Bush-Cheney began illegal NSA spying before 9/11, says telcom CEO

[deminks]

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/352455

Contradicting a statement by ex-vice president Dick Cheney on Sunday that warrantless domestic surveillance might have prevented 9/11, 2007 court records indicate that the Bush-Cheney administration began such surveillance at least 7 months prior to 9/11.

The Bush administration bypassed the law requiring such actions to be authorized by FISA court warrants, the body set up in the Seventies to oversee Executive Branch spying powers after abuses by Richard Nixon. Former QWest CEO John Nacchios said that at a meeting with the NSA on February 27, 2001, he and other QWest officials declined to participate. AT&T, Verizon and Bellsouth all agreed to shunt customer communications records to an NSA database.

In 2007 the Denver Post reported:

""Nacchio suggested that the NSA sought phone, Internet and other customer records from Qwest in early 2001. When he refused to hand over the information, the agency retaliated by not granting lucrative contracts to the Denver-based company, he claimed.""

(snip)

The Bush-Cheney administration fought fiercely to pass legislation which granted telecommunications companies immunity from prosecution for violating Americans' Fourth Amendment rights under the Constitution. The legislation was passed in 2008. UK Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald argued that the unprecedented "retroactive" immunity would also give the Bush administration immunity as well, by preventing lawsuits from moving forward into the discovery phase, where wrongdoing was likely to be uncovered.

(end snip)

We know the GOPers tried and failed to pin President Obama with targeting them with the IRS, but did Cheney try to target Dems with the NSA? I have always suspected this was the case.

Keep talkin' there, Dick. I love old memories.

[think]

1. Verizon, ATT, & Bell South all agreed months BEFORE 9/11 to share data with NSA

If these allegations are true then the Patriot Act & it's support is nothing but a fairytale from hell....

[Coyotl]

12. Deja DU: Nacchio and Qwest: Another Political Prosecution? Retaliation?

L. Coyote Oct-15-07 08:14 PM

Nacchio and Qwest: Another Political Prosecution? Retaliation?
http://sync.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3612811

The political odor of this legal case has never been proper.
The issue first arose on DU with the USA firings discussion.
* Justice Weighed Firing 1 in 4 - 26 Prosecutors Were Listed As Candidates
* http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2848874

Now, it's in mainstream press and serious legal blogs.

=====================
Qwest: Another Political Prosecution?
BY Scott Horton - Oct 14, 2007
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/10/hbc-90001415

Last week, a career federal prosecutor friend told me, “Most of us have come to agree that there’s a real problem with political prosecutions on Bush’s watch, and that needs to be addressed, but you need to remind your readers that this is something truly exceptional and that the great mass of cases involve the normal functioning of the law enforcement system, with career professionals who are detached from political considerations.” For the record, I believe that’s true. I’m not sure how widespread the phenomenon of political prosecution is. I believe that it is no longer a question of “whether” such prosecutions have been brought—that’s now very well established. How widespread is this phenomenon? That’s an important question and the answers are unclear.

And this weekend more information has surfaced which would show the practice to be far more common that I first suspected. Last year, a Colorado lawyer told me that I should look at the insider trading litigation surrounding Qwest CEO Joseph P. Nacchio—there was strong evidence in that case of tawdry politics on the prosecution side.

.....

====================
leveymg Oct-16-07 08:18 AM

HOW THE NSA USES NETWORK CARRIERS TO SPY ON YOU

Part 1. CALEA – Now, Even Starbucks is Required to Spy on You

You probably know about FISA, the wiretap law that’s supposed to protect Americans from warrantless government wiretaps. But, few have heard of the other major domestic surveillance law, the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).

CALEA makes it mandatory that all telephone companies, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and even universities and coffee shop chains that offer public internet access, allow government agencies to track and record your calls and surfing habits. That law initially was written to apply only to voice telephone systems. It even came with a half billion dollar incentive to cooperate for the phone companies which had, in the early 1990s, resisted a law that required they install bugging equipment at all their switching centers as an unfunded mandate and very much unwanted business expense.

