{"id":190,"date":"2005-12-17T15:09:07","date_gmt":"2005-12-17T21:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/nada\/dump-duhbya\/to-protect-and-uphold-the-constitution\/"},"modified":"2005-12-17T16:21:43","modified_gmt":"2005-12-17T22:21:43","slug":"to-protect-and-uphold-the-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/nada\/dump-duhbya\/to-protect-and-uphold-the-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"To Protect and Uphold the Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"

The vile J. Edgar Hoover spied on his political enemies and <\/p>\n

allies. Dick Nixon felt he was above the law in dealing with his enemies. Thanks to the excesses of both, laws were passed in the 1970’s <\/p>\n

to help curtail abuse of power and intimidation of citizens. Thirty years later, Duhbya, who makes Nixon look like a civil libertarian, <\/p>\n

began rolling back the Freedom of Information Act on day one of his presidency — long before he heard of Al Qaeda. BushCo is a secretive <\/p>\n

bunch who feel empowered to do anything to “protect America,” including undermining the very system they claim to protect. <\/p>\n

9\/11 <\/p>\n

had a devastating impact on many. It has left very real scars on many. It is understandable that would include people at the top, who <\/p>\n

must feel real guilt for failing to stop 9\/11 in the first place (I am not blaming them; I believe they blame themselves). That guilt and <\/p>\n

fear drives BushCo to make countless errors. They are in no position to fix anything. Time to retire and let the healing begin. mjh<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts – New York Times<\/a>
\nBy JAMES RISEN and ERIC <\/p>\n

LICHTBLAU<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 – Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency <\/p>\n

to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved <\/p>\n

warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.<\/p>\n

The previously undisclosed decision <\/p>\n

to permit some eavesdropping inside the country without court approval was a major shift in American intelligence-gathering <\/p>\n

practices<\/strong>, particularly for the National Security Agency, whose mission is to spy on communications abroad. As a result, some <\/p>\n

officials familiar with the continuing operation have questioned whether the surveillance has stretched, if not crossed, <\/p>\n

constitutional limits on legal searches<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“This is really a sea change,” said a former senior official who specializes in <\/p>\n

national security law. “It’s almost a mainstay of this country that the N.S.A. only does foreign searches.”<\/p>\n

Nearly a dozen <\/p>\n

current and former officials, who were granted anonymity because of the classified nature of the program, discussed it with reporters for <\/p>\n

The New York Times because of their concerns about the operation’s legality and oversight. …<\/p>\n

The White House asked The New York <\/p>\n

Times not to publish this article, arguing that it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they <\/p>\n

might be under scrutiny. After meeting with senior administration officials to hear their concerns, the newspaper delayed <\/p>\n

publication for a year<\/strong> to conduct additional reporting.
\n[mjh: A year? What was going on a year ago. Oh, <\/p>\n

yeah, an election in which the electorate was kept in the dark by collusion between the State and the Press. The advesarial and “liberal” <\/p>\n

press was kept in check by claims of national security — a blanket used to cover anything the imperial President wishes to do.]<\/span> <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Widespread abuses – including eavesdropping on Vietnam War protesters and civil rights activists – by American intelligence <\/p>\n

agencies became public in the 1970’s and led to passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which imposed strict limits on <\/p>\n

intelligence gathering on American soil.<\/p>\n

Bush Authorized Domestic Spying<\/a> By Dan Eggen, Washington Post <\/p>\n

Staff Writer<\/p>\n

The revelations come amid a fierce congressional debate over reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, an anti-<\/p>\n

terrorism law passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Patriot Act granted the FBI<\/em> new powers to conduct secret searches <\/p>\n

and surveillance in the United States.<\/p>\n

Most of the powers covered under that law are overseen by a secret court that meets at <\/p>\n

Justice Department headquarters and must approve applications for wiretaps, searches and other operations. The NSA’s operation <\/p>\n

is outside that court’s purview, and according to the Times report, the Justice Department may have sought to limit how much that court <\/p>\n

was made aware of NSA activities.<\/strong>
\n—–
\nOn Hill, Anger <\/p>\n

and Calls for Hearings Greet News of Stateside Surveillance<\/a> By Dan Eggen and Charles Lane, Washington Post Staff Writers<\/p>\n

Some <\/p>\n

prominent Republicans defended the surveillance, arguing it was necessary to combat terrorism. “I don’t agree with the libertarians,” <\/p>\n

said Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.). “I want my security first.<\/em> I’ll deal with all the details<\/em> after that.” [mjh: How can Lott still be a Senator?]<\/span>
\n—–<\/p>\n

Part of the unchanging mantra BushCo <\/p>\n

has spewed against those who feel war was shoved down our throats has been that everyone saw the same intelligence reports. Yet another <\/p>\n

lie. mjh<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Report: Bush Had More Prewar Intelligence Than Congress<\/a> By Dafna <\/p>\n

Linzer, Washington Post Staff Writer<\/p>\n

A congressional report made public yesterday concluded that President Bush and his inner <\/p>\n

circle had access to more intelligence and reviewed more sensitive material than what was shared with Congress when it gave Bush the <\/p>\n

authority to wage war against Iraq.<\/p>\n

Democrats said the 14-page report contradicts Bush’s contention that lawmakers saw all the <\/p>\n

evidence before U.S. troops invaded in March 2003, stating that the president and a small number of advisers “have access to a far <\/p>\n

greater volume of intelligence and to more sensitive intelligence information.” …<\/p>\n

Bush has fiercely rejected those claims. “Some <\/p>\n

of the most irresponsible comments — about manipulating intelligence — have come from politicians who saw the same intelligence I saw <\/p>\n

and then voted to authorize the use of force against Saddam Hussein,” he said this week.<\/p>\n

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who is <\/p>\n

on the Senate intelligence committee, disagreed. “The report demonstrates that Congress routinely is denied access to intelligence <\/p>\n

sources, intelligence collection and analysis,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The vile J. Edgar Hoover spied on his political enemies and allies. Dick Nixon felt he was above the law in dealing with his enemies. Thanks to the excesses of both, laws were passed in the 1970’s to help curtail abuse of power and intimidation of citizens. Thirty years later, Duhbya, who makes Nixon look … Continue reading To Protect and Uphold the Constitution<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dump-duhbya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}