I also had trouble with Dodd's contribution site, but when I returned, I succeeded.

One of the most depressing sides of this story, if Glenn Greenwald is correct, is that Rockefeller has been 'bought' for chump change. I followed the link documenting his connections to telcom industries. While it is true that AT&T, Verizon, etc., are near the top contributors, the total contribution of this group is something like (I just eyeballed it, forgive the approximacy) $100,000. At&T gives $16,000, etc.

Thus speaks the red judge: "Why did this criminal commit murder? He meant to rob." I tell you, however, that his soul wanted blood, not robbery: he thirsted for the bliss of the knife!

But his weak reason did not understand this madness, and it persuaded him: "What matters blood!" it said; "don't you want, at least, to rob? Or take revenge?"

And he listened to his weak reason: like lead its words laid upon him- therefore he robbed when he murdered. He did not want to be ashamed of his madness.

And now the lead of his guilt lies upon him, and once more his weak reason is so numb, so paralyzed, so dull.

---Thus spoke Zarathustra.

Rockefeller wanted murder, but "He did not want to be ashamed of his madness."

ICgracchus@09:57 is spot on. This is well worth repeating--

If Washington will be unaccountable, then we need to start marching on Albany, Richmond, and Sacramento to get state legislatures to protect us.

In fact, it would not surprise me if some states already have telecom privacy laws similar to the federal legislation that is being circumvented. Some research is in order.

http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11415

U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release

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IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 1223-07
October 16, 2007

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Majid Khan Meets With Private Attorney At Guantanamo

The Department of Defense today will grant access for a civilian defense attorney to meet with Majid Khan, a Pakistani national and one of 15 high value detainees held at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay.

Khan is an alleged Al Qaeda operative with direct connections to the United States, having lived and attended high school in the Baltimore area. Khan also has direct connections to Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM), whom he has referred to as his uncle. KSM allegedly selected Khan as an operative for a possible attack inside the United States and tasked him with researching the poisoning of U.S. water reservoirs and the possibility of blowing up gas stations.

Khan has reportedly had links to Al Qaeda operatives and facilitators, some who assisted him with false travel documents to re-enter the U.S. illegally, and involved him in a discussion of smuggling explosives into the United States using the New York office of a Karachi-based textile business.

Khan exemplifies the significant and genuine threat that the United States and other countries face throughout the world.

Under the Detainee Treatment Act, each detainee at Guantanamo is entitled to have his enemy combatant designation reviewed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Providing review of such determination in a nation’s own domestic courts is an unprecedented protection for captured enemy fighters in the history of warfare.

There are approximately 330 detainees currently at Guantanamo.

- - Dept. of Defense

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/11/AR2007101101599.html

The Washington Post
Monday, October 15, 2007; Page A15
Going to See a Ghost
Majid Khan and the Abuses of the 'War on Terror'
By Gitanjali S. Gutierrez

Today at Guantanamo Bay, I am supposed to meet a ghost.

Actually, Majid Khan -- whom I represent in my work as a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights-- is still very much alive. Yet his legal status as a person entitled to basic rights is under grave assault. You see, Majid is one of dozens of people who have been held in secret CIA detention centers around the world. They are known as "ghost detainees" because our government hid them away from everyone, even the Red Cross. Their existence is an enduring reminder of the shocking abuse of power taking place in this nation.

Majid's story has become fairly well known. He was born in Pakistan; his family immigrated to the United States in 1996, when Majid was 16, and received asylum in our country. Majid went to Owings Mills High School, outside of Baltimore, where he learned about checks and balances and due process. He was an amateur DJ. And he was deeply attached to his Muslim faith.

In 2002, Majid went to Pakistan to marry. On March 5, 2003, he was kidnapped by Pakistani police, who turned him over to the CIA. Our government held him incommunicado at a secret CIA facility for more than three years. According to news reports, former CIA interrogators, government memos and admissions by President Bush, techniques such as simulated drowning, sleep deprivation, extreme temperature fluctuations, sexual humiliation and extended solitary confinement in cramped quarters -- practices that amount to torture under any reasonable definition -- were used at these facilities repeatedly, brutally and systematically. But during this entire period our government denied that Majid even existed. He was a ghost. His family did not know whether he was alive or dead.

Then, as abruptly as he disappeared, Majid reappeared. In September 2006, President Bush announced that Majid, along with 13 other "ghosts," would be transferred to Guantanamo Bay to face a military tribunal. The tribunals are meant to legitimize their detention but accomplish nothing of the sort. Any military commission Majid is to face will follow rules specifically designed to ensure that the government gets the outcome it seeks.

Moreover, the proceedings will be tainted with secrecy. A transparent trial would risk revealing the events surrounding Majid's detention and treatment while in CIA custody. The government's need for secrecy has nothing to do with Majid's alleged wrongdoing -- only the circumstances under which he was captured, hidden away and interrogated. He will continue to be held behind a shroud of secrecy to protect the CIA program under which he was originally detained. He is a prisoner being punished in order to protect his jailers. The logic is terrifying. And it is being done in the name of the American people.

At least Majid's family now knows he is alive. When I see him, it will be the first time he has been afforded the basic right of meeting with a lawyer. I am writing this column now because once I meet with my client, military regulations will restrict my ability to speak publicly about the case.

[...] In literature, ghosts are symbols not only of mortality but also of accountability. Ghosts render judgment upon actions and compel us to mend our ways. For three years, Majid Khan was a ghost. Now he has reappeared. Let his terrifying experiences serve to remind us of the danger posed when power goes unchecked [...]

- - Gitanjali S. Gutierrez, a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights, represents numerous detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. She was a member of the legal team in Rasul v. Bush and was the first habeas corpus lawyer to travel to Guantanamo, in 2004.