But, that was so pre-911. As of May 14 this year, once you log on to your Internet provider or use your laptop at a university, library or other institution that offers a broadcast wireless network, federal law now requires that the network carrier record your terminal's unique IP address, you know, the one assigned to each and every computer that accesses the Worldwide Web.

______________________

The FCC even maintains a handy website where you or your company can check on the latest pronouncements on CALEA ...

....

[mountain grammy]

23. Joe Nacchio is a low life scum who should rot behind bars..

I know many people whose pensions and futures were stolen by this creep. He may have stood up against W and his band of merry criminals, but, believe me, he deserved to be prosecuted and convicted.
Nacchio is one of quite a few crooked CEO's who deserve prison cells.

[carla]

19. Always remember...

there are NO SUCH THINGS as conspiracies. And my grandma could fly on tiny teacups...

[think]

21. I keep clicking my heels together but

the facts just won't go away.

[Fuddnik]

2. The whistleblower from AT&T exposed this years ago.

He helped install the NSA splitter in San Francisco AT&T center.

He said it happened in March 2001. Thus the need for retroactive telecom immunity.

[Coyotl]

14. Deja DU: Are ALL COMMUNICATIONS routed overseas to circumvent US law and the Constitution?

L. Coyote Nov-09-07

Are ALL COMMUNICATIONS routed overseas to circumvent US law and the Constitution?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2245762

I was told years ago that ALL fiber optic communication traffic was routed overseas so that "everything" was moved outside the protections of the law and Constitution and ANYTHING could be monitored. I thought the idea quite fantastic even though it came from a very reliable source that would know exactly such things. Then, the story of the fiber optic splitters hit my radar. I now see now how easily exactly that, routing ALL COMMUNICATIONS overseas, was accomplished.

Is that Bush's and the Telecom's HUGE crime hidden and covered-up behind this story?

If the telecoms get immunity, will it aid in covering up Bush's crime.
ABSOLUTELY! That is why it is so important to the Rs! Support = obstruction of justice.

Have we arrived at the point in the history of the Bushco junta where
laws passed and people nominated are part of crimes of obstructing justice?

===================
AT&T Whistleblower: Telecom Immunity Is A Cover-Up
By Spencer Ackerman - Nov 7, 2007
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004662.php


Earlier today we flagged that Mark Klein, who uncovered a secret surveillance room run by the NSA while employed as a San Francisco-based technician for AT&T, is in Washington to lobby against granting retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies. In an interview this afternoon, Klein explained why he traveled all the way from San Francisco to lobby Senators about the issue: if the immunity provision passes, Americans may never know how extensive the surveillance program was -- or how deeply their privacy may have been invaded.

"The president has not presented this truthfully," said Klein, a 62-year old retiree. "He said it was about a few people making calls to the Mideast. But I know this physical equipment. It copies everything. There's no selection of anything, at all -- the splitter copies entire data streams from the internet, phone conversations, e-mail, web-browsing. Everything."

What Klein unearthed -- you can read it here -- points to a nearly unbounded surveillance program. ....

...

[think]

20. Thanks for all the back ground info

I missed much of this and it sure puts the whole story into context....

[Coyotl]

30. DU is a gold mine if you know which keywords to search for, esp. with the unique avatar names

Google advanced search is where to begin. Note the URL syntax: google.com/advanced_search?q=

Qwest NSA "L. Coyote" site:democraticunderground.com

https://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=Qwest+NSA+"L+Coyote"+site:democraticunderground.com

About 966 results ...

ProSense Oct-15-07
Conyers wants answers on pre-9/11 NSA program.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2053999

kpete Jul-05-08
The Spying Started BEFORE September 11 - That's The Whole POINT
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3570855

marmar Oct-15-07
ACLU: Hundreds of New Documents Reveal Expanded Military Role in Domestic Surveillance
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2053763

[Coyotl]

33. Deja DU: DIA SPYING: NGIA collecting data, 133 U.S. cities, ID everyone, nationality, political ....

L. Coyote May-27-07
DIA SPYING: NGIA collecting data, 133 U.S. cities, ID everyone, nationality, political affiliations
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x983282

This one deserves its own thread. Look out when legal scholars go to work uncovering facts.
Laura K. Donohue, JD, PhD, is a Fellow at CISAC and at the Center for Constitutional Law at Stanford Law School

"... National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is collecting data from 133 U.S. cities; intelligence sources told the Los Angeles Times that, when collection is completed, the agency would be able to identify occupants in each house, their nationality and even their political affiliation..."

