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Supreme Court Nullifies Fourth Amendment - home searches without warrant OKed
(David G. Savage, L.A. Times, May 22, 2006)
Police officers may go into a home uninvited and without a search warrant in order to break up a fight they have seen through a kitchen window, the Supreme Court ruled today. . . . Usually, homes are off limits to the police and government searches, except when officers have obtained a warrant from a judge. In the past, however, the court has said there is an exception for emergencies, such as a fire at a residence. . . . he unanimous decision overturned rulings by the Utah state courts, which held that a loud party and a drunken fight did not give the police reason enough to burst into a home without a warrant. Its judges said the officers appeared more interested in breaking up the loud party than in aiding a seriously injured person. . . . But Roberts said the officers' true motives did not matter. . . . When the Utah courts suppressed the evidence against the adults, state prosecutors urged the court to hear the case to clarify what is an emergency exception to the 4th Amendment. . . . In Brigham City vs. Stuart, Roberts said the officers did not need a warrant because they were breaking up a fight, not searching the premises. . . . Moreover, they did not need to knock on the door before entering because they would not have been heard. "It would serve no purpose to require them to stand dumbly at the door awaiting a response while those within brawled on, oblivious to their presence," he wrote.

. . . Read more!

posted by LoZo 3:08 PM

 

Top Ten Signs of the Impending U.S. Police State
One saving grace of alternative media in this age of unfettered corporate conglomeration has been the internet. While the masses are spoon-fed predigested news on TV and in mainstream print publications, the truth-seeking individual still has access to a broad array of investigative reporting and political opinion via the world-wide web. Of course, it was only a matter of time before the government moved to patch up this crack in the sky. Attempts to regulate and filter internet content are intensifying lately, coming both from telecommunications corporations (who are gearing up to pass legislation transferring ownership and regulation of the internet to themselves), and the Pentagon (which issued an "Information Operations Roadmap" in 2003, signed by Donald Rumsfeld, which outlines tactics such as network attacks and acknowledges, without suggesting a remedy, that US propaganda planted in other countries has easily found its way to Americans via the internet). One obvious tactic clearing the way for stifling regulation of internet content is the growing media frenzy over child pornography and "internet predators," which will surely lead to legislation that by far exceeds in its purview what is needed to fight such threats. . . .

[CLICK THE ABOVE LINK TO READ MORE UNDER THE FOLLOWING HEADINGS]

"The Long War"
The USA PATRIOT Act
Prison camps
Touchscreen Voting Machines
Signing Statements
Warrantless Wiretapping
"Free Speech Zones"
High-ranking Whistleblowers
The CIA Shakeup

. . . Read more!

posted by LoZo 7:18 PM

 

NSA has domestic phone call database
(MSNBC News Services, May 11, 2006)
The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within U.S. borders...In an effort to build a database of every call made within the country, the agency in charge (NSA) of a domestic spying program has been secretly collecting phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, USA Today reported on Thursday. It said the National Security Agency has been building up the database using records provided by three major phone companies - AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. - but that the program "does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations." Instead it documents who talks to whom in personal and business calls, whether local or long distance, by tracking which numbers are called, the newspaper said. Although customers' names and addresses are not being handed over," the phone numbers the NSA collects can easily be cross-checked with other databases to obtain that information," it said. Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, who headed the NSA from 1999 to 2005 and was nominated by Bush on Monday as director of the CIA, would have overseen the call-tracking program, the paper said.
*****Comment*****Remember TIA (Total Information Awareness)? You didn't think they were going to give up on this just because the Congress said "NO!" Did you?*****

. . . Read more!

posted by A Curmudgeon 7:44 AM

 

