WTF? BUSHCO Turns WIRETAPS Back On!

[kpete]

White House says phone wiretaps back on "for now" Sat Feb 23, 7:34 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Saturday U.S. telecommunications companies have agreed to cooperate "for the time being" with spy agencies' wiretaps, despite an ongoing battle between the White House and Congress over new terrorism surveillance legislation.

The Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a joint statement saying wiretaps will resume under the current law "at least for now."

"Although our private partners are cooperating for the time being, they have expressed understandable misgivings about doing so in light of the ongoing uncertainty and have indicated they may well discontinue cooperation if the uncertainty persists," the statement said.

On Friday U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell said telecommunications firms have been reluctant to cooperate with new wiretaps since six-month temporary legislation expired last weekend. As a result, they told Congress, spy agencies have missed intelligence.

more at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080224/pl_nm/security_usa_surveillance_dc

[Joanne98]

1. Can we impeach him yet?

[Popol Vuh]

36. Ain't it a shame

that we haven't yet?

Here's a good PBS video on the subject.

http://www.guba.com/watch/3000051919

[tavalon]

2. The telecoms should have been reluctant to cooperate from the beginning

Jackasses.

[fenriswolf]

23. you know how much they charge per wire tap per day right?

it's definatly facism.

[annabanana]

3. But they NEED it on during "election season"!

How else are they going to keep Democrats out of the White House?

[SammyWinstonJack]

34. Yep!

[atreides1]

4. The Legal Ones

I think that these wiretaps may only be those that can pass the FISA "smell" test, not the wide net that this administration and its telecom cronies were casting.

At least I hope so, if not then we the people may have been sold out by the congress yet again!

[acmavm]

5. Yep, saw the story last night. Ain't it amazing? And where are OUR

dem reps in all this may I ask? Or Barrie and Hils?

And fucking don't anyone tell me that this isn't something our two 'contenders' shouldn't be screaming their heads off about. That they aren't should be telling everyone something.

[gerrilea]

10. Why aren't they talking about it, good point

I guess I was right after all, elections are tools to placate the masses into believing they are participating in the country's political system...we're screwed!

[Popol Vuh]

21. Ding! Ding! Ding!!!

n/t

[bdamomma]

33. Naomi Wolf said the same thing.

about how they are making us think our voices are heard, but the elections will have the same corruptness to them.

[SoCalDem]

26. Bush knows they will do nothing about it.. He's running out the clock

and he knows that nothing he's done do far, got hime impeached, so this is just another feather-ruffling, hand-wringing, exercise for poor ole forlorn Reid

[sattahipdeep]

27. Darth Vader knights his secret apprentice?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/oct/25/youngecountry.garyyounge1








Nader, calling Obama "the first liberal evangelist in a long
time," criticized the Illinois Democrat for having been
"pro-Palestine when he was in Illinois, before he ran for the state senate"
but now "supporting the Israeli destruction" of Gaza.

Nader said that those who would argue against his candidacy are displaying
"political bigotry" against "all of us that think that the country needs an
infusion of freedom, democracy and choice," suggesting they "should just sit
on the sidelines and watch the two political parties own all the voters and
turn the government over to big business."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/Story?id=4336298&page=2

[eShirl]

6. "under the current law" -doesn't that mean they have to get a warrant?

[cornermouse]

7. He's got to compile his national database.

You know, democrats, independents, conservationists, accountants, attorneys, judges, politicians... Information is a valuable resource when you're paranoid. :crazy:

[sellitman]

8. The Dictatorship is alive and well.

Gotta spy on the Dems or we might loose the election.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Who is checking on these people to insure that some right-wing

hide-behind-the-cross, wrapped-in-the-flag, good ole boy, isn't passing on information to his networks on people like us?

[rosesaylavee]

11. Impeach. Them. Now.

Waiting will only allow them to do more damage.

[ThomWV]

12. It tells me that they have cut a deal to give the Telecoms Immunity

Either that or they gave the companies warrants for the tapping they are doing. The companies would not continue with illegal activity if they did not know they were going to be immunized or that what they were doing was legal, i.e., with warrant.

[yy4me]

13. How many believe they were "off"? n/t

[swag]

14. Congress didn't shutdown the wiretaps

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/02/14/fisa_101/index.html

FISA and the Protect America Act both equally allow eavesdropping on the Terrorists Who Want to Kill Us. The material difference is that FISA requires warrants for eavesdropping on Americans (after the fact, if necessary) while the Protect America Act allows the President to eavesdrop on any Americans without having any oversight at all. The difference does not relate to the ability to eavesdrop on the Terrorists but on the nature and level of oversight from that eavsdropping. Moreover, the FISA Court is and always has been a rubber-stamping tribunal that does not ever block any surveillance on any suspected Terrorists.

