Govt. May Have Massive Surveillance Program For Use In ‘National Emergency,’ 8 Million ‘Potential Suspects’
Govt. May Have Massive Surveillance Program For Use In ‘National Emergency,’ 8 Million ‘Potential Suspects’
Last year, former deputy attorney general James Comey revealed that in 2004, he refused to “certify” the legality of certain aspects of the National Security Agency (NSA) spy program. Comey witnessed Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card try to force a bed-ridden John Ashcroft to approve the program. Comey, however, did not publicly give specifics as to what program he opposed.
CAP’s Peter Swire wrote on ThinkProgress at the time that Comey’s testimony implied that “other programs exist for domestic spying” outside of the NSA program. Radar’s Christopher Ketcham suggests that another spy program does exist: “Main Core,” a program that authorizes “computer searches through massive [unspecified] electronic databases” in order to discover “potential threats” in the event of a “national emergency”:
According to a senior government official…”There exists a database of Americans, who, often for the slightest and most trivial reason, are considered unfriendly, and who, in a time of panic, might be incarcerated. The database can identify and locate perceived ‘enemies of the state’ almost instantaneously.” … One knowledgeable source claims that 8 million Americans are now listed in Main Core as potentially suspect. In the event of a national emergency, these people could be subject to everything from heightened surveillance and tracking to direct questioning and possibly even detention.
These so-called “Continuity of Governance” plans, Radar notes, “are shrouded in extreme secrecy, effectively unregulated by Congress or the courts.” “Main Core is the table of contents for all the illegal information that the U.S. government has [compiled] on specific targets,” said a former military operative. Furthermore, the NSA domestic surveillance program reportedly “suppl[ies] data to Main Core.”
According to Radar, a “number of former government employees and intelligence sources with independent knowledge of domestic surveillance operations” say Main Core is strikingly similar to what Comey refused to authorize at Ashcroft’s bedside:
[T]he program that caused the flap between Comey and the White House was related to a database of Americans who might be considered potential threats in the event of a national emergency. Sources familiar with the program say that the government’s data gathering has been overzealous and probably conducted in violation of federal law and the protection from unreasonable search and seizure guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment.
“We are at the edge of a cliff and we’re about to fall off,” said constitutional lawyer and former Reagan administration official Bruce Fein. “To a national emergency planner, everybody looks like a danger to stability.”
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Another day, another clear violation of law for this WH. I’ve lost count. What the hell. Nothing will be done about it, anyway.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:42 pmThe Chimpy administration ; returning us to the “Wild West” days of lawlessness ……………
May 20th, 2008 at 3:45 pmThe Continuity of Government (COG) programs were housed at FEMA until the creation of DHS.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:46 pmWe’ve known about this. It’s a matter of getting the word out and prosecuting the bad guys.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:46 pmUntil the democrats get the balls to do their job of oversight, etc., and start holding criminals responsible for crimes, they deserve as much criticism as the incompetent, lying US Constitution hating mofos in the WH.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:47 pmThis is absolutely sickening. These scared little punks are afraid of their own citizens. Paranoid much?
I am sure the nanlichis are on the list, probably with some very good company. Like all the non-trolls here. It will be great to meet you all face to face in Gitmo and share stories about the good old days with Venereal Venus and Jake.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:48 pmI have NO doubt that my name would be on that list. My postings here, and at Kos would make me eligible for ‘enemy’ status.
Come and get me, you gutless pigs.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:49 pmGosh!!!! They have all these records, but manage to loose their e-mail records on crucial dates linked to their criminal activities…
May 20th, 2008 at 3:50 pmThe pieces are starting to fall together, folks — they’re ramping up the sabre rattling against Iran, then will launch the Bush Memorial War against Iran, and then will arrest all of the progressive bloggers as enemies of the State. Thereby completing the conversion of the USA to a fascist theocratic kingdom overseen by the Rovian version of a Politburo.
Sounds more and more like “V for Vendetta” every day…
May 20th, 2008 at 3:50 pmI know I’m on the list. I wonder how many House and Senate members are on the list.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:50 pmnanlichi Says:
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This is absolutely sickening. These scared little punks are afraid of their own citizens. Paranoid much?
