More Warrantless Searches of Americans.
By on Dec 23rd, 2005 at 2:03 pm
More Warrantless Searches of Americans.
U.S. News reports that the Bush administration “since 9/11 has run a far-reaching, top secret program to monitor radiation levels at over a hundred Muslim sites in the Washington, D.C., area, including mosques, homes, businesses, and warehouses, plus similar sites in at least five other cities.” No search warrants or court orders were ever obtained.
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Last remaining Bush supporter:
http://gorillamask.net/cryfan.shtml
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:07 pmPolice state is advancing. Where are the
Libertarians when you need them?
Big Brother is watching
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:10 pmholy cow. and check out this boston globe article
Wiretaps said to sift all overseas contacts – Vast US effort seen on eavesdropping
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/12/23/wiretaps_said_to_sift_all_overseas_contacts?mode=PF
…”They have a capacity to listen to every overseas phone call,” said Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University, which has obtained documents about the NSA using Freedom of Information Act requests…..
…..But Yale Law School professor Jack Balkin said that Fourth Amendment privacy rights can still be violated without human contact if the NSA stores copies of everyone’s messages, raising the possibility that a human could access them later…”
Highly unlikely in our society which has such great respect for a person’s physical being, human rights and privacy, don’t you think?
THIS is big brother.
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:12 pmWe don’t need no stinking warrants!
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:12 pmLet’s give it up for the small government conservatives!
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:12 pmIsn’t it amazing how laws and courts and congressional oversight have all become tools of the terrorists?
Pathetic.
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:13 pmCouldn’t agree more, Bullsmith.
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:16 pmbushie still doesn’t get it, but someone will EXPLAIN what IMPEACHMENT is, sooner or later. “Hi Bob”..just saying hi to my friend who works for NSA.
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:28 pmHere’s a clip (via C&L) of Bush insisting that all wiretaps require a court order:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/12/23.html#a6451
This is from the horse’s ass. This, plus all of the debunked “Clinton/Carter did it” crap points to one thing – he lied – continues to lie – and should be held accountable for that lie as anyone else should be.
That right-wing types would continue to defend this administration just doesn’t make sense.
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:35 pmBeing familiar with Radiation monitoring devices (I used to work in a Nuclear Physics lab in the sectoin for environmental monitroing). I can see several technologies that can be used to monitor these sites without actually gaining access to the site itself. Whether this is legal without a search warrant is a question that I can’t answer. Given the right equipment environmental monitoring would be possible without accessing the site. However that is equivalent to using IR cameras or something similar to “watch” people inside an apartment through the walls. While it may technically be legal if it is targeted it is probably a breach of the spirit of the constitution.
I would have thought a large network of environmental radiation sensors spread throughout the city in public places would allow for this sort of monitoring without being targetted at any one group. The lack of targetting would be a much better security solution as it would have the potential to stop any terrorist from using any location to gather enough material to create a dirty bomb.
Z.
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:38 pmThat anyone would defend this behaviour makes no sense to me.
Z.
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:40 pmDubya’s fear of “terrorists” borders on paranoid delusion.
It is only exceeded by his fear of the American public, which isn’t nearly as irrational.
He thinks like a damaged drunk — frightened, indignant, blaming everyone else, rationalizing every petty vice and major error. I guess that’s no surprise. Just a damn shame.
If we’re going to have a dictator, better a Caesar than this simpering little Caligula.
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:41 pmTo follow up – it makes sense, if you look at a certain European country in the late 30’s and early 40’s. Create a “boogy-man” (war on terror), insist you need all these new “powers” to combat said “boogy-man”, etc. etc. If, however, you’re one of the “chosen”, things are just fine – if not, too bad.
Many don’t like the comparison to Nazi Germany – but if you study Hitler’s rise to power – there are some very serious parallels. (These things don’t happen overnight – they take time and subtle events where the population is willing to “give up” some rights for the greater cause….)
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:42 pmZ. – Yeah, I agree. I always hate the “well, if you aren’t doing anything wrong, why should you be bothered by being monitored”. To me, it doesn’t matter – I don’t want to think I’m being watched, taped, listened-to, etc without my knowledge. Of course, I would wonder how the people actually doing the monitoring feel about their “peeping-tom” jobs.
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:46 pm#13, because there are always enough people around that can be manipulated into it, hence the need for a written Constitution to stop it.
In other words, we wouldn’t have a Bill of Rights in the first place if we didn’t need it.
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:46 pmVee are doing this to Protect you.
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:50 pm#15: Yep, but like the constitution is really stopping these bozos? That’s the sad part – I’d guess that most of America doesn’t see this as a big issue – they give it a bit sigh of “so what” and go on with their lives. Those who complain or voice concern are those “wacko lefties” – and I’d hardly describe myself as a “wacko leftie”.
Perhaps I should leave a note on my front door – “To the FBI/NSA folks – feel free to search my apartment, but – please re-fold my clothes, and finish washing the dishes in the sink!” :)
On a more serious note – how can those who actually do these taps/searches feel good about themselves? (I mean, while the administration requested these actions, someone had to actually carry them out.)
