Somebody's Watching Me

Spies that don't like US:

Inspector general cites 'egregious breakdown' in FBI oversight

FBI agents for years sought sensitive records from telephone companies through e-mails, sticky notes, sneak peeks and other "startling" methods that violated electronic privacy law and federal policy, according to a Justice Department inspector general report released Wednesday.

The study details how the FBI between 2002 and 2006 sent more than 700 demands for telephone toll information by citing often nonexistent emergencies and using sometimes misleading language. The practice of sending faulty "exigent" letters to three telecommunications providers became so commonplace that one FBI agent described it to investigators as "like having an ATM in your living room."
[...]
At times, what the inspector general called an "egregious breakdown" extended to misstatements to the special Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court about how sensitive information had been obtained by federal law enforcement, the report said.
[...]
As part of a leak investigation, the FBI used exigent letters to improperly obtain toll phone call information from Washington Post reporter Ellen Nakashima and New York Times reporters Jane Perlez and Raymond Bonner, all working in Jakarta, Indonesia, about six years ago. The letter was not followed up with a subpoena and it did not secure the approval of the attorney general, which is required when seeking reporters' phone records under Justice Department policy, the inspector general report said.

At the very least every agent that lied to a Federal Court should go to prison for perjury. And everyone involved should be fired.

It ain't gonna happen, but it should.





Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

Dirty deeds and they're done dirt cheap

Kevin Drum is a smart guy, and I don't disagree with him lightly. (Note: he also always brings beer to the party). That said, he's wrong here:

I agree that the David Broders of the world have been far too sanguine about the abuses of the Bush administration. At the same time, the difference here really is pretty obvious. Nixon broke the law repeatedly for purely political purposes: to help his friends, punish his enemies, and keep tabs on domestic groups he happened to personally dislike. There was no ideological dispute about the value of what Nixon did: once it became clear that he had actually done the stuff he was accused of, liberals and conservatives alike agreed that he had to go.

Obviously that's not the case this time around. So far, anyway, there's no evidence that George Bush has done anything wrong for purely venal purposes. He approved torture of prisoners and violated FISA because he genuinely thought it was necessary for national security reasons after 9/11 . . .

Thing is, he did start unlawful surveillance of Americans before 9/11:

Former chief executive Joseph P. Nacchio, convicted in April of 19 counts of insider trading, said the NSA approached Qwest more than six months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to court documents unsealed in Denver this week.

Details about the alleged NSA program have been redacted from the documents, but Nacchio's lawyer said last year that the NSA had approached the company about participating in a warrantless surveillance program to gather information about Americans' phone records.

GWBushCo's interest in wiretapping was to further a Big Brother agenda, an Orwellian scheme to collect data on everyone, to identify alleged enemies, foreign and domestic. And it started at the beginning of his administration, and was deemed OK by Cheney, and later Gonzales, et al.

That people who call themselves conservative would align themselves to this agenda is unforgivable. Totalitarian, Fascist, take your pick. But not Conservative. I wonder what Barry Goldwater would have thought. Of course, he would be accused by these idiots of having a pre-9/11 mentality.

Is GWBush venal? No, not in the sense that Merriam-Webster says:

• 1: capable of being bought or obtained for money or other valuable consideration : purchasable; especially : open to corrupt influence and especially bribery : mercenary venal legislator>
• 2: originating in, characterized by, or associated with corrupt bribery venal arrangement with the police>

But is he committed to a vision of America that seems pretty awful, maybe even evil?

Of that I'm pretty sure.

Bastard.

Money changes everything

Last week, only 15 Senators voted against cloture. That means they voted to block the pending FISA downgrad, from merely intrusive to totally Orwellian. And as a bonus, the bill gives a Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card to telecom companies whose multimillion dollar legal teams knew damn good and well they were being asked to break the law.

Here's the list:

Joseph Biden, DE
Barbara Boxer, CA
Sherrod Brown, OH
Maria Cantwell, WA
Chris Dodd, CT
Dick Durbin, IL
Russ Feingold, WI
Tom Harkin, IA
John Kerry, MA
Frank Lautenberg, NJ
Patrick Leahy, VT
Robert Menendez, NJ
Bernie Sanders, VT
Chuck Schumer, NY
Ron Wyden, OR

If you feel inclined to support them financially, here's the Act Blue page where you can contribute some $$ love: http://www.actblue.com/page/thanksdoddfeingold

You can also read Dodd's and Feingold's statements; modern classics of liberal courage:

Dodd:

I rise—once again—to voice my strong opposition to the misguided FISA legislation before us today. I have strong reservations about the so-called improvements made to Title I. But more than that, this legislation includes provisions which would grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that apparently have violated the privacy and the trust of millions of Americans by participating in the president’s warrantless wiretapping program.

Feingold:

In the end, my opposition to this bill comes down to this: This bill is a tragic retreat from the principles that have governed government conduct in this sensitive area for 30 years. It needlessly sacrifices the protection of the privacy of innocent Americans. And it is an abdication of this body’s duty to stand up for the rule of law. I will vote No.

