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Title: Decider Guy Demands Further Erosion of the Fourth
Source:
Another Day in the Empire
URL Source: http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=939
Published: Jul 28, 2007
Author: Kurt Nimmo
Post Date: 2007-07-28 14:07:44 by Eoghan
Keywords: None
Views: 106
Comments: 7
If Bush and the neocons have their way, your cell phone will be an official government surveillance device. Of course, your cell phone and computer connected to the internet are already surveillance devices, it is just that Bush and the neocons want to enshrine this fact in law. “President Bush used his weekly radio address Saturday to urge Congress to modernize a law that governs the interception of communications between suspected terrorists abroad,” reports Voice of America, the official propaganda organ of the U.S. government. In other words, the NSA, CIA, and the Pentagon, through so-called modernization, will be able to legally monitor all “terrorist” communications, that is to say anybody who opposes the government. As we know, the NSA has done this for decades. Bush is simply advertising to make it all this incessant snooping legal and above board. “Mr. Bush said the 30-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is badly out of date and needs to be updated to include new communication technologies including cell phones and the Internet…. The president said his administration is recommending changes to the law that will allow the government to collect intelligence about foreign targets in foreign locations without obtaining court orders…. He said the changes will facilitate intelligence efforts while protecting American civil liberties.” FISA already provides the ability to “collect intelligence about foreign targets in foreign locations,” so this statement is, to say the least, disingenuous. Fact of the matter is, Bush—read: the neocons and their kissing cousins, the neoliberals—want to legalize snooping millions of Americans “without obtaining court orders,” that is to say Bush and crew want to further erode the Fourth Amendment. Naturally, in the parlance of Bushzarro world, this is considered “protecting American civil liberties,” when in fact it is the exact opposite. Here is an excerpt from the commander and decider guy’s radio address earlier today: To fix this problem, my Administration has proposed a bill that would modernize the FISA statute. This legislation is the product of months of discussion with members of both parties in the House and the Senate—and it includes four key reforms: First, it brings FISA up to date with the changes in communications technology that have taken place over the past three decades. Second, it seeks to restore FISA to its original focus on protecting the privacy interests of people inside the United States, so we don’t have to obtain court orders to effectively collect foreign intelligence about foreign targets located in foreign locations. Third, it allows the government to work more efficiently with private-sector entities like communications providers, whose help is essential. And fourth, it will streamline administrative processes so our intelligence community can gather foreign intelligence more quickly and more effectively, while protecting civil liberties. Translation: future generations of cell phones will be outfitted with snoop technology, thus making it easy for the government to listen in on your next conversation with Osama, or rather the ghost of Osama—or maybe listen in on a conversation with your brother-in-law who complains a lot about the government. Changing FISA, itself a violation of the Fourth Amendment, assigning it the role of “protecting the privacy interests of people inside the United States,” is simply an effort to sweep the “FISA court” (when a normal court will not do) aside, as this will allow “the government to work more efficiently with private-sector entities like communications providers,” for instance the cozy relationship the government shares with AT&T, which is nothing new (the NSA has collaborated with AT&T and other carriers since the early 1950s to violate the civil liberties of Americans). Bush, or rather his puppet masters, simply want to codify all of this in law and slap a sticker on the package declaring it protects the privacy of all Americans. Meanwhile, in a radio address Nancy Pelosi declared the “threat of terrorist violence against the United States is growing. al-Qaeda is gaining strength, and Osama bin Laden continues to elude capture. There is not a moment to spare to take the steps necessary to keep the American people safe,” or continue the destruction of the Bill of Rights, long ago put on the endangered list, as there is no “al-Qaeda” threat to the “homeland,” or maybe it should be das Vaterland, but simply a drumbeat marching us to tyranny and ultimately slavery, as our rulers are determined to reduce America to slave plantation based on the China model. In order to make that process more efficient, a Stasi- or KGB-like snoop state apparatus is mandatory.
Poster Comment: NSA's political speech watch dog, Special Collection Service (SCS)
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#1. To: Eoghan (#0)
Even if he is alive, which is doubtful, there is no need to "capture" him since he never stopped working for those who first employed him under the handle "Tim Osman."
The benefits of education and of useful knowledge, generally diffused through a community, are essential to the preservation of a free government. - Sam Houston
We already threw away a whole bunch in the war on alternate substances, so the precedent has been set. If it's good enough for the drug war, why not for the war on a tictac?
The meek may inherit the earth -- but not its mineral rights. -- J. Paul Getty
Very cool maps at your SCS link.
Conveniently close by to Cheney's summer hideout on the Chesapeake...
