Jello Jay Rockefeller Advocates Illegal Spying on Americans

[seafan]

Why does this so-called *democrat* still occupy the chair of the the Senate Intelligence Committee?

Jay Rockefeller is selling us out as fast as he can, with both hands.

Damn this.

And this may be voted on TODAY, buried in Tsunami Tuesday.




(Watch the YouTube at the link.)



Jello Jay Advocates Illegal Spying on Americans

By emptywheel
February 5, 2008 6:17 am

The most eye-popping moment from yesterday's FISA debate came when Jello Jay spoke against a Feingold amendment designed to ensure the government does not use US person information collected after the FISA Court has judged that that particular collection program does not adequately protect US persons from being spied on.

Feingold's amendment is modeled on one in the existing FISA law, which prohibits the government from using information gathered during an emergency 72-hour period of collection if the FISA Court later finds that there was not probable cause to justify the warrant itself. Feingold simply transfers that concept onto the collection programs of the new FISA bill, with the logic that, if the FISA Court rules that a program does not sufficiently protect Americans, then the government should not be able to use that information on Americans even after the Court has given the government 30 days to fix it.

Barring this amendment, the government can continue to use information collected on US persons, even if it gathered that information in defiance of a FISA Court ruling. Without this amendment, there is nothing preventing the government from simply ignoring one after another of the FISA Court's rulings. Which says that, without this amendment, there is nothing preventing the government from spying on Americans, because they will be able to disseminate information on Americans even if that information was improperly collected.

But Jello Jay doesn't think we should put those kind of restrictions on the government.

.....

Rockefeller goes on to make further false assertions about Feingold's amendment, trying to claim that Feingold's provision, which only kicks in when an analyst realizes he has US person data, actually invites more invasion of privacy, not less.

Jello Jay's speech is eye-popping for several reasons. It reveals he simply does not care if the government abuses this collection program. For him, it's more important to make massive collection easy than to include safeguards against abuse. His speech amounts to legal sanction for the government to abuse this program.

As Feingold said in this rebuttal of Jello Jay's comments,

The notion that the government should have a complete free pass, and have no consequence whatsoever means that these oversight and these restrictions by the FISA Court have no meaning. It simply allows them to go and intrude on the private conversations of Americans with no consequences.

Also, Jello Jay's speech reveals just how false are all the claims that this program does not involving spying on Americans. The reason he falsely asserts that Feingold's program would cause the government to lose all of the information collected in a given program is because the US person data collected as part of these programs cannot be segregated out from the foreign data.

This program is, Jello Jay reveals, designed to spy on Americans.

[canoeist52]

1. Jay Rockefeller is representing the Telecoms (AT&T)

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jay_Rockefeller#Campaign_contributions
note financial contributions this guy is a Democrat in Name Only!

[L. Coyote]

12. Actually, you want the 2008 numbers from opensecrets

http://opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?CID=N00001685&cycle=2008

JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-WV)
Top Contributors
2008 cycle
#1 AT&T $37,600
#4 Verizon 30,500

The two most vested parties to telecom immunity have taken to donating heavy since the chair changed parties!! Read the page to discover what this really means regarding who is actually giving the money.

[mmonk]

2. Unfortunately, people have no where to turn

with a broken government with no working constitution and those that violate it protected by those that "represent" us. The 08 elections might not correct this cancer since nothing is preventing it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Correction, the '08 election will not correct the cancer,

not even start in fact

Yes, I am that cynical anymore

[mmonk]

4. I am too.

Don't know why I'm still fighting it. I just can't get comfortable and accept it like others can. Politics and elections as usual don't stir me anymore. The door has all but closed.

[originalpckelly]

11. There is something wrong with our system.

It has become an individual crushing machine. We live in a new evil empire.

Both sides don't give a fuck anymore, at least the people in D.C.

But change is on the way, it will not come from Barack or Hillary, it will come from us, the people of this land.

[JDPriestly]

10. It would have had we supported Edwards.

Unfortunately, the glitz, spit and polish crowd foisted Hillary and Obama on us. Once again, we been had. Too bad.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. And once again cui bono?

[conscious evolution]

5. He is a rockefeller

What elese did you expect?

[RockaFowler]

7. Hey, I'm a RockaFowler . . .

But, I don't have his money

[VP505]

6. This shit is getting way out

of hand. This morning I was talking to an acquaintance who is some kind of manager at the local WalMart, I was complaining about how out of control our Gov is getting with their spying on Americans. She told me that Homeland Security requires them to keep a log of anyone who cashes a large check at their store. Makes me think that there is much being done that we don't know about yet.

[Hydra]

9. You have NO idea

I've done some research on the CIA and listened to some of the things going on like Sibel Edmonds troubles, and the picture is insane.

It was 1984 in 1984.

They're just letting us know little by little, to see how far they can push us before something nasty happens. My guess is that they can reveal it all in time- look how people swallow the spying and the torture. It's only a short step for them to accept that they do it to our children.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

8. K&R

[Vadem]

14. It is time, then, for West Virginians to get rid of him!!!! .... he is not

for the little guy if he is promoting government spying on the little guy!

Time for Jay to go!!!!!