Thus, we're not all going to die under FISA. We're not "going dark." FISA is a modern law that was re-written at George Bush's direction and which he himself said allowed for full surveillance on all of the evil Terrorists and all of their complex, super-modern means of communications. None of this has anything to do with the Government's ability to listen in When Osama Calls. It is only about whether the nation's largest telecoms will have pending lawsuits, brought by their customers for breaking the law, dismissed by Congress. Is that really so hard to understand and explain?

[Hailtothechimp]

15. Not with the spineless congress we have now.

Nancy is the gate keeper, and Steny her loyal poodle, and they just don't have the stomach for it. So there ya go.

[samplegirl]

16. Let's not forget to thank these good people

Here is a list of senators who voted for immunity for teleco.

Bayh (D-IN)
Carper (D-DE)
Conrad (D-ND)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Webb (D-VA)
Clinton (D-NY) {not voting helps the majority}

[kpete]

17. White House backtracks on claims of lost intelligence

White House backtracks on claims of lost intelligence

Hours after chiding Congress for not finishing a wiretapping bill and leaving the nation 'vulnerable to terrorist attack,' officials acknowledge all requested information is being received.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-intel24feb24,0,3149506.story

[formercia]

18. They have 72 hours to get a FISA warrant

so, their moaning about missing intel is bull.

[Canuckistanian]

19. It's pretty bad when the Justice Dept. is a co-conspirator

The nation is now OFFICIALLY lawless.

What good is Congress, when the laws they pass are ignored by the highest law enforcement authority?

If you're being spied on, you have NO recourse, no redress of injustices.

Impeach.

[tom_paine]

24. DOJ is the Gestapo, in terms of breaking laws and colluding with State Criminals

Wait for the other shoe to drop.

[L. Coyote]

20. Just curious, "Can anyone find anyone at all who still believes these liars?"

excepting their co-conspirators getting paychecks, getting paid to pretend to believe them, of course :rofl:

[angstlessk]

22. How do they know what was 'missed'??? if they know what is missed....

they already know what they need to know before the telecoms get into the bidness of spying? in other words...TELECOMS ARE NOT NEEDED FOR SPYING!!!!

[Kablooie]

25. Oh come on. Of COURSE he's using wiretaps. Nixon pioneered the technique for him.

Why would he discard a perfectly useful way to spy on the Democrats during a presidential election?

He has to use every technique in his command to ensure that a Republican is our next president. It will be a challenge but I'm sure he'll be successful at pulling it off. He's a masterful president that always gets his way and this next election will not be an exeception.

:sarcasm:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

28. In other words... we are now a lawless nation and the Constitution is null and void.

[Wizard777]

29. No they will still put YOU in jail forever and 1 year for spitting on the sidewalk.

They have only obsolved the president of all legal responsibility. Congress will probably obsolve themselves next. Then start passing laws making jay walking a capitol offence. Welcome to Utopia.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

30. Yes, A Fascist's nirvana. Yay.

This is a black day for me.

[kentuck]

31. And here's what they didn't say...

The President doesn't have to follow the law if he disagrees with it. He is paying big bucks to these people to help him break the law and they want retroactive immunity. Damn them to hell!

[Rex]

32. Impeachment? Only if you get a blowjob, any real criminal activity

need not apply. Thanks and have a great day!

[crimsonblue]

35. Looks like they got someone at OLC to write up a new OP

They only way that warrantless wiretapping would be legal now is if someone in the DOJ Office of Legal Council made it so. I am extremely surprised that the Telco's agreed to continue wiretapping without warrants, and that tells me one of two things.

The Telcomms got one the following in return for unrestricted access:

1. They signed agreements with the Feds, transferring legal liability to the Gov, thus making them good faith participants, and therefore lawsuit immune

2. The Telcomms were promised pardons by Dubya. Since there is long established precedent of Corporations being people (a great oymoron), Dubya can pardon AT&T, Verizon, et al. He can even technically pardon himself, even though that has never been tested.


The Telcomms are not idiots and they do not have idiot lawyers. They would NOT cooperate unless there was some sort of back alley deal... Gotta love our government in action!