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:55 pm#16 – Robert: Yup, I feel sooooo protected! heh heh
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:55 pmMrTimPA,
Personally, I find the British traffic monitoring that is due to come online next year and will be supplemented in the future with face recognition to be scary as hell. I’m British, but living in Oregon and I don’t like the idea of tracking all cars wherever they go.
There is a French company that makes an expensive hoodie that seems like it should become much more common in the UK soon…
I would have linked to the white one but it looks too Klan like.
I’m not saying I have anything to hide but do you put letters in envelopes or do you only ever send postcards? While I am not a criminal I use envelopes as I value my privacy.
Z.
December 23rd, 2005 at 3:01 pm#17, I agree that the Constitution and Bill of Rights are meaningless unless they are somehow enforced, perhaps with a quaint ‘Checks and Balances’, but more likely, some sort of either: limiting voting to those that believe in the bill of rights; and/or education. I have posted elsewhere a study at Stanford University where the majority don’t believe in the first amendment.
Also, I heard that most of the FBI agents sent to track the Dems that left TX during the redistricting scam declined to do it. So there are some that will and some that won’t. And of course, Mark Felt.
December 23rd, 2005 at 3:03 pmThe head of the DNC recently received this letter;
Dear Dr. Dean,
Why bother to vote.
The republicans build the voting machines. The republicans write the secret software for the machines. The republicans count and certify the totals, and the machines, built by and for the republicans, allow no auditing.
The man has it right on. This is what has to be changed, and quickly, before November 2006.
December 23rd, 2005 at 3:18 pmThe only thing radioactive around here is me!!
December 23rd, 2005 at 3:28 pmRight on Pablo, now let’s say I ‘take’ your lawnmower. I took it ‘for you own good’ so you wouldn’t hurt yourself. There’s just one little thing, I FORGOT TO ASK AND GET PERMISSION to do this. Bush logic.
December 23rd, 2005 at 3:28 pmZ. (#19) – that’s a scary picture – so this is what the world is coming to. I have nothing to hide either, but that doesn’t mean I want someone else snooping. Nope.
toys: (#20) – I can only hope that this whole wiretap fiasco will stay in the news and the the average American (and others) will wise up. Of course, that doesn’t include Fox News viewers – they’re a lost cause.
December 23rd, 2005 at 3:29 pmwisedup: who needs permission? In the interest of national security, the lawnmower has been moved to an undisclosed location.
December 23rd, 2005 at 3:32 pmIf you were able to sneak that mower through
December 23rd, 2005 at 3:36 pmsecurity, you might be able to take control
of a plane!
If it can be done with nail clippers, surely
a lawn mower should be considered a WMD.
To Gitmo you go enemy combatant!
Excuse me as I have to mow the lawn.
JUST IMAGINE IF THE SCHOOLS AND TEMPLES OF SOME OTHER RELIGIOUS OR ETHNIC GROUP WERE THE GONE INTO WITHOUT WARRANTS…. OH WAIT, WE DON’T NEED TO IMAGINE.
http://www.johndclare.net/Nazi_Germany3_WarsawGhetto.htm
December 23rd, 2005 at 3:56 pmHERE ARE SOME ‘TALKING POINTS’ FOR GEORGE, AND THE REST OF HIS SUPPORTERS IN THE MEDIA WORLD
“In that we deny the principle of parliamentary democracy we strike the strongest blow for the right of the nation to the self-determination of its own life. For in the parliamentary system we see no genuine expression of the nation’s will–a will which cannot logically be anything else than a will to the maintenance of the nation–but we do see a distortion, if not a perversion, of that will. The will of a nation to the self-determination of its being manifests itself most clearly and is of most use when its most capable minds are brought forth. They form the representative leaders of a nation, they alone can be the pride of a nation–certainly never the parliamentary politician who is the product of the ballot box and thinks only in terms of votes”
Nürnberg, September 1, 1933; Völkischer Beobachter, September 2, 1933
“We are enemies of cowardly pacifism because we recognize that according to the laws of nature, struggle is the father of all things. We are enemies of democracy because we recognize that an individual genius represents at all times the best in his people and that he should be the leader. Numbers can never direct the destiny of a people. Only genius can do this”
Kulmbach, February 5, 1928; Völkischer Beobachter, February 9, 1928.
http://www2.dsu.nodak.edu/users/dmeier/Holocaust/hitler.html
December 23rd, 2005 at 4:07 pmMrTimPA, I have been making the same arguments to my friends and family in Illinois. I think I began talking in earnest about it in late 2001. Many thought I was over-reacting.
December 23rd, 2005 at 4:10 pmWhen I think back to my disappointment over the election of 2000, I recall thinking that if we are lucky, maybe it won’t be too bad for the country because he is just a dumb jerk, and we can live with 4 years of embarrassment. That was my optimism showing — five years later, far more than my worst fears are being confirmed.
We MUST remove him from office. He must be impeached.
