . . . One file released by the FBI in response to a request for ADC's records included a contact list for students and peace activists who participated in a 2002 conference at Stanford University, which focused on ending US sanctions against Iraq. . . . "Americans shouldn't have to fear that by protesting the treatment of animals or participating in non-violent civil disobedience, they will be branded as 'eco-terrorists' in FBI records," said Ben Wizner, an ACLU staff attorney. . . . PETA, in particular, is repeatedly and falsely singled out as a "front" for militant organizations although in at least one document the FBI appears to acknowledge that it has no evidence to back up such assertions. . . . "These documents show the erosion of freedom of association and speech that Americans have taken for granted and which set us apart from oppressive countries," said Jeff Kerr, General Counsel for PETA. . . . The documents released by the ACLU also include FBI observances on supposed Communist leanings of the Catholic Workers Group (CWG). In an e-mail to the counterterrorism unit, an unidentified official wrote, "the Catholic Workers advocated peace with a Christian and semi-communistic ideology." In another document, an agent writes, "Based on the author's interpretation of comments made by various CWG protestors, CWG also advocates a communist distribution of resources." . . . a group of Yukon, Canada high school students who attended a peace demonstration in Alaska last year have been labeled a threat by US Homeland Security. . . . The students and their teachers from Vanier Catholic Secondary School in Whitehorse were singled out when they crossed the border on their way to Fort Greely to protest missile proliferation. . . . A document leaked from the US defense department shows the Whitehorse school group is among a list of more than 1,500 anti-war groups considered a risk to US national security. They have been lumped in with other organizations such as the Florida Quakers and student unions from major US universities.

. . . Read more!

posted by LoZo 2:41 PM