Letters to the Editor
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@jojo++
In an earlier comment I posted this:
Not many people are aware that a single company, Amdocs, provides billing, customer relationship management (CRM) and operational support systems (OSS) for the majority of phone companies in America and many of its Internet service providers (ISPs). There is little or no awareness of the existence of Verint, a company that manufacturers and installs much of the wire tapping equipment built into America's phone systems.
As is the case with NARUS, these are also Israel owned and/or Israel based companies. Amdocs has headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri but it is run out of Ra'anana, Israel. In doing the transactional billing for the majority of America's phone companies, Amdocs has access to all call records.
Verint is also an Israeli company. Before it was Verint is was Comverse Infosys. Verint's parent company is Comverse.
This on Comverse from Wikipedia:
Comverse is one of the most notable companies involved in the options backdating scandal. The Ex-CEO of Comverse, Jacob Alexander, an Israeli citizen, has been classified as a wanted fugitive from August 2006 by the American Federal Bureau of Investigation. Along with former finance chief David Kreinberg and former senior general counsel William Sorin, Alexander faces multiple charges of conspiracy, securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and making false filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission; all of these charges relate to alleged options backdating or other actions related to stock options.
On September 27, 2006, he was arrested in Namibia after hiding in Windhoek with his family, where he had bought a house at a Country Club. If extradited to the US he could face 25 years in prison if convicted.
Amdocs and Comverse Infosys first came to public attention after 9/11 when they were profiled in a series of Fox News specials hosted by (can you believe it?), Brit Hume.
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@Michael Harold
Well, you've got to hand it to Israel. They have some very smart guys running their intelligence, on top of (before Sharon) their military and research administration. They're just stuck with an almost unworkable model.
Why can't we replace our buffoonish ideologues with their pragmatism? NSA is filled with smart people, and we stick them under absolute short-sighted narcissists decade after decade.
If we hadn't been handed the best piece of real estate on earth, I can't imagine that we'd be any better off than Jamaica.
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The redacto ad absurdum of shooter242
A sensible approach to fanatics.
Says the deranged Bush fanatic.
There's something profoundly sad about this.
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"It's about the immunity stupid."
From out of Shoots off his mouth's mouth:
Exactly. From out of nowhere comes this change of heart. Sorry, I don't buy it. I'd like to hear it from the horse's mouth. On something this big, one would think he'd have something to say about it.
It did not come from out of nowhere. Try to keep up.
From a commenter at Balkanization, "It's about the immunity stupid."
See my last two posts previous page for links. Jack Goldsmith, OLC.
Charlie Savage spotted it, and Marty Lederman sees it.
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"It's about the immunity, stupid!"
Forgot the comma, and the !
my posts with links, page 21, two pages back.
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[o.t.] Libby Lied To The FBI *BEFORE* Fitz Was Appointed
Libby lied to the FBI in October and November 2003. Fitzgerald was appointed on December 30, 2003.
If there was a "perjury trap" then it was cleverly constructed by Libby himself.
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Tiny URL
For Boston Globe
http://tinyurl.com/2wcumq
In early 2004, several Justice officials who were not in office at the launch of the NSA program began questioning whether it violated civil liberties. Jack Goldsmith , the new head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, said he doubted that the program was lawful. After listening to Goldsmith, Comey and Ashcroft agreed, Comey said.
The program was set to expire on March 11, 2004, unless the attorney general recertified that it was legal. That week, however, Ashcroft was hospitalized with pancreatitis, and Comey became the acting attorney general. Comey told the White House that he would not sign off on it, setting up the dramatic confrontation.
Marty's post, links here.
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2007/05/can-you-even-imagine-how-bad-it-must.html
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Connecting some dots
James Wolcott has a recent post in which he also (along with some commenters here) notes how much things have already begun to change:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/blogs/wolcott/2007/05/tom_watson_and_.html
and he has links to another post by Tom Watson (that cites Digby) which is also worth the read on last night's debate and its roaring subtext on the importance of the codpiece... at least for fans of "24," who now expect torture to be on the menu;"
http://tomwatson.typepad.com/tom_watson/2007/05/im_the_king_of_.html
as well as a link to Geoffrey Wheatcroft at The Guardian who writes about the common theme underlying the woes of Wolfowitz, Gonzales, and Conrad Black: Hubris. Also worth the read.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2077320,00.html
And I can remember when there was so little I wanted to read... Joe Conason, and later on Paul Krugman. What abundance we have now.
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Re: Update III
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/16/senators-gonzales-nsa
. . . Peter Swire wrote this morning, Gonzales’s testimony raises two possibilities:
1) . . . Comey’s objections apply to the NSA warrantless wiretapping program that Gonzales was discussing.2) . . . Comey’s objections applied to a different domestic spying program. That has a big advantage for Gonzales — he wasn’t lying under oath. But then we would have senior Justice officials confirming that other “programs” exist for domestic spying, something the Administration has never previously stated.
Senators Question Whether Gonzales Lied Under Oath About NSA Wiretapping Program
A group of senators led by Russ Feingold (D-WI) sent Alberto Gonzales a letter today . . .
. . . In light of Mr. Comey’s testimony yesterday, do you stand by your 2006 Senate and House testimony, or do you wish to revise it?
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The 28% Cult
Far fewer than 28% have caused far more damage than even the Bush administration. As late as September 1930, the Nazis were only getting 18% of the vote. Within three years, the Nazi stormtroopers outnumbered the German army, Hitler was Chancellor, the Enabling Act was passed to grant dictatorial powers, and all other political parties were banned.
Moussolini's Fascisti was formed as a political party in March 1919, and gradually build a party (and roving bands of blackshirted militias funded by the wealthy classes). Though he had the support of only 22 deputies in Parliament, fearing violence by the militias, he was named Prime Minister by the King of Italy on October 31, 1922.
I guess this was more or less the pattern for The Permanent Republican Majority.