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2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Server [View all]Octafish
(55,745 posts)114. NSA is a freaking vacuum cleaner. Ask Frank Church.
Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho) was a patriot, a hero and a statesman, truly a great American.
The guy also led the last real investigation of CIA, NSA and FBI. When it came to NSA Tech circa 1975, he definitely knew what he was talking about:
[font color="green"]That capability at any time could be turned around on the American people and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesnt matter. There would be no place to hide. If this government ever became a tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back, because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology.
I dont want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capability that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return.[/font color]
-- Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho) FDR New Deal, Liberal, Progressive, World War II combat veteran. A brave man, the NSA was turned on him. Coincidentally, he narrowly lost re-election the next cycle.
I dont want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capability that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return.[/font color]
-- Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho) FDR New Deal, Liberal, Progressive, World War II combat veteran. A brave man, the NSA was turned on him. Coincidentally, he narrowly lost re-election the next cycle.
And what happened to Church, for his trouble to preserve Democracy:
In 1980, Church will lose re-election to the Senate in part because of accusations of his committees responsibility for Welchs death by his Republican opponent, Jim McClure.
SOURCE: http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=frank_church_1
SOURCE: http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=frank_church_1
From GWU's National Security Archives:
"Disreputable if Not Outright Illegal": The National Security Agency versus Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali, Art Buchwald, Frank Church, et al.
Newly Declassified History Divulges Names of Prominent Americans Targeted by NSA during Vietnam Era
Declassification Decision by Interagency Panel Releases New Information on the Berlin Crisis, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Panama Canal Negotiations
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 441
Posted September 25, 2013
Originally Posted - November 14, 2008
Edited by Matthew M. Aid and William Burr
Washington, D.C., September 25, 2013 During the height of the Vietnam War protest movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the National Security Agency tapped the overseas communications of selected prominent Americans, most of whom were critics of the war, according to a recently declassified NSA history. For years those names on the NSA's watch list were secret, but thanks to the decision of an interagency panel, in response to an appeal by the National Security Archive, the NSA has released them for the first time. The names of the NSA's targets are eye-popping. Civil rights leaders Dr. Martin Luther King and Whitney Young were on the watch list, as were the boxer Muhammad Ali, New York Times journalist Tom Wicker, and veteran Washington Post humor columnist Art Buchwald. Also startling is that the NSA was tasked with monitoring the overseas telephone calls and cable traffic of two prominent members of Congress, Senators Frank Church (D-Idaho) and Howard Baker (R-Tennessee).
SNIP...
Another NSA target was Senator Frank Church, who started out as a moderate Vietnam War critic. A member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee even before the Tonkin Gulf incident, Church worried about U.S. intervention in a "political war" that was militarily unwinnable. While Church voted for the Tonkin Gulf resolution, he later saw his vote as a grave error. In 1965, as Lyndon Johnson made decisions to escalate the war, Church argued that the United States was doing "too much," criticisms that one White House official said were "irresponsible." Church had been one of Johnson's Senate allies but the President was angry with Church and other Senate critics and later suggested that they were under Moscow's influence because of their meetings with Soviet diplomats. In the fall of 1967, Johnson declared that "the major threat we have is from the doves" and ordered FBI security checks on "individuals who wrote letters and telegrams critical of a speech he had recently delivered." In that political climate, it is not surprising that some government officials eventually nominated Church for the watch list.[10]
SOURCE: http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB441/
I wonder if Sen. Richard Schweiker (R-PA), a liberal Republican, also got the treatment from NSA?
I think that the report, to those who have studied it closely, has collapsed like a house of cards, and I think the people who read it in the long run future will see that. I frankly believe that we have shown that the [investigation of the] John F. Kennedy assassination was snuffed out before it even began, and that the fatal mistake the Warren Commission made was not to use its own investigators, but instead to rely on the CIA and FBI personnel, which played directly into the hands of senior intelligence officials who directed the cover-up. Senator Richard Schweiker on Face the Nation in 1976.
Lost to History NOT, thanks to people who care.
Ms. Clinton? She thought she wouldn't be caught.
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There will probably be 2 or 3 more SCOTUS vacancies over the next 4 to 8 years, so just
tblue37
Mar 2016
#55
I think we all have to face the possibility that neither candidate will be the Democratic
leveymg
Mar 2016
#158
If that's a Conv. rule (and I don't think so) the Rules Cmte. can and will change it, if need be.
leveymg
Mar 2016
#185
Lots of people in denial about this one. I've read some great articles and seen a great video
pdsimdars
Mar 2016
#3
Thanks for some perspective on this. It's the last hope for Sanders, so his supporters are willing
Hoyt
Mar 2016
#15
One needs only to see the word :opinion: in the link to realize they will be reading an editorial/
Hiraeth
Mar 2016
#191
I am more concerned about her cozy relationship with Saudi and other corrupt regime, revealed in
kgnu_fan
Mar 2016
#5
You know how Republican Party has disintegrated... from inside. If we do not correct corruption in
kgnu_fan
Mar 2016
#16
Nailed it. Some wrong doing, and people other than Hillary will be identified as being responsible.
Autumn
Mar 2016
#8
our party is accustomed to defending our candidates against spurious and invented charges
bigtree
Mar 2016
#10
As someone who held a Secret Clearance throughout the 1970's-1980's and a Top Secret Clearance
MgtPA
Mar 2016
#13
Although I'm now retired, I still maintain contact with some of my similiarly-cleared colleagues
MgtPA
Mar 2016
#62
I'm waiting to hear that Sidney Blumenthal/Clinton Foundation is under the FBI microscope.
MgtPA
Mar 2016
#66
I had a TS from the 80's til 2005. If I had done what Hillary did, or Petraeus, I would be in jail.
peacebird
Mar 2016
#207
The server was set up so that FoIA requests would return the answer, 'We have no records'.
w4rma
Mar 2016
#14
I believe this is what Bernie is telegraphing with his latest Superdelegate comments. N/t
yodermon
Mar 2016
#67
I don't have any place in my mind where I find anything about the emails relevant
bigtree
Mar 2016
#106
It's just foolishness to ignore this, or blame it on Sanders supporters.
highprincipleswork
Mar 2016
#176
The GOP can make someone's life a living hell if they want. They don't need charges for that.
randome
Mar 2016
#54
Were you alive during the Clinton administration? 8 years making something out of nothing.
Autumn
Mar 2016
#73
I missed that post. My answer to that question would have been Hillary, of course!
2banon
Mar 2016
#71
I think the series you mention would be an extremely worthwhile investment of your time
Samantha
Mar 2016
#156
It really is unbelievable. His own party sabotages him, MSM all but ignores him, and "journalists"
agracie
Mar 2016
#139
Unindicted Co-Conspirator. I predict these words will be printed next to Hillary Clinton's name.
cherokeeprogressive
Mar 2016
#115
May would be perfect timing to set up an open convention just like the Repubs possible scenario
corkhead
Mar 2016
#132
I believe Hillary will agree to drop her quest for the Presidency in exchange for no indictment
Samantha
Mar 2016
#171
Their egos tell them they can do whatever they want BECAUSE THEY ARE THE CLINTONS
Samantha
Mar 2016
#172
once the issue is in the rear view mirror and there's no more Fear/Uncertainty/Doubt talking
geek tragedy
Mar 2016
#186
No, and I hope every person guilty of pushing this bullshit will participate
geek tragedy
Mar 2016
#202
This needs to be dealt with sooner than later. Slower awakening, worse it gets.
kgnu_fan
Mar 2016
#220