I am sure the nanlichis are on the list, probably with some very good company. Like all the non-trolls here. It will be great to meet you all face to face in Gitmo and share stories about the good old days with Venereal Venus and Jake.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
The US government , especially this current criminal administration , should be afraid of us ; we are the United States of America.
They are not …………….
:When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”
Thomas Jefferson
May 20th, 2008 at 3:51 pmSources familiar with the program say that the government’s data gathering has been overzealous and probably conducted in violation of federal law and the protection from unreasonable search and seizure guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment.
No sh*t, Sherlock.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:56 pmThe US is gone…Done. Kaput. Nicely done neocons. Mission Accomplished.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:56 pmnanlichi says:
I am sure the nanlichis are on the list, probably with some very good company.
RUCerious Says:
I have NO doubt that my name would be on that list.
WOW! I’m proud of this company!
My name and address were written down, in 2000, by some Secret Service agents at a Bush/Cheney appearance in Joliet, IL.
They didn’t like me wearing a mask of Newt Gingrich, carrying a sign that read “will work for food or Cabinet position” (it was soon after he slithered away, after affair #354). Man, if I knew then what I know now………it frightens me to think of what I might have done.
Oh well…
LOKIDOG
PROUD ENEMY OF THE STATE SINCE 2000
May 20th, 2008 at 3:58 pmMe?
On the list. I’ve actually participated in protest marches.
See ya in Gitmo, kids.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:58 pmLook at it this way: at least the government isn’t on our backs anymore.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:01 pmDon’t tell me that this administration hasn’t taken whole pages from Stalin, and from Goebbels, Himmler, Goering, and the Austrian cpl. to change our Republic to a state well on its way to being fascist/Stalinist or a very nice mix of them all.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:05 pmThe Third Reich called it preventative custody , people who have not committed a crime against the state, but who might do so in the future.
We are on the road to Auschwitz
May 20th, 2008 at 4:06 pm“One knowledgeable source claims that 8 million Americans are now listed in Main Core as potentially suspect.”
…including everyone who posts on this site, I suspect.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:08 pmjust the Usual 8 Million Suspects
May 20th, 2008 at 4:08 pmJake will get the Medal of Honor for compiling his Ignore List.
Have you, or anyone you know, ever bought a song by Rage Against The Machine? You have? Well, well mister. Come along, we have something very special for you.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:09 pmThis is precisely why every American male over 21 should own a .30 caliber rifle (G3, or Fn/FAL, or MI) and maintian 500 rds of ammunition.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:11 pmAll TP readers and commenters are on this list. We are the wrong kind of patriots.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:11 pmbiwee; I have an AR-15, a M-1 Carbine, and an AK-47, with LOTS of ammo.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:13 pmSachem Says:
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All TP readers and commenters are on this list. We are the wrong kind of patriots.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
There is only 1 kind of patriot …………….
May 20th, 2008 at 4:14 pmRUCerious Says:
I have NO doubt that my name would be on that list. My postings here, and at Kos would make me eligible for ‘enemy’ status.
May 20th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
_______
Hell yeah! I’d better be on there as well. I’ve criticized U.S. foreign policy at least a dozen times. If that doesn’t make me a terrorist, I don’t know what will!
May 20th, 2008 at 4:15 pmHeil Hitler.
Where are the trolls?
May 20th, 2008 at 4:15 pmHey, do you think they’ll put all us TP’ers in the same cell block? I’m afraid I’m gonna get tossed in with a bunch of Kossacks I don’t know.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:17 pmI’m looking forward to my “swimming lessons” via waterboarding , and the “comforts” that Guantanamo Bay has to offer………..
May 20th, 2008 at 4:19 pmThe entire article is worth reading. If we get attacked again you and I could very well have visitors at our homes.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:19 pmSorry, but I feel I am already in a slow-motion freefall sometimes. God I hope the next administration can clean some of this up and send the lot of them to hard labor.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:20 pmThis could be good news. Many on the right are as freaked out about privacy rights and government intrusion as we are. This could open their eyes about what the government they supported is doing.
When they catch me I will talk real slow during the interrogation. Give the other 7,999,999 of you a chance to make a break for it.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:22 pmWhen can we start making shit up and ratting other people out for the shit we make up about them?