--------------
May 30, 2006 - Originally in Los Angeles Times, May 18, 2006
Battlefield: U.S.
Pentagon spies are treating the homeland like a war zone
By Laura K. Donohue
http://cisac.stanford.edu/news/domestic_spying_turns_homeland_into_battlefield_warns_cisac_scholar_20060530

Today, the Senate Intelligence Committee will begin questioning Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, nominated to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency, about the National Security Agency's collection of U.S. citizens' telephone records.

... the Senate and the American public may be missing a broader and more disturbing development. For the first time since the Civil War, the United States has been designated a military theater of operations. The Department of Defense... is taking an unprecedented role in domestic spying.

... it circumvents three decades of efforts by Congress to restrict government surveillance of Americans ... it represents a profound shift in the role of the military operating inside the United States... erosion of the principle, embedded in the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, that the U.S. military not be used for domestic law enforcement.

When the administration declared the United States to be a theater of military operations in 2002, it created a U.S. Northern Command, which set up intelligence centers in Colorado and Texas to analyze the domestic threat. ....

The Defense Intelligence Agency, created in 1961 to provide foreign military intelligence, now uses "Verity K2" software to scan U.S. intelligence files and the Internet "to identify foreign terrorists or Americans connected to foreign terrorism activity," and "Inxight Smart Discovery" software to help identify patterns in databases. CIFA has reportedly contracted with Computer Sciences Corp. to buy identity-masking software, which could allow it to create fake websites and monitor legitimate U.S. sites without leaving clues that it had been there. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is collecting data from 133 U.S. cities; intelligence sources told the Los Angeles Times that, when collection is completed, the agency would be able to identify occupants in each house, their nationality and even their political affiliation..........

..........

[mtasselin]

3. why

Can someone please tell me why the main street media does not cover this? I think I know why because there is no such thing as main street media, because it is corporate media, where they control what we see, and hear, getting brainwashed and not even knowing it.

[think]

8. ...

Sorry to parse words but it is "main stream media":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainstream_media

But yes the main stream media is bought and owned by the corporate elite who control the talking points most Americans regurgitate as news....

[Coyotl]

13. ...

Sorry to parse words but it is "Main $$$tream Media"

[Fuddnik]

15. Because our mainstream media is a propaganda operation.

For a study in examples and techniques, read this.

http://books.google.com/books/about/Manufacturing_Consent.html?id=Kv_-bvCqgrEC

[Uncle Joe]

25. Sorry to parse words,

but it's the corporate media; their primary allegiance is to their corporate commercial buying clients their parent conglomerates and not to the people.

The American People are primarily consumers or customers to be sold a product, candidate, down the river or all of the above.

There is a major difference in fiduciary responsibility owed to a client vs a customer with the client coming out on top.

Whether there is a formal agreement of agency between that of the corporate media and their commercial buying corporations; establishing them as clients or not, the De Facto situation is, they are indeed clients, when compared to coverage of the public good; and that of the people's interest.

[Octafish]

4. When Nacchio said, 'No,' he got framed and sent to jail.

Only One Big Telecom CEO Refused To Cave To The NSA ... And He's Been In Jail For 4 Years

MICHAEL KELLEY JUN. 12, 2013, 2:44 PM
BusinessInsider.com

Former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio is currently serving a six-year sentence after being convicted of insider trading in April 2007 for selling $52 million of stock in the spring of 2001 as the telecommunications carrier appeared to be deteriorating.

During the trial his defense team argued that Nacchio, 63, believed Qwest was about to win secret government contracts that would keep it in the black.

Nacchio alleged that the government stopped offering the company lucrative contracts after Qwest refused to cooperate with a National Security Agency surveillance program in February 2001.

