Letters to the Editor
druidbros
Published Letters: 120
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Rufus, rufus, rufus.....
[Read the article: Interview with ACLU re: constitutional challenge to new FISA law]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Then I see you starting ranting and attacking everyone over here like you did over at C & L. Are you TRTYING to get banned here too? Well I dare say Glenn has more patience.
Oh one more thing, dont lump us all together as Republicans or nazi's or GOP party hacks. If you want to find some of those kind of people go over to Red State. Or just talk to Shooter 242 on this thread.
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re: on data mining
[Read the article: Interview with ACLU re: constitutional challenge to new FISA law]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]And just to add a little technical information to the data mining subject. If they store the mined information in a relational database, when they wanted to find all of the people who used a specific word it would not be a problem. It would pull up all of the people who had used that word in an email or a post on the web. Or it could pull up all of the people who performed a specific activity, say like contibuting to the ACLU, and they would have a list of all the email addresses, TCP/IP addresses, etc. I worked for ATT for several years and I happen to know the capability of data storage.
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re: data mining
[Read the article: Interview with ACLU re: constitutional challenge to new FISA law]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I am amazed by the attempt to make a distinction between data mining and wiretaps. ...Nutella
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Me too. Wire tapping is so old school. Data mining includes everything they can get their hands on. Listen/read the interview Amy Goodman has with Mark Klein the technician who released the internal ATT documents after the NY Times broke the news.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/7/7/att_t_whistleblower_urges_against_immunity
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at least one reason to be concerned
[Read the article: Interview with ACLU re: constitutional challenge to new FISA law]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is obvious to me that there is a greater danger in the Government not vacuuming up all the communications, than there is if they do.
Derbig Mooser.
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Derbig, have you been paying attention? Just a couple of months ago on May 20th 2008.
Last year, former deputy attorney general James Comey revealed that in 2004, he refused to “certify” the legality of certain aspects of the National Security Agency (NSA) spy program. Comey witnessed Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card try to force a bed-ridden John Ashcroft to approve the program. Comey, however, did not publicly give specifics as to what program he opposed.
CAP’s Peter Swire wrote on ThinkProgress at the time that Comey’s testimony implied that “other programs exist for domestic spying” outside of the NSA program. Radar’s Christopher Ketcham suggests that another spy program does exist: “Main Core,” a program that authorizes “computer searches through massive [unspecified] electronic databases” in order to discover “potential threats” in the event of a “national emergency”:
According to a senior government official…”There exists a database of Americans, who, often for the slightest and most trivial reason, are considered unfriendly, and who, in a time of panic, might be incarcerated. The database can identify and locate perceived ‘enemies of the state’ almost instantaneously.” … One knowledgeable source claims that 8 million Americans are now listed in Main Core as potentially suspect. In the event of a national emergency, these people could be subject to everything from heightened surveillance and tracking to direct questioning and possibly even detention.
These so-called “Continuity of Governance” plans, Radar notes, “are shrouded in extreme secrecy, effectively unregulated by Congress or the courts.” “Main Core is the table of contents for all the illegal information that the U.S. government has [compiled] on specific targets,” said a former military operative. Furthermore, the NSA domestic surveillance program reportedly “suppl[ies] data to Main Core.”
According to Radar, a “number of former government employees and intelligence sources with independent knowledge of domestic surveillance operations” say Main Core is strikingly similar to what Comey refused to authorize at Ashcroft’s bedside:
[T]he program that caused the flap between Comey and the White House was related to a database of Americans who might be considered potential threats in the event of a national emergency. Sources familiar with the program say that the government’s data gathering has been overzealous and probably conducted in violation of federal law and the protection from unreasonable search and seizure guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment.
“We are at the edge of a cliff and we’re about to fall off,” said constitutional lawyer and former Reagan administration official Bruce Fein. “To a national emergency planner, everybody looks like a danger to stability.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/20/main-core/
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This is why its important. The data can be used to put people on an insurgent list for any reason they desire. And what they will do with the list is anyone's guess.
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@ Derbig
[Read the article: Interview with ACLU re: constitutional challenge to new FISA law]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I too apologize if I didnt read carefully enough. I know that when writing, sarcasm can be difficult to discern.
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@ scooter
[Read the article: Interview with ACLU re: constitutional challenge to new FISA law]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Poor little scooter. No one ever gave him a coloring book when he was younger that had a connect the dots page...
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re: A question...
[Read the article: Torture and the rule of law]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For Scooter, Elephantdude, and etc,
hen did you stop believing in torture and when did you throw the 'Rule of Law' under the bus?
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re: Thanks Glenn...
[Read the article: Torture and the rule of law]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For pointing out yet again that not only does the emperor not have clothes, he and his believes deny their very existence !!!
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Shorter -- Anandasubramanian
[Read the article: Torture and the rule of law]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Shut up and bend over.....bitch.
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re: Sometimes....
[Read the article: Accountability Now and Strange Bedfellows: The strategy and rationale]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]" The Whitewater case against Nixon..." bernbart
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The jokes just write themselves.
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re: I'm shocked....
[Read the article: Accountability Now and Strange Bedfellows: The strategy and rationale]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Democracy in America should be required reading for every citizen and public servant alike.
-- ethics_professor
You mean its not???