May 20th, 2008 at 4:23 pmThe Bush Admin and company actually think that 2.7% of the American population is a threat to the nation
Very interesting. Remember all of those who thought that the Conspiration Theorists were all a bunch of loonies? non-patriots? terrorist symapthizers?
Who’s right now?
May 20th, 2008 at 4:27 pmSo we have 8 million terrorists in the country, another million or so on our flight ‘watch list’. That is a lot of people, who are now considered ‘terrorists’ by the incompetent Bush administration. I bet Cheney or Addington are not on either list. Nice country we have here.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:36 pmSachem Says:
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All TP readers and commenters are on this list. We are the wrong kind of patriots.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:11 pm Recommend (0) | Report Abuse
MCMetal Says:
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I’m looking forward to my “swimming lessons” via waterboarding , and the “comforts” that Guantanamo Bay has to offer………..
May 20th, 2008 at 4:19 pm Recommend (0) | Report Abuse
May 20th, 2008 at 4:42 pmWe know who our enemies are Pryttyboy, and I would include chympy leghumpers like yourself amongst them.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:44 pmI wonder who the next Mc Carthy will be for our generation?
May 20th, 2008 at 4:44 pmThese so-called “Continuity of Governance” plans, Radar notes, “are shrouded in extreme secrecy, effectively unregulated by Congress or the courts.”
Any bets Blackwater, Halliburton and KBR have access to this stuff?
May 20th, 2008 at 4:46 pmPrytania Says:
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Sachem Says:
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All TP readers and commenters are on this list. We are the wrong kind of patriots.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:11 pm Recommend (0) | Report Abuse
MCMetal Says:
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I’m looking forward to my “swimming lessons” via waterboarding , and the “comforts” that Guantanamo Bay has to offer………..
May 20th, 2008 at 4:19 pm Recommend (0) | Report Abuse
After these post, I suggest TP rename this site to DQ-DramaQueens.org.
I find it very amusing that most of you believe in your self absorbed egotistical minds that you are somehow an enemy of the state, just for voicing your opinions (hatred) on a blog. You are not that important. Your views are not that important enough to have you questioned by the local dog catcher. You are mocked and made fun of by most of society for being the lunatic fringe of the democrat party. The majority of your own party do not understand you, yet you believe that you will be thrown in jail and waterboarded because you are the enemy. You are not the bad guys. But is funny how you think you are. It proves you have no idea who our enemies are.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Nice post by one of the 19% Chimpy Adoration Brigade , who still support the worst president in US history .
After the ‘04 presidential election , headlines around the planet screamed of the idiocy of the purported 60 million Americans stupid enough to vote for Chimpy’s re-election ; you are part of that dwindling group , who are still blindly , stupidly and stubbornly insistent of the retarded simian’s non-existent “greatness” , regardless of overwhelming evidence that debunks that delusional thought.
You and the rest of your useless , imbecilic and delusional ilk will be treated disdainfully and with outright scorn by future American generations forever afterwards ; and you all are truly deserving of it……………..
May 20th, 2008 at 4:52 pmI wonder how long I’ll be able to withstand the torture before I give up my password to this site :)~
May 20th, 2008 at 4:52 pmAccording to a senior government official…”There exists a database of Americans, who, often for the slightest and most trivial reason, are considered unfriendly, and who, in a time of panic, might be incarcerated.
*********************************************************
Ahhhhhhhhh…now it’s clear why KBR was given that contract to build those “relocation facilities” here in the United States. It seems fairly likely that this is where the victims — yes, victims — of Main Core would be housed.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:55 pmI wonder who the next Mc Carthy will be for our generation?
Joe Lieberman?
May 20th, 2008 at 4:56 pmI wonder who the next Mc Carthy will be for our generation?
Aryan Fleischer?
May 20th, 2008 at 4:57 pmI vote that anyone over 50 gets the bottom bunk :)~
May 20th, 2008 at 5:00 pmThis story will be ignored in favor of Ted Kennedy’s brain tumor. The corporate media will bury this with the Pentagon Propaganda story.
May 20th, 2008 at 5:01 pmWill we get free health care like they do at Gitmo?
May 20th, 2008 at 5:01 pmWhat kind of sick fck pines for McCarthy?
Oh, never mind, my bad, it’s Prycktania.
