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Bush Has Become a Dictator Warns American Bar Association
(GINA HOLLAND, Associated Press, July 24, 2006)
President Bush's penchant for writing exceptions to laws he has just signed violates the Constitution, an American Bar Association task force says in a report highly critical of the practice. . . . The ABA group, which includes a one-time FBI director and former federal appeals court judge, said the president has overstepped his authority in attaching challenges to hundreds of new laws. . . . The attachments, known as bill-signing statements, say Bush reserves a right to revise, interpret or disregard measures on national security and constitutional grounds. . . . "This report raises serious concerns crucial to the survival of our democracy," said the ABA's president, Michael Greco. "If left unchecked, the president's practice does grave harm to the separation of powers doctrine, and the system of checks and balances that have sustained our democracy for more than two centuries." . . . The task force's recommendations, being released Monday in Washington, will be presented to the 410,000-member group next month at its annual meeting in Hawaii. . . . ABA policymakers will decide whether to denounce the statements and encourage a legal fight over them. . . . The task force said the statements suggest the president will decline to enforce some laws. Bush has had more than 800 signing statement challenges, compared with about 600 signing statements combined for all other presidents, the group said. . . . The ABA report said President Reagan was the first to use the statements as a strategic weapon, and that it was encouraged by then-administration lawyer Samuel Alito - now the newest Supreme Court justice. . . . The task force included former prosecutor Neal Sonnett of Miami; former FBI Director William Sessions; Patricia Wald, former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; former Republican Rep. Mickey Edwards; and former Reagan administration lawyer Bruce Fein; and law school professors and other lawyers.

. . . Read more!

posted by LoZo 4:40 AM

 

Homeland Security Fascists Gave Pentagon Information on Anti-War Student Groups
(ACLU, July 17, 2006)
The Department of Homeland Security provided the Pentagon with information on anti-war protests at University of California campuses last year, according to the most recent government documents released to the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. . . . "Homeland Security was created to protect the American people from terrorist activities - not monitor political dissent on college campuses," said Mark Schlosberg, Police Practices Policy Director of the ACLU of Northern California. "These documents raise significant questions about the extent to which the Department of Homeland Security is monitoring anti-war activities." . . . Students at the University of California Berkeley and Santa Cruz campuses first learned that their activities were being monitored when NBC News reported last December that a secret Pentagon database contained information on several anti-war protests across the country. . . . The most recent documents obtained by the ACLU include two previously redacted reports on the Berkeley and Santa Cruz student groups. Both documents indicate that "a special agent of the federal protective service, U.S. Department of Homeland Security" provided the Pentagon with information on the students. . . . The two Defense Department Threat and Local Observation Notice (TALON) bulletins, dated April 4, 2005 and April 20, 2005, state that the information was provided "to alert commanders and staff to potential terrorist activity or apprise them of other force protection issues." The bulletins also indicate that the Defense Department briefed and coordinated with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in San Francisco about the campus demonstrations. . . . The documents were released by the Pentagon following a May 26 order by U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup to expedite the ACLU's FOIA request. In his decision, Judge Alsup wrote that the information requested was "of significant importance to public policy and public protest." . . . To date, the ACLU has received more than 150 pages of documents. Most of the documents relate to procedures surrounding the creation of TALON reports. Based on the documents, it appears that regulations governing the TALON reports are still insufficient, said the ACLU.

. . . Read more!

posted by LoZo 4:30 PM

 

FBI plans new Net-tapping push
(Declan McCullagh, CNET News.com, July 13, 2006)
The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance and force makers of networking gear to build in backdoors for eavesdropping, CNET News.com has learned. . . . FBI Agent Barry Smith distributed the proposal at a private meeting last Friday with industry representatives and indicated it would be introduced by Sen. Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican, according to two sources familiar with the meeting. . . . The draft bill would place the FBI's Net-surveillance push on solid legal footing. At the moment, it's ensnared in a legal challenge from universities and some technology companies that claim the Federal Communications Commission's broadband surveillance directives exceed what Congress has authorized. . . . . . . Breaking the legislation down The 27-page proposed CALEA amendments seen by CNET News.com would: -- Require any manufacturer of "routing" and "addressing" hardware to offer upgrades or other "modifications" that are needed to support Internet wiretapping. . . . -- Authorize the expansion of wiretapping requirements to "commercial" Internet services including instant messaging if the FCC deems it to be in the "public interest." That would likely sweep in services such as in-game chats offered by Microsoft's Xbox 360 gaming system as well. . . . -- Force Internet service providers to sift through their customers' communications to identify, for instance, only VoIP calls. . . . -- Eliminate the current legal requirement saying the Justice Department must publish a public "notice of the actual number of communications interceptions" every year. . . . Jim Harper, a policy analyst at the free-market Cato Institute and member of a Homeland Security advisory board, said the proposal would "have a negative impact on Internet users' privacy." . . . "People expect their information to be private unless the government meets certain legal standards," Harper said. "Right now the Department of Justice is pushing the wrong way on all this." . . . A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., decided 2-1 last month to uphold the FCC's extension of CALEA to broadband providers, and it's not clear what will happen next with the lawsuit. Judge Harry Edwards wrote in his dissent that the majority's logic gave the FCC "unlimited authority to regulate every telecommunications service that might conceivably be used to assist law enforcement." . . . The organizations behind the lawsuit say Congress never intended CALEA to force broadband providers--and networks at corporations and universities--to build in central surveillance hubs for the police. The list of organizations includes Sun Microsystems, Pulver.com, the American Association of Community Colleges, the Association of American Universities and the American Library Association. . . . If the FBI's legislation becomes law, it would derail the lawsuit because there would no longer be any question that Congress intended CALEA to apply to the Internet.

. . . Read more!

posted by LoZo 2:45 PM