What you don't seem to understand (or maybe you do, but just don't care), is that these pesky rules, and the rule of law, are what makes it WORTH defending this society against terrorism. Giving up these things makes us into the sort of society that our enemies would WANT us to be. I know it's a cliche, but if we give up on the rule of law, then the terrorists truly do win.

Talk about something scary. I glanced at the original article and 3 or 4 of the blogs. If this writer and the bloggers who write blogs by the hundreds represent the left in this country we have much of be afraid of. The far radial left which make up these stories and the bloggers appear they would rather take over and destroy the United States more than anything else. Very, Very Scary.

Robert Vaughn will get em.

There had to have been a judge at some point making a determination on this issue and evidence had to have been presented.

Quite to the contrary, there was no judicial review or oversight of any kind. The NSA just went in, reported to the Treasury Department, and that was that. The Justice Department only revealed proof of what had happened by accident.

That's exactly why the FISA-related legal action is so important. It's about nothing less than whether or not, indeed, there will have to be a judge at some point making such determinations in the future.

It's a shame that people still seem to think there's nothing much at stake here. It's probably too late to do anything about it now.

I have sometimes wondered why dictators bother arguing the law at all. When everything is stacked in your favor, why not simply rule by edict?

This story answers that question. The law and legal proceedings often obscure justice, making civil rights abuses look arcane and confusing. Confusion is an easy way for the scoundrel to get what he wants, while deluding the public into thinking justice is being done. Hey, the courts are in session! See real live lawyers arguing cases for the accused! There must be justice going on here.

While I truly respect Eisenberg for his efforts, part of me wonders if, by giving it his all, he is simply helping to create the fiction that his clients has gotten their day in court, which of course they have not.

I agree JackSparx we desperately need a new candidate the emptysuit Obama is for this criminal FISA immunity telecom bill as is Old man McCain. How did this once great country get so low as to nominate such unqualified stupid people? By being for FISA Obama and McCain show beyond a shadow of a doubt that big business such as the telecoms own them lock stock and barrel. Bush/Cheney should be tried as war criminal's and for crimes against humanity as well as these criminal acts of unlawful spying and evedropping on we citizens.By not impeaching these criminal's we look like fool's to the rest of the world which we are.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20211.htm

I guess it's not that surprising, but that is just about the craziest, stupidest thing I've ever heard. Does anybody still believe America is a democracy right now? Anybody?

Smashing a hard drive and a "memory board" (whatever the hell that is) with a table, is not sufficient to destroy all the data on a hard drive. There are many techniques that will allow even a bent, broken, or scratched hd to be imaged and partially recovered. Miguel would have known this if he in fact was a tech and not the goon he clearly was. The fact that he allowed Eisenberg to retrieve the pieces is good proof that the government is not very concerned about removing all traces of the Document, which, after all, does reside in the heads of several people. No, this was an act of intimidation, it was a message to all of us; that "they" can reach into our lives and destroy anything, anything at all.

Secrecy is one of the most powerful tools in the fascist's toolbox, but their best tools have always been fear and intimidation.

Fascism has indeed come to America -- it was always creeping around outside, peering into the windows, but 9/11 blew those windows out, and now that the darkness is inside, and there is little we can do about.

Obama, the latest (and slickest) tool of the oligarchy, Israel and the military industrial complex, is on board with FISA and global hegemony, there is no hope, just Der Prozeß, and you are already guilty.

You know it's bad when one of the last hopes for an open and free society in Amerika is sitting in some safe in Saudi Arabia.

Thank you for writing about this experience. Good luck with your case.

Bush and John Yoo (and Nixon) said whatever the POTUS does is legal.

When Nixon was POTUS, Congress disagreed.

Now Congress agrees.

Times change.

so?

What a hilariously frightening read. Thank you for pursuing justice, and for sharing the madness with all of us.

For a successful conclusion to this case - this one would not only help the USA but would be a loud and overdue warning to all the other 'democratic' governments who have followed Bush's lead into corruption and abuse of power that sooner or later they will get theirs too for their treachery to everything our ancestors fought & died for.

What is increasingly troublesome is the increasing boldness of judges in intervening in matter beyond their constitutional authority

How true. We should start by getting the worst offenders off the bench. Write your congressman today and insist that Scalia and Thomas be impeached!

In order to freeze the assets there had to be a court order. The DOJ/FBI walked into the bank with some form of written order. That order had to be issued by a court of some kind. A bank officer won't freeze an account without some form of court order otherwise the bank is violating federal banking/privacy regulations.