Category Archives: fourth amendment

Mold

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…grows in the dark….is what passed in my head while reading this.

I just can’t wrap my brain around this.  The hubris is just beyond me.  What gives us the right?

 

 

Burr on your being paranoid

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Thomas Burr, a *cough* reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune,  was on CSPAN this morning telling everyone what paranoids they are…the NSA is not spying on you, they are just gathering data.

And that 1 million square foot facility in Utah?  Pshaw…it’s only got a tiny, tiny bit of space devoted to that data.

And they *only* have 200 employees for that giant space (well…as far as we know….the exact number is…you guessed it…secret.)

And they’re not analyzing the data collected.  Really.  Would he lie to you?  Why are you so paranoid?  You probably need to take something for that.   /extra snarky

And when a  caller point blank said this was illegal and needs to be stopped, Burr spent the next few minutes speaking in double speak evading the question she asked about the legality of it.

 

 

Failing to disclose NSA ties

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Psuedo-journalist David Gregory of Meet the Press failed to disclose a lobbyist for a private defense contractor that is employed by the NSA. (hat tip crooks and liars.com)

John Amato has this up, too.  A good summary of the media’s coverage…

…and their lack of true journalism.

Intelligent discussion

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…is hard to come by on the airwaves, but the CSPAN discussion with Scott Amey of the Project on Government Oversight  is one of those discussions:

 

POGO has this link to the NY Times OP-Ed on Snowden and the exposure of the extent of outsourcing government work…and we’re not getting our money’s worth. Color me shocked. Not.

From the article:

At a Senate hearing on intelligence contractors in September 2011, a witness from the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group, cited research from 2008 showing that the government paid private contractors 1.6 times what it would have cost to have had government employees perform the work.

I haven’t watched today, but in the past few days, MSNBC has been running a rabid campaign on Edward Snowden, making his fleeing capture the story instead of the warrantless wiretapping, which should be the object of discussion.

CNN is doing a little bit better–it depends on which broadcaster is on at the moment.

It’s just mindboggling that these are supposed journalists who are like rabid dogs going after a whistleblower…especially after the revelations of phones being tapped at the AP.

What is really intriguing is that Judge Vaughn Walker had ruled that the wiretaps were illegal.  So….why were they still doing them?

Another story on the cyber surveillance here.

Electronic Frontier Foundation has this up.  Note that they claim there are “no names”, but as the article states there are names kept separately.  I mean, really, what would be the point if there were no names attached to the phone numbers?  Wouldn’t that be counter to the objective of tracking people?

Here is an excellent point:

They contain information on criminal activity or a threat of harm to people or property.   

—This is not very comforting – the Fourth Amendment wouldn’t mean anything if the government could search your house everyday, but would only act if they found evidence of a crime inside.

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(italics mine)

So…I have a question…why is it NOT okay to track someone with GPS without a warrant…but quite all right  to track someone by phone without a warrant??

This also from EFF.  They are fighting the good fight trying to get this out in the open…where it belongs.

…and it gets worse…

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common dreams has this up on the Big Brother-spying-on-Big Brother program…the dark side showing its paranoia and utter control of information and those who might actually uphold the law…you know, the Constitution, not the Patriot Act.

The program could make it easier for the government to stifle the flow of unclassified and potentially vital information to the public, while creating toxic work environments poisoned by unfounded suspicions and spurious investigations of loyal Americans, according to these current and former officials and experts. Some non-intelligence agencies already are urging employees to watch their co-workers for “indicators” that include stress, divorce and financial problems.

“It was just a matter of time before the Department of Agriculture or the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) started implementing, ‘Hey, let’s get people to snitch on their friends.’ The only thing they haven’t done here is reward it,” said Kel McClanahan, a Washington lawyer who specializes in national security law. “I’m waiting for the time when you turn in a friend and you get a $50 reward.”

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If they start paying people to turn in one another, we’re toast as a country (not that we’re not there on the ledge, already).