That claim gains new relevance these days, amid leaks by whistleblower Edward Snowden that allege widespread domestic surveillance by the NSA.

Back in 2006 Leslie Cauley of USA Today, citing multiple people with direct knowledge of the arrangement, reported that shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks America's three largest telecoms signed contracts to provide the NSA with detailed call records from hundreds of millions of people across the country.

CONTINUED at a buggy POS website...

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-story-of-joseph-nacchio-and-the-nsa-2013-6

PS: Thank you for the heads-up on the news before 9-11, deminks. We are reaching the stage where we're about to step back through the looking glass.

[think]

9. Calling it "buggy" is quite apropos

considering the nature of the discussion....

[mountain grammy]

26. Please know that Nacchio got rich at the expense of USWest employees

He's a ruthless CEO who blew up a pretty decent company. His victims would surely object to the depiction of Nacchio as some kind of victim himself.

[Berlum]

5. "But our kissass corporate media (R) will blame The Kenyan. Smirk." - George AWOL Bush (R)

[tridim]

6. Damn you Obama!!!11

[baldguy]

7. +1000

It's all the Kenyan Socialist Muslim's fault.

[FSogol]

17. Bush sez, Thanks for blaming the black guy!

[Liberalagogo]

10. HEY...all you AWFUL AWFUL people!

They DID this so as to prevent a 9/11 from happening and keep terrorists from attacking the.................................................................................................................

oh, wait.

[RC]

28. For the slow witted around here,

the Cheney/bu$h administration did know and used the known information for their own nefarious ends. And add to the fact that the outgoing Clinton Administration gave the incoming Cheney/bu$h administration a 2½ inch thick report, which they then shelved, unread. Between their own spying, the Clinton report, warnings from Egypt and several other countries, how could the Cheney/bu$h administration NOT know about the coming attack? And let us not forget that Cheney was directing war games on the morning of 9/11/2001, that duplicated what the real high-jackers were doing.

And when the attack did happen, the rest of the world came forward, with sympathy and condolences, ready to help with offers of police actions to catch the perpetrators. The offers were refused, in favor of war, by invasion of a country - Iraq, that had nothing to do with the attack. Shock and Awe, turned tens of thousands of innocent people into a pink mist in the middle of the night. Many hundreds of thousands of people have died and are still dying because of the resultant, ongoing war crimes, being done in our name, for the fun and profit of a few.

[johnnyreb]

29. +1

Pre 9/11 spying could have helped ensure the coast was clear.

"But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late".

[Liberalagogo]

34. Whoooosh.

Apparently.

[snot]

11. K&R'd!

[Coyotl]

16. Some people are still surprised that Bush-Cheney acted like a Junta post overthrow of democracy

History will fix this problem sooner than later!

[Uncle Joe]

18. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, deminks.

[SamKnause]

22. NSA

Dick Cheney did NOT want to prevent 9/11.

[Firebrand Gary]

24. Kick and Recommended!

[mountain grammy]

27. And yet, somehow, strangely, they were clueless about the 9/11 terrorist plan.

I've never bought into the conspiracy that 9/11 was an "inside job" except for the fact that these buffoons were so incompetent they missed or ignored every warning that the attack would happen.
The fact that it was planned and executed right in front of their stupid faces as W and company were forging on with their ill gotten power appointing idiots like Ashcroft and Rumsfeld to carry out a right wing jihad on America.

That was the "inside job."

[ReRe]

31. Dayam...

K&R

Everyfuckingthing is connected. Lawdy, lawdy, lawdy.

[truebluegreen]

32. I am shocked, shocked! to find that the Boooosch-Cheney administration

started this within days of being inaugurated.

I would have predicted "minutes".

[Catherina]

35. K&R n/t

[felix_numinous]

36. K&R

American public is to be kept out of the loop-- told cover stories, and we aren't supposed to ask-- unless we want to be ridiculed as CTs or truthers. The aggressive piling on (by the very adept) against discussing this glaring injustice has made a mockery of our democracy.

They fucking knew.