U.S. government continues to escalate domestic spying
(Joe Kay and Marge Holland, World Socialist Web Site, 5 May 2006)
Nearly five months after the secret National Security Agency spying program was first revealed in the media, the US government continues its unchecked expansion of domestic spying powers. Several recent reports document this expansion, which is taking place on many fronts, involving the military, federal intelligence agencies, and local police forces. . . . The NSA program, which involves the warrantless monitoring of emails and other communications in violation of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), has received the most attention. In spite of its blatant illegality, the program continues, with no serious move by either political party to stop it. The Bush administration has openly flouted decisions by Congress and the courts, asserting that warrantless spying on US citizens is part of the president’s powers as commander-in-chief in the "war on terror." . . . The NSA program is only one component of a much broader policy undermining basic democratic and constitutional rights in the United States, all justified by a supposedly ubiquitous terrorist threat. However, their real purpose is to vastly expand the powers of the government to monitor and repress internal dissent under conditions of mounting social tension and political opposition to the policies of the Bush administration. . . . Taken together, these developments provide a picture of a government that is systematically laying the foundations for a police state. . . . Republicans in the House blocked various amendments placing minor restrictions on the NSA spying program, including one that would require that classified reports on the program be given to the full House Intelligence and Judiciary committees. This hardly would have hampered the illegal spying on US citizens, as the government has already given regular reports for years to a smaller group of legislators of both parties, who have helped keep the program secret from the American people. These measures are further steps in the establishment of a secret intelligence/police agency in the United States that is able to monitor virtually any communications between US citizens and rapidly make arrests of individuals deemed to be engaging in illegal activities, including protesters who are designated as "threats" to intelligence or defense facilities. The bill also includes a measure that would require the director of national intelligence to study the possibility of revoking the pensions of intelligence agents who leak classified information without authorization. The military has focused on antiwar protesters and according to the Journal, "the Pentagon has monitored more than 20 antiwar groups' activities around the country over the past three years. It has reviewed photographs and records of vehicles and protesters at marches to see if different activities were being organized by the same instigators." The military database is connected to the program run by the NSA, as well to initiatives that were originally part of the Pentagon’s now officially abandoned Total Information Awareness program. After a public outcry over TIA, which was to involve the accumulation of vast databases to help the government spy on the American people, the program was renamed and several of its components were moved around, but the basic plan has remained in place. According to the Journal, some of the TIA components ended up in the hands of the Army’s 902nd Military Intelligence Group, "the military’s largest counterintelligence unit [which] has hundreds of soldiers stationed around the country." The 902nd makes extensive use of the Joint Regional Information Exchange System, "which gathers information collected by civilian law enforcement agencies around the country," The newest intelligence units are called fusion centers, which pool information from multiple local jurisdictions. These centers now exist in 31 states, with more on the way. There are plans to eventually have 70 such centers across the nation, providing what US News calls "a coast-to-coast intelligence blanket." Lawsuits filed against the NYPD reveal that its undercover officers have joined antiwar rallies, among other protest gatherings, and that they have acted as agents provocateurs in order to provoke arrests at at least one demonstration. US News also reported that in order to qualify for federal homeland security grants, local authorities are now required, to report on how many "potential threat elements" or "PTEs" exist in their jurisdictions. "The definition [given by the Department of Homeland Security] of suspected terrorists was fairly loose," the magazine reported. "PTEs were groups or individuals who might use force or violence 'to intimidate or coerce' for a goal 'possibly political or social in nature.'"

. . . Read more!

posted by LoZo 10:22 AM

 

U.S. Congress Votes for Police State Laws
(Free Market News, 2 May 2006)
Last week the U.S. House of Representatives voted 327 to 96 in favor of passing a national intelligence bill reminiscent of laws created in police state nations, according to OnlineJournal and other sources. . . . The bill, HR 5020, proposes to create a number of sweeping changes to intelligence agencies in the name of stopping terrorists and securing top-secret information. The House Bill has several provisions to crack down on intelligence leaks, but critics are concerned that the legislation will be used to hide information from the public and target journalists. Anyone who receives intelligence leaks could be subject to sanctions including people in the media, and government workers could have their pension assets confiscated if they are involved with an information leak. . . . Opponents of the bill argue that the bill could also transform the nation’s intelligence agencies into policing agencies by giving them extra powers. The CIA was created in order to conduct foreign operations, however one controversial section of the bill would grant the CIA and NSA authority to arrest Americans in the U.S. for any felony, regardless of a crime’s relevance to national security. The bill would also make it clear that it is legal for the CIA and NSA to conduct warrantless wiretaps and arrests.

. . . Read more!

posted by LoZo 4:04 AM

 

Feds Go All Out to Continue Domestic Spying
(Ryan Singel, Wired News, May, 02 2006)
When the government told a court Friday that it wanted a class-action lawsuit regarding the National Security Agency's eavesdropping on Americans dismissed, its lawyers wielded one of the most powerful legal tools available to the executive branch -- the state secrets privilege. . . . That privilege allows the government to tell a judge that a civil case may expose information detrimental to national security, and to ask that testimony or documents be hidden or a lawsuit dismissed. . . . In this case, the government will be asking a federal judge in California to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation against AT&T for its alleged complicity in warrantless government surveillance of its customer's internet and telephone communications. The EFF alleges that AT&T gave the government access to a massive phone billing database and helped the NSA spy on its customers' internet use. . . . The state secrets privilege cannot be found in the U.S. Code, the code of federal regulations or the Constitution. Instead, it is a part of common law, the body of laws and precedents created over centuries of legal decisions. When the government believes that a civil suit might reveal secrets injurious to the country, the head of the appropriate government agency must review the matter and submit a signed affidavit attesting to the danger of the lawsuit or documents that might be disclosed. . . . Judges almost invariably agree to such requests . . . "There has never been an unsuccessful invocation of the state secrets privilege when national security is involved. The (EFF) suit is over." . . . Weaver points to a 1978 decision by a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit against the NSA by Vietnam War protesters as a precedent for what is likely to happen in the lawsuit against AT&T. . . . Judges almost always accept, at face value, assertions by the executive branch about the need for secrecy, said Stephen Aftergood, who directs the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy. . . . "It reflects a judicial lack of self-confidence in the face of national security claims made by the executive branch," Aftergood said. "You also see this deference in Freedom of Information Act cases." . . . "In a nutshell, invoking the privilege shuts down the judicial process and it says that the courthouse doors are closed," said Aftergood. "In a society ruled by law, that is a subversive action."

. . . Read more!

posted by LoZo 3:06 PM