In this economy, folks facing a quandary of feeding their families/paying the mortgage/keeping the lights on and turning in a coworker that really hasn’t done anything wrong, but…

The Salem Witch Hunts on steroids…

…..it’s worse than we thought…

 

 

Snowden taking flight to Moscow

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Edward Teller at FDL has this up on Snowden leaving Hong Kong for Moscow and then on to…?

Someone put up this link in the comments.  They’re taking the technology and selling it to other countries….why isn’t that illegal?  And they’re worried about ordinary Americans disclosing secrets?? How is Snowden being charged with espionage while Booz is not?

Also in the comments is a link to Glenn Greenwald’s smackdown of psuedo journalist David Gregory.

In the comments, someone mentioned Naomi Wolf’s comments on Snowden…so naturally, I went in search of her article. She has it on…wait for it…f_cebook….of all places.  So, I went to gawker and found this.

I agree that her comments are bizarre.  They make no sense at all–because he’s articulate he should be considered a spy? Seriously?

…and he’s too organized.  Say what??  She infers that because he has a GED that he couldn’t possibly be that analytical.  Um…he does have expertise with sophisticated software, correct?

She questions why Hong Kong–Snowden answered that question–he stated that they were actually more open…than the U.S.

From the gawker:

This is why our surveillance apparatus operates using secret orders that are secretly overseen by a closed court, whose decisions are classified. This is why the technology and communications companies cooperating with the surveillance program are forbidden to acknowledge that the surveillance program exists. This is why the Director of National Intelligence lied to Congress about what the surveillance program collected. Because they all wanted you to know about it.

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Here’s another take on Wolf from Dave Lindorff at counterpunch.  He also notes the condescending attitude of Wolf’s disbelief that a person with a GED could make reasoned, intelligent arguments:

[quote] As a long-time investigative reporter, I also dispute Wolf’s self-serving claim that her own experience in dealing with whistleblowers shows them to be uniformly disorganized and inarticulate. In my experience, some are very disorganized and hard to follow because of their focus on the trees in their personal forest, but some whistleblowers are intensely organized and know exactly what they want to tell you as a journalist. They are also apt, organized or not, contrary to what Wolf says, to highlight the danger they are in, and that they may be putting the reporter in. Sometimes this may be simply to make sure you are interested and recognize the seriousness of what they have to say, and sometimes it is out of genuine fear for themselves and concern for the journalist’s safety, and perhaps also to make sure you fully understand what you’re getting into and that you will not cave and reveal their identity the moment you are put under pressure yourself.

Wolf, who always makes a point of mentioning she’s a Yale grad and a Rhodes Scholar who studied at Oxford, should take care in assuming that someone with only a high school diploma speaking in whole sentences or paragraphs is probably reciting “talking points” from a script. Her assumption reeks of class-based stereotyping. I have met car mechanics, who besides working miracles on my old cars, can speak in multiple paragraphs about politics, often with more wisdom and insight than most of the ivy-league pundits on the tube. [/quote]

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Love that he states that he’s not against outing fakes, but Wolf’s accusations are without hard evidence.  Not only that, but she is apparently ignorant that there would be hiding places for folks in Hong Kong.  On another site, Lindorff makes this statement in the comments section:

Reply to Rob Kall:   
No, it’s not the same at all Rob…

I was presenting pieces of evidence. Not rank speculation. As I demonstrate in this article, Naomi Wolf has not one shred of evidence to support her wild speculation, and she is even ignorant of such things as the easy ability to hide in Hong Kong, which is a teeming city of many small apartments, set in a large, mountainous jungle environment, with 8 million people, many of them hiding from authorities for one reason or other.

I have no objection to someone raising questions, but not something like: The US government lies and makes up stories, so maybe Ed Snowden is a fraud. Please. Not saying that whistleblowers are disorganized and incoherent, and Snowden is articulate and organized, so he must be reciting a script. That’s not journalism. That’s just stupid stereotyping.
Dave Lindorff

Submitted on Sunday, Jun 16, 2013 at 2:57:46 PM

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