May 20th, 2008 at 5:03 pmThe Republican Party is the Nazi Party. Pass the word.
May 20th, 2008 at 5:08 pmPrytania Says:
I find it very amusing that most of you believe in your self absorbed egotistical minds that you are somehow an enemy of the state.
It proves you have no idea who our enemies are.
—-
What I find very amusing is that you seem to believe that your worldview is somehow the correct one. It comes off as a self absorbed egotistical dillusion.
So since you seem to have granted yourself guru status, just who are my enemies?
May 20th, 2008 at 5:12 pmThe only ones who should be on that list are the current members of the Bush Administration and their Zionist and Energy Cartel cronies.
May 20th, 2008 at 5:21 pmHere’s another Abraham Lincoln quote. I hope the American People can live up to it: ‘I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”
May 20th, 2008 at 5:44 pmImpeach Cheney and Bush and Save the Constitution!
Abu Ben Hussein Leporello.
Reminds me of someone I knew as a kid back in the ’80’s. I met up with him in the late ’90’s and ask what he was up to. He said he’d joined the army and was in military police. I said, Oh, an MP. He said, No, military police. We did Waco.
May 20th, 2008 at 5:48 pmHey, guess what?
May 20th, 2008 at 6:05 pmIf it’s made it into the news, it’s too late to do anything about it.
from here on, it’s just a matter of nomenclature.
whos’ gonna be able to attest that, should it be claimed that such files were purged, such a purge was indeed accojmmplished and that no remnants or back-ups remained?
If we, the people, know about it, it’s because they, the stassi, no longer care that we should find out…
The Times Online reported on Britain’s version of Big Brother:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/ tol/ business/ industry_sectors/ telecoms/ article3965033.ece
It sounds similar to the program mentioned in this piece.
May 20th, 2008 at 6:32 pmLet’s not kid ourselves. Those of us that wrote of unprovoked unwise war and the war crimes were derided as bleeding heart softies hell bent on seeing our cities knocked down by hate filed ‘mooslamofascists’.
We are too tired for outrage and beyond capacity to be surprised by der chimpy. But the end is in sight and Barack will win. And then we may find out more of what has really happened. What we do know is this: Cheney learned the lesson of Watergate –> own the DoJ and access to the truth is blocked. It is unclear how this will unravel, whether Cheney will bomb Iran and all the other unknowables.
But what we do know is that like it or not, we are all in this together, and the ignorant are the baggage we must carry with us. So to all the Neaderthals that browse these truth loving pages, suck it up, your time in power is over.
May 20th, 2008 at 6:38 pmThe Radar article stated:
… it’s rare to hear a voice like that of Senator Frank Church, who in the 1970s led the explosive investigations into U.S. domestic intelligence crimes that prompted the very reforms now being eroded. “The technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny,” Church pointed out in 1975. “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.”
May 20th, 2008 at 6:44 pmCombine this statement with the recent announcement of the sale of Booz, Allen & Hamilton’s government consulting and intelligence services division to the infamous Carlyle Group. What would a Frank Church say about that development?
Prytania Says:
I wonder who the next Mc Carthy will be for our generation?
If you’re referring to Charlie, the blockhead in chief fits the bill.
May 20th, 2008 at 7:17 pmAnybody think Bush will allow another terrorist attack before he goes back to Crawford, just so he can take his experiment in fascism to another level and to try to skew the election to the McCain and the GOP?
May 20th, 2008 at 7:23 pmMC Metal, that’s a really awesome handle. The reference to a hard, unyielding, supermasculine substance no doubt does the same for you that “Stalin” did for Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. I feel very comforted that none of us here would attract any attention. There’s certainly no record of completely innocent foreign nationals being deemed terrorists or subversives by U.S. security personnel, and no doubt that sort of thing would never happen to people who believe that Richard Cheney is a war criminal who should be arrested, tried, convicted, and imprisoned. Nope, there’s no reason to think that at all.
May 20th, 2008 at 7:51 pmIt is so obvious and predictable that whenever a rock is turned over about what Bushco is actually doing, the trolls show up.
“After these post, I suggest TP rename this site to DQ-DramaQueens.org.”
“I’m looking forward to my “swimming lessons” via waterboarding , and the “comforts” that Guantanamo Bay has to offer………..”