Thanks, guys.

Here's the whole list of who voted what.

And I've compiled the names of the sorry-ass Dems who voted Yea, or didn't bother:
Akaka (D-HI), Yea
Baucus (D-MT), Yea
Bayh (D-IN), Yea
Bingaman (D-NM), Yea
Byrd (D-WV), Not Voting
Cardin (D-MD), Yea
Carper (D-DE), Yea
Casey (D-PA), Yea
Conrad (D-ND), Yea
Dorgan (D-ND), Yea
Feinstein (D-CA), Yea
Inouye (D-HI), Yea
Johnson (D-SD), Yea
Kennedy (D-MA), Not Voting (He's got an excuse)
Klobuchar (D-MN), Yea
Kohl (D-WI), Yea
Landrieu (D-LA), Yea
Levin (D-MI), Yea
Lieberman (ID-CT), Yea
Lincoln (D-AR), Yea
McCaskill (D-MO), Yea
Mikulski (D-MD), Yea
Murray (D-WA), Yea
Nelson (D-FL), Yea
Nelson (D-NE), Yea
Obama (D-IL), Not Voting (He's got an excuse)
Pryor (D-AR), Yea
Reed (D-RI), Yea
Reid (D-NV), Yea (Procedural vote)
Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea
Salazar (D-CO), Yea
Stabenow (D-MI), Yea
Tester (D-MT), Yea
Webb (D-VA), Yea
Whitehouse (D-RI), Yea

Oh, and Sen. Tester and Webb? You know that talk about a VP slot? Don't call me, I'll call you.

Get on the right thing

Russ Feingold continues to fight the good fight:

Objections by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) will push back an overhaul of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) until after lawmakers return in July, Democratic leaders said Thursday. Feingold is strongly opposed to language that would likely give telephone companies that participated in warrantless surveillance retroactive immunity from lawsuits.

"It doesn't look like it," Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said of taking up the FISA bill this week. "Sen. Feingold wants additional time and would like to postpone it until after the Fourth of July."

Watch the video, makes it all clear.

You did a mitzvah, Sen. Feingold. Good on you.

We are poor little lambs, who have gone astray

Chris Dodd may still be one of the toughest Senators we have:

Mr. President: I rise—once again—to voice my strong opposition to the misguided FISA legislation before us today. I have strong reservations about the so-called improvements made to Title I. But more than that, this legislation includes provisions which would grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that apparently have violated the privacy and the trust of millions of Americans by participating in the president’s warrantless wiretapping program. If we pass this legislation, the Senate will ratify a domestic spying regime that has already concentrated far too much unaccountable power in the president’s hands and will place the telecommunications companies above the law.

In-freakin'-deed.

2 issues at work here. 1 is the Telecom Amnesty, a payback to loyal campaign contributors who sat up and barked when GWBush said "Bark".

That's pretty bad. but even worse, for the country at large, is that this bill takes the already friendly-to-the-executive FISA laws, and bends them like a pretzel to give even more power to the executive.

Republicans who crafted this new bill don't seem to have the ability to know that tomorrow follows today. And there's a pretty good chance that after a few tomorrows, there will be a Democrat in the White House.

A Democrat who will now have the same powers the Republicans lusted for. Speaking with Digby the other day, this is exactly why she thinks Obama supported the FISA bill, with tepid condemnation of the Telco Amnesty portion. He's seen the promised land, and it's increased Executive power.

Perhaps at that point the Repubs will see the error in perennial overreach. Or perhaps not. Oh well, we'll just eat their livers with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.

And I don't feel safe anymore, Oh what a mess, I wonder who's watching me now

Telecom Industry Wins a Round on Eavesdropping

Apparently the Senators don't read the New York Times, but Glen Greenwald does, and he nails the problem

The Lawless Surveillance State

There are several vital points raised by the new revelations in The New York Times that "the N.S.A.'s reliance on telecommunications companies is broader and deeper than ever before" and includes both pre-9/11 efforts to tap without warrants into the nation's domestic communications network as well as the collection of vast telephone records of American citizens in the name of the War on Drugs. The Executive Branch and the largest telecommunications companies work in virtually complete secrecy -- with no oversight and no notion of legal limits -- to spy on Americans, on our own soil, at will.

Read the whole thing, the Bush admin has been spying on us domestically long before 9/11.

Contact Harry Reid, contact your congress critters and sign the petition.



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

Telephone line, give me some time, I'm living in twilight

Chris Dodd has shown some real leadership, unlike the actual leadership in the Democratic Party. While he is a long shot for the nomination, Dodd has certainly won some serious points with his latest move to filibuster the deeply flawed Telecom Amnesty FISA bill:



From an email

Dear Stephen,

Are you willing to go to the mat to restore the Constitution?

Just last night, we heard there are plans to disregard Senator Dodd's intention to place a hold on a FISA bill that includes amnesty for telecommunications companies.

