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Editorial
See other Editorial Articles

Title: Let Americans challenge eavesdropping
Source: newsday.com
URL Source: [None]
Published: Aug 18, 2007
Author: newsday editorial
Post Date: 2007-08-18 23:17:32 by kiki
Keywords: None
Views: 85
Comments: 4

There has to be a way for ordinary people to challenge the government's right to monitor their international phone calls and e-mail without court warrants. President George W. Bush clearly doesn't want that to happen. His administration is using a catch-22 legal strategy to derail any lawsuits that question the surveillance. That's intolerable.

Somebody outside the executive branch needs to take a hard look at these government programs to judge whether they're legal. National security is important, but so is the privacy guaranteed by the Constitution's ban on unreasonable searches. The courts need to find a balance that would allow these cases to be litigated. Otherwise, people will be powerless in the face of intrusive government authority.

The administration has various rationales to bar the courthouse door. Last month a federal appeals court dismissed a suit by lawyers and journalists, saying they lacked standing to sue because they couldn't show they'd been harmed. The reason? They couldn't prove their calls had been monitored. Only the National Security Agency knows for sure, and it won't say, insisting that coming clean would compromise national security.

In two other cases, argued Wednesday, the administration took a slightly different tack. It asserted a state secrets privilege, insisting that the suits must be dismissed because continuing them would reveal details of secret surveillance, and that would harm national security. In one of those suits, AT&T customers claim the government was improperly given access to their phone records. In the other, a Muslim charity says classified documents, mistakenly handed over by the government, prove their calls were monitored.

So here's a summary of the artful dodge: If the government won't confirm it monitored your calls, the case has to be dismissed. If you can prove you were targeted, the government can withhold evidence and the case has to be dismissed. If you already have the evidence you need, the government can bar its use and the case has to be dismissed. The administration shouldn't be allowed to duck accountability for what could be ongoing violations of the rights of millions of Americans.

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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 3.

#1. To: kiki (#0)

Wow. We are way past this sort of discussion. The US government just convicted a US citizen after he was held for 3 and half years without access to council, with no charges, and tortured. Never mind the 2 more years he spent in prison as well after the US government was kind enough to allow him to see a judge (after breaking the man totally.)

He was then convicted largely on the testimoney of three men- all known to have been tortured, with one of them tortured with razor blades to his genitals by Morrocan spooks acting as proxies for their CIA masters. Only - the jury wasn't allowed to hear that the confessions of these men were extracted under torture.

Ordinary citizens challange wire taps? Hello? Is Newsday kidding? The road this government has gone down is so past this.

Burkeman1  posted on  2007-08-18   23:50:41 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Burkeman1 (#1)

Wow. We are way past this sort of discussion. The US government just convicted a US citizen after he was held for 3 and half years without access to council, with no charges, and tortured. Never mind the 2 more years he spent in prison as well after the US government was kind enough to allow him to see a judge (after breaking the man totally.)

He was then convicted largely on the testimoney of three men- all known to have been tortured, with one of them tortured with razor blades to his genitals by Morrocan spooks acting as proxies for their CIA masters. Only - the jury wasn't allowed to hear that the confessions of these men were extracted under torture.

Ordinary citizens challange wire taps? Hello? Is Newsday kidding? The road this government has gone down is so past this.

That would be a perfect letter or e-mail to send to Newsday in response to this article. Brilliant!

F.A. Hayek Fan  posted on  2007-08-19   0:00:44 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: Hayek Fan, Burkeman1 (#2)

That would be a perfect letter or e-mail to send to Newsday in response to this article. Brilliant!

you can comment here:

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny- vptop175334775aug17,0,1600420.story

here are a couple of the comments:

COME ON LIBERAL NEWSDAY THERE IS A WAR GOING ON. WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP THE ENEMY WHO PLAYS BY NO RULES. I MYSELF HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR, I LOVE MY COUNTRY AND AM WILLING TO BEND TO HELP MY COUNTRY GO AFTER THE ENEMY . SO WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM? CAN'T TELL THE ENEMY WHAT WE ARE DOING? FEEL SORRY FOR THE POOR ENEMY? THEY ARE NOT GOING TO BUY YOUR TRASHY PAPER ANYWAY SO LETS WIN THE WAR AND THAT BELIEVE IT OR NOT IS THE ONLY WAY WE WILL EVER GET RESPECT FROM THOSE THAT HATE OUR FREEDOMS. GOD BLESS AMERICA AND PLEASE SUPPORT OUR TROOPS.

It is either you want our leaders to protect us or you do not? They pick a lot of words out of the 'air' and they pick up conversations that meet their bank of voice prints. You will never know how many times our lives have been saved by them being able to do this. I don't subscribe to a wanton violatin of ouf rights, but there are times that we have to have faith with those that we have entrusted with our lives. Leave it alone. Going back to my previous post, the same doesn't apply to a pipsqueak prosectuor like a Tom Spota.

to be fair, there are a dozen or so comments and most do not run along these lines.

kiki  posted on  2007-08-19   0:19:24 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


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