OR IF YOU PREFER…
Lenin left the building with the following instructions:
“There is no need to disperse the Constituent Assembly: just let them go on chattering as long as they like..”
A prominent Bolshevik, Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov, in a speech approved by Lenin, explained why the Bolsheviks didn’t feel obligated to submit to the democratically elected Constituent Assembly:
“How can you,” he wondered, “appeal to such a concept as the will of the whole people? For a Marxist “the people” is an inconceivable notion: the people does not act as a single unit. The people as a unit is a mere fiction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Constituent_Assembly
December 23rd, 2005 at 4:14 pmDo you think Hitler had guards watching the comings and goings at synagogues?
December 23rd, 2005 at 4:14 pmSo the question I have for the Republican Party ..
Who is man/woman enough to stand up and demand that impeachment of this cabal is the only way to save America from being the dicatorship it has become.
Remember it isn’t the big bright words that bush uses its the chuckle lisping sentences like….If this is was a dicatorship it would be easier and I was the dicator…
always Always listen to the small nonsense sounding words and sentences of bushco cause in those few words you will find the truth of what is going on and how it is to be done.
When bush was running for Cheney’s lackey I said this is our dicator no one was listening . All I heard was but he can run Thot’s, look at his time ,he’s a runner,he’s a christian fuk he’s neither…….
Calling all Good Men and Women to take a stand against Tryanny ,Congress come forth and help your country.
Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death.P.Henry
Facism Will Come To America Wrapped In A Flag Carrying The Cross …….S. Lewis
The Facists Are Coming The Facists are coming ..P.Revere
Ok Ok so he said the RedCoats are coming the republicans wear red and want to turn us into mindless robots….
December 23rd, 2005 at 4:18 pm29: Marie – me too – I managed to get both my parents to vote Democratic in the past election – not like it did much good tho. But, Bush and his cronies have to answer some serious questions – and I’d want direct answers – the C&L video snippit where he claimed that ALL wiretaps require a court order (in 2004) yet he *knew* that wasn’t what was happening is sickening.
There is no defense for his actions – and he and the rest of those involved need to be removed from power – and that includes any dem lackeys who went along with his survailance plans.
December 23rd, 2005 at 4:33 pm#32: I say – at least have hearings and be serious about them. If republicans (and dems) can’t do that, they need to be reminded that 2006 elections are coming – but the word has to get out to the average American that this is a serious issue – but, as I indicated, it’s not likely you’d convince Fox News viewers – they’ve consumed too much kool-aid. And yes, I watch FNS – but, I have my shields up…:)
Happy Holidays to all!
December 23rd, 2005 at 4:37 pm10–that makes sense to me. somehow i dont really mind that they monitored raidation in questionable places. that would seem to be a good thing –logical, direct and safe. It’s the wiretap thing that is sort of over the top. But checking for high levels of radiation? Seems a good home land security type move.
December 23rd, 2005 at 5:32 pmGopher
Read the talking point please. Everything the Bush administration does is wrong!
New Speak requires it.
December 23rd, 2005 at 9:06 pmI am looking forward to the day when Bush steps down and the Democrats take over the White House and Congress. Not because I think they would do a better job, since they have been out of practice of doing anything proactive and visionary for many, many moons but because the silence will be deafening as they ponder, “NOW what do we do?”
I didn’t vote for any of the Bushes, and I am naturally inclined toward a more open and trustworthy kind of leadership. But coming on blogs like this one, and encountering the Hitler stuff, just drives me into the other camp. I’m not sure if it’s the insincerity that gets me, or just the utter stupidity and lack of perspective, but it certainly is off-putting for most of us who are waiting and hoping for some adult conversation in Washington and elsewhere. I certainly am not finding much beyond silly sound bites most places I look.
Silly me. I kind of appreciate that I can walk to the store or go to a ball game or concert without being searched, and without feeling in peril from some fanatical sect member. I’m not at all feeling that my civil liberties, or any my friends’, including the Iranian-born one, are in any significant danger. Even HE (the Iranian) understands why we are doing what we are; why my luggage is probed and the eletronics and health equipment are poked at. Why he is pulled aside for some extra checking more often than I am…. and then goes on his merry way with a smile, like we all are privileged to do.
It’s not that complicated. We are free to go where we want, to do whatever, and to practice whatever religion we want to (or not to practice, as in my case), to make money (legally) however we see fit. What’s the problem folks? What IS the problem? Considering that we are a society that is, in some ways, under attack, I think we’re doing pretty OK on civil liberties. Give me some concrete examples of how we are being trampled and denied this and that and abused and carted away.
December 24th, 2005 at 2:52 amFrom Atrios:
December 24th, 2005 at 11:21 am
[...] Blog Name: Think Progress Article Title: More Warrantless Searches of Americans. U.S. News reports that the Bush administration “since 9/11 has run a far-reaching, top secret program to monitor radiation levels at over a hundred Muslim sites in the Washington, D.C., area, including mosques, homes, businesses, and warehouse… [...]
February 18th, 2006 at 3:24 amHarry Convict
Nice article.
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