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"Can you hear me now?"

  • Dec. 19th, 2005 at 11:21 AM
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revar
You know, I'd probably have a lot more righteous indignation about the whole NSA tapping US citizens without judicial warrants thing, if I hadn't already pretty much assumed stuff like this was happening.

That's a sad state of affairs.

Well, actually I was a little surprised. I rather thought that they just used the classified Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to get their easy secret wiretap warrants. I'm a little puzzled that they didn't even use that. Or did even they balk because the folks being wire-tapped weren't foreign nationals?

Puzzling.
  • Current Mood: cynical cynical
  • Current Music:Mike & the Mechanics - Silent Running

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( 5 comments — Leave a comment )
jeran
Dec. 19th, 2005 07:51 pm (UTC)
I suspect they balked at using the FISC because even that court, as government-friendly as it is, would have heartburn with the likely lack of hard evidence and blatant breaking of jurisdictional barriers. I think stunts like this are going to cause Bush a problem, even some of his own party are starting to suggest maybe this is going a bit too far.
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smack_jackal
Dec. 19th, 2005 07:57 pm (UTC)
From what I understand going through FISC, accordring to the White House, "takes too much time" and requires a higher burden of evidence [thus protecting civil liberties] than Bush wants to deal with. I mean, come on...They guy pretty much said that he was pissed off at the Senate for not approving the Police State...errr...Patriot Act extentions this morning. Of course, he also said that it was a dangerous and serious threat to national security for the press to even talk the illegal NSA wire tapping that's he's been ordering.

Yay insane President!
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(Deleted comment)
smack_jackal
Dec. 19th, 2005 09:36 pm (UTC)
Maybe the administration didn't want to leave a paper trail in this matter that going to the FISC might result in.

That would be my guess. The administration has shown time and time again that they don't really care for or want to be bothered by civil liberty issues and they think that we shouldn't be, either.

Civil liberties for terrorists, after all.
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the_twf
Dec. 19th, 2005 09:56 pm (UTC)
And the sad thing is at this point he's pretty much saying "Fuck you, I’m doing this and I’m going to continue doing this" and the whole populace still isn't in a total uproar.

Presidents have been shot for less.
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revar
Dec. 19th, 2005 11:09 pm (UTC)
We've even recently impeached a president, and forced another to resign for less.
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( 5 comments — Leave a comment )