ST. MICHAELS, Md. -- There are motorcades of black SUVs on Talbot Street, buzzing Chinook helicopters overhead and a no-fly zone that has private pilots in an uproar. But Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have found peace and quiet in their new weekend hawks' nests, even if their presence in this Chesapeake Bay retreat causes a racket in town. http://www.wtop.com/?sid=825582&nid=25 Prominent Publisher's Body Found June 19, 2006 - 7:21pm Associated Press Writer ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The body of prominent publisher and former diplomat Philip Merrill was recovered from the Chesapeake Bay Monday, about 11 1/2 miles northeast of the spot where his empty sailboat was found June 10. ... He was remembered with fondness by several dignitaries, including Vice President Dick Cheney and U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski. Cheney called him "a friend, an adviser and a patriot." He described Merrill and his wife, Eleanor, as "some of our closest friends during our years in Washington." A handy body of nearby water.
Ron Paul for President
HowTF did he get "Fee Simple" ownership?
iPhone a Trojan Horse For Government Surveillance?Backdoor spyware module allows state, corporations and hackers to listen in Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet Friday, July 20, 2007 An alarming white paper concludes that the Apple iPhone contains a backdoor spyware module that allows hackers or the government to conduct secret surveillance of the user, part of an established trend of corporations and the state working hand in hand to eavesdrop on citizens via widely-used software and hardware products. Earlier this week, a technology group in Russia released the results of their attempts to reverse engineer the iPhone, concluding that the product has "A built-in function which sends all data from an iPhone to a specified web-server. Contacts from a phonebook, SMS, recent calls, history of Safari browser - all your personal information can be stolen." The module could act as a backdoor for trojan developers or AT & T, said the report, adding that "government structures" would have access to the information. Since AT & T displayed no hesitation in handing over information about their subscribers to the U.S. government as part of the controversial and illegal NSA wiretapping scandal, it would be no surprise to learn that included in the trendy new must-have gadget is a spyware module that allows the government to listen in to your conversations. AT & T were chosen by Apple as the exclusive service provider for the iPhone, at present all other cellphone companies are blocked from offering any kind of service compatible with the iPhone. The revelation is also not without precedent - a plethora of companies now include backdoor access in both software and hardware products that allow the state to step in and conduct warrantless covert surveillance, a blanket violation of the 4th Amendment. Digital cable TV boxes, such as Scientific Atlanta, have had secret in-built microphones inside them since their inception in the 1990's and these originally dormant devices were planned to be activated when the invasive advertising revolution arrived - 2006 marked that date. The advent of digital video recording devices such as TiVo (Sky Plus in the UK) introduced the creation of psychological algorithm profiles - databases on what programs you watched, how long you watched them for, which adverts you liked or didn't like. This information was retained by TiVo and sold to the highest bidders - an example being Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction during the 2003 Super Bowl half-time show - TiVo were able to compile lists of how many people had rewound the clip and how many times they had replayed it. Two way communications systems like OnStar also have the ability to tap into private conversations as Americans become increasingly conditioned, by means of the private sector, to having their every movement, web session and conversation tracked and catalogued by big brother. Last year we reported on how Google were planning to use microphones in the computers of an estimated 150 million-plus Internet active Americans to spy on their lifestyle choices and build psychological profiles which will be used for surveillance and minority report style invasive advertising and data mining. "The idea is to use the existing PC microphone to listen to whatever is heard in the background, be it music, your phone going off or the TV turned down. The PC then identifies it, using fingerprinting, and then shows you relevant content, whether that's adverts or search results, or a chat room on the subject," reported the Register. The report cites the inevitability that the use and abuse of this technology will eventually be taken over by the state. "Pretty soon the security industry is going to find a way to hijack the Google feed and use it for full on espionage." The Echelon program has collected information in violation of the 4th Amendment from American citizen's phone calls since the early 90's at least. In addition, a 2001 European Parliament report stated that "within Europe all e-mail, telephone and fax communications are routinely intercepted" by the NSA. The fact that Echelon barely even merited a mention during the recent furore created by the original USA Today NSA spying piece goes to show how utterly useless our media are in recalling what has already been admitted and proven. In 1999 the Australian government admitted that they were part of an NSA led global intercept and surveillance grid in alliance with the US and Britain that could listen to "every international telephone call, fax, e-mail, or radio transmission." The use of the iPhone as another means of carte-blanch invasive surveillance underscores the fact that corporations and government are joined at the hip when it comes to their disregard of the right to privacy as enshrined in the 4th Amendment to the Constitution. http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2007/200707iphonesurveillance.htm
"You can not save the Constitution by destroying it."
Osama bin Laden continues to elude capture
#2. To: Eoghan (#0)
#3. To: Eoghan (#0)
#4. To: lodwick (#3)
(Edited)
“Yes, but is this good for Jews?"
#5. To: Eoghan (#4)
(Edited)
#6. To: Eoghan. anyone here (#4)
#7. To: Eoghan, *BIG BROTHER* (#0)
Yeeaah! I just got my ass wiretapped by the government!
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