Turning you on? How much do you make per post?
I guess you are counting on not being detained. Could be, someday, the color of your hair or your shirt, or your name, or your associates might make you suspect. Or you are the wrong flavor of Christian, or you live at a certain address. or you once went to any other country in the world. don’t you get it? Oh, I forgot. You don’t have a brain.
May 20th, 2008 at 8:59 pm8 millions potential suspects? So the short list would be people who are NOT on the Potential Suspect list. Once we know who the selected few are, everyone else goes to Gitmo? and real Americans will be safe.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:10 am.
One of the definitions to what it means to be an American is the FREEDOM to be safe and secure form unwarranted searches; The FREEDOM from a form of Government that seeks to pry into the private lives of it’s citizenry; The FREEDOM FROM TYRANNY!
R E M E M B E R:
THEY(sic) HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOMS…
And so THEY(sic) engage in debates and scheme ways to undermine those very freedoms.
.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:49 am.
Read:
So,
In America, I should NOT exercise my FREEDOM of protest as that will get me sent to a DETENTION camp…? REALLY… ?
Sieg Heil!
.
May 21st, 2008 at 1:04 amGiven the criteria that these Rethuglicans would consider as “enemy of the state,” I’m more than a little disappointed that there are only 8 million on the list.
Folks, we have a LOT of work to do.
We have to get that number up to around 250 Million, and QUICKLY.
After all, if you support the ACLU, support the UN, support the Constitution of the United States, question in any way the validity of the last two Presidential elections, or have ever spoken or written a word that questioned the absolute and total authority and correctness of anything and everything the Administration has said and done, then you are on that list.
We really DO need to multiply that list by 50.
Charlie
P.S. I’ll take the top bunk, if I can have an extra pillow.
May 21st, 2008 at 4:52 pmSorry y’all, I don’t happen to think this is funny. Willyloman makes a point here.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:14 pmEveryone here seems to be taking this way too serious. This is mostly media hype. Why does everyone believe the media? The article is just sensationalizing a story to make more people hate the government. During hurricane Katrina a bunch of gang-banging thugs were running rampant throughout New Orleans committing thefts, assaults, homicides, rapes etc. When help arrived for stranded hurricane victims, these thugs shot at the rescuers because they did not want the chaos to end. The rescuers were the first sign that civilization was returning which meant the thugs could not continue their crime spree unhindered. I am all for a list because if an emergency occurs, I myself would appreciate people like the thugs in New Orleans being off the streets. How many of you people would want a band of criminals busting into your house during an emergency to steal your food and water, rape your wife and children, and then kill you all? I don’t, so make that list and get all the people off the street who are criminals and anti-government ruby ridge freaks. –Just my two cents.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:26 amI was researching chemtrails which led to the upcoming north american union and the currency the Amero. I have been under constant surveillance since that time. I have been chased, harassed, etc. I am a christian, mother and RN and sure do not see myself as a threat to this once great nation. Check out Critical Intervention Services website. I followed one of the cars that monitors me to their building. They are gearing up for marshal law. Spread the word and Godspeed. Ann
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:28 amI was researching chemtrails which led to the upcoming north american union and the currency the Amero. I have been under constant surveillance since that time. I have been chased, harassed, etc. I am a christian, mother and RN and sure do not see myself as a threat to this once great nation. Check out Critical Intervention Services website. I followed one of the cars that monitors me to their building. They are gearing up for marshal law. Spread the word and Godspeed. Ann
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:28 amOnce you open your eyes - when the veil is lifted - you will see reality. Then you will understand what “insane” is all about. Start with PNAC’s “New Pearl Harbor” and “Dialectic”. Propagandists will swing in the revolution too. And it is coming. BIG TIME. Do you think all the retired brass will see a fascist regime here? Or let us nuke Iran and start a war with Russia? That is insanity brothers and sisters…
911 was an inside job. We will have the “Amero” not the dollar in 2 years. They are planning a depression to do that. Dictatorship soon after. Do not get chipped for “your safety” idiots. I will not support a fascist state. I had 12 ancestors fight in the Revolution…
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:19 amtalk about a revolution-buzz-kill.
June 19th, 2008 at 2:45 pm