That would be a pretty extraordinary move, but Chris Dodd has pledged to stop this horrible bill any way he can.

So if the hold is not honored, he is prepared to go to the Senate floor and filibuster.

Rolling back the Bush Administration assault on the rule of law has been a major focus of Chris Dodd's work in the Senate -- and it's also a centerpiece in his campaign for President.

Commentor Shoephone adds:

Chris Dodd is a real man. Harry Reid is a diseased little weasel.

I would be quite happy with an Edwards/Dodd ticket.

Meanwhile, the Courage Campaign and Act For Change issue a challenge to another Senator from here in CA:

In August, California Senator Dianne Feinstein helped the Bush administration push through Congress a bill that made the warrantless wiretapping of Americans legal. Many Democrats -- with Feinstein leading the way -- voted for the bill because they feared they would be seen as soft on terrorism if they stood up for the Constitution.

The bill only authorized warrantless wiretapping for six months, and now Bush is pressuring the Congress to renew the bill and add language that would grant retroactive immunity to the telecom companies who were complicit in his illegal spying program.

Bush wants amnesty for the telecom companies to thwart civil liberties lawsuits and cover-up his own lawbreaking. If these lawsuits aren't allowed to go forward, we may never know the extent of the Bush program to spy on Americans.

Urge Senator Feinstein to stand up for civil liberties and not let the telcos off the hook.

DiFi always takes the side of Big Business against the people's interests, so let's see what this does to move her closer to reality. But is it all really about cash?

Wired has this about Jay Rockefeller's principled position vis-a-vis telecom immunity:

Top Verizon executives, including CEO Ivan Seidenberg and President Dennis Strigl, wrote personal checks to Rockefeller totaling $23,500 in March, 2007. Prior to that apparently coordinated flurry of 29 donations, only one of those executives had ever donated to Rockefeller (at least while working for Verizon).

In fact, prior to 2007, contributions to Rockefeller from company executives at AT&T and Verizon were mostly non-existent.

But that changed around the same time that the companies began lobbying Congress to grant them retroactive immunity from lawsuits seeking billions for their alleged participation in secret, warrantless surveillance programs that targeted Americans.

So Reckefeller is willing to sell us out for $23k? I had no idea Senators could be bought that cheaply.

And Jane at FireDogLake adds this:

Harry Reid himself took $22,000 in contributions from AT&T between 2001-2006. OpenSecrets reports that he also owns between $15,001 and $50,000 worth of stock in Dow Jones U.S. Telecommunications Sector Index Fund, the largest holdings of which are AT&T and Verizon.

Seems too cheap. Maybe we can figure out a way to funnel some $$ to these idiots to insure some loyalty.

Bastards. (Not Chris Dodd, he's riding a white horse right now).

I spy with my little eye

Sen. Chris Dodd steps up:

The Military Commissions Act. Warrantless wiretapping. Shredding of Habeas Corpus. Torture. Extraordinary Rendition. Secret Prisons.

No more.

I have decided to place a "hold" on the latest FISA bill that would have included amnesty for telecommunications companies that enabled the President's assault on the Constitution by illegally providing personal information on their customers without judicial authorization.

I said that I would do everything I could to stop this bill from passing, and I have.

It's about delivering results -- and as I've said before, the FIRST thing I will do after being sworn into office is restore the Constitution. But we shouldn't have to wait until then to prevent the further erosion of our country's most treasured document. That's why I am stopping this bill today.

This is the crappy FISA bill that would give blanket amnesty to telecommunications companies who BROKE THE DAMN LAW for GWBush's pleasure:

It will include full immunity for those companies that can demonstrate to a court that they acted pursuant to a legal directive in helping the government with surveillance in the United States.

Such a demonstration, which the bill says could be made in secret, would wipe out a series of pending lawsuits alleging violations of privacy rights by telecommunications companies that provided telephone records, summaries of e-mail traffic and other information to the government after Sept. 11, 2001, without receiving court warrants. Bush had repeatedly threatened to veto any legislation that lacked this provision.

My friend Greg Saunders writing at HuffPost issues a challenge to another Senator running for President:

If you look around the liberal blogs today, there's a lot of frustration with the Senate bill to grant immunity to telecoms who have helped the Bush administration illegally spy on Americans. High profile bloggers like Glenn Greenwald, Markos Moulitsas, Atrios, Jane Hamsher, and Big Tent Democrat at MyDD have been urging their readers to put pressure on the Senate to block the bill by contacting...Chris Dodd.

If anyone from the Obama campign is paying attention, this should serve as a wake-up call. A representative cross section of the liberal blogosphere no longer thinks Barack Obama is willing to stand up to the Bush Administration. These bloggers have already been disappointed enough over the last few months they didn't even bother asking Obama to oppose the bill this time around, instead throwing their support behind a candidate who's trailing Dennis Kucinich and Undecided in the polls.

Indeed.