James Bamford suing NSA

[Jara sang]

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/nsaspying/23478res20060116.html

Statement - James Bamford, NSA Lawsuit Client

CLIENT STATEMENTS
James Bamford, journalist/author
Larry Diamond, professor
Joshua Dratel, lawyer
Greenpeace
Christopher Hitchens, journalist/author
Nancy Hollander, lawyer

Organizations and People Involved in the NSA Lawsuit >>
My decision to join the ACLU lawsuit against the National Security Agency was not only difficult, but painful. During a quarter century of writing about NSA, including the only two books on the agency and countless articles, I have developed a great deal of respect and even awe for the people who work there. A number of junior cryptologists I came in contact with when I first began writing The Puzzle Palace in 1979 had become senior officials by the time I finished the sequel, Body of Secrets, in 2001. Some of them had also become friends. During that period, my relationship with NSA had also changed, from being threatened with prosecution, to being honored with a book signing ceremony at the agency.

In The Puzzle Palace I devoted a considerable amount of pages to a long list of illegal and improper activities conducted by the agency during the Watergate period. But in Body of Secrets I went to great lengths to explain how the agency had put that past behind it and was now paying strict attention to the law. I even defended the agency on many occasions, including when invited to Brussels to testify before the European Parliament which was looking into whether NSA was spying on European businesses and passing the intelligence on to American corporations. I expressed my view that they were not. In his book, Chatter, about eavesdropping around the world, Patrick Radden Keefe noted that I have "gone from being the scourge of the NSA to the agency's hagiographer."

But now it appears that the agency has gone full circle, and just as I will defend it when I think it is being wrongly accused, I will just as vigorously come out against it when I believe it has gone over the line.

continued

[H2O Man]

1. Yep.

He has talked about this on numerous shows in the past couple of weeks. Both the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights are bringing cases to court on this issue. DUers should keep updated on the ACLU's actions on the extensive FBI efforts to monitor, with no judicial oversight, over 30,000 American's personal records. The domestic spying scandal is not limited to NSA, folks -- it is a coordinated effort that includes numerous federal agencies, as well as state and local agencies. Read ACLU Director Anthony Romero's most recent letter to ACLU supporters for more information.

www.aclu.org

[Jara sang]

2. The dangers of NSA abuse have been around for a long time.

I remember there was a small flap about ESCHELON years ago, but no outrage.

[Oreo]

3. Christopher Hitchins is Suing the NSA?

I'm in complete shock... the drunken Bushbot doesn't like it when the crosshairs are on him

Statement - Christopher Hitchens, NSA Lawsuit Client
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/nsaspying/23485res20060116.html

Although I am named in this suit on my own behalf, I am motivated to join it by concerns well beyond my own. I have been frankly appalled by the discrepant and contradictory positions taken by the Administration in this matter. First, the entire existence of the NSA's monitoring was a secret, and its very disclosure denounced as a threat to national security.

Then it was argued that Congress had already implicitly granted the power to conduct warrantless surveillance on the territory of the United States, which seemed to make the reason for the original secrecy more rather than less mysterious. (I think we may take it for granted that our deadly enemies understand that their communications may be intercepted.)

This makes it critically important that we establish an understood line, and test the cases in which it may or may not be crossed.

Let me give a very direct instance of what I mean. We have recently learned that the NSA used law enforcement agencies to track members of a pacifist organisation in Baltimore. This is, first of all, an appalling abuse of state power and an unjustified invasion of privacy, uncovered by any definition of "national security" however expansive. It is, no less importantly, a stupid diversion of scarce resources from the real target. It is a certainty that if all the facts were known we would become aware of many more such cases of misconduct and waste.

[H2O Man]

4. Yes, he is.

I frequently find him obnoxious, and usually disagree with him. However, he is intelligent, well-spoken in an imitation-Buckley sort of way, and is definitely on target on this issue. I think that as time goes on, there will be an increasing number of people of his type who will see the severe damage that this administration poses to the Constitution.

[KittyWampus]

6. Not just those like Hitchens... the corporate CEO's who've been spied

are probably not only po'ed, they're wealthy and powerful enough to do something in retaliation.

IMO, the NeoCons are flipping off too many people at this point.

[megatherium]

5. I've read both of the books mentioned in the article. It really pains me

to think that the NSA has been made to violate its own ethics. There are a lot of good people in the NSA. (I'm a mathematician who has considered applying for employment there. They are a unique and amazing organization.)

Anyone notice how ABC showed the Will Smith/Gene Hackman movie "Enemy of the State" the other week, right after the NSA story appeared in the news? I thought that was pretty sly.