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By Peter Brooks
$19.95
 . '/' . substr('9780374298784',-6,3) . '/' . '9780374298784' . '.jpg'; ?>)
By Marilynne Robinson
$24.00
$35
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smh.com.au
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The Education Department has admitted to searching through millions of student loan records on behalf of the FBI. The government says the operation, known as ?Project Strike Back,? was meant to uncover information on individuals allegedly related to terror investigations.
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Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, sent a “sharply worded letter” to Bush warning him that he may have violated the law by keeping Congress in the dark on several unnamed intelligence programs, and that Bush risked losing GOP support on national security matters.
All of a sudden, it’s not just predictable GOP’ers like Arlen Specter who are rattling the saber on Bush’s excessive secrecy. Hoekstra was, until now, a hard-core Bushie. Seems there’s just so much alienation your friends will take before they lash out at you in public. Make no mistake: Bush values loyalty above everything else. That Hoekstra was willing to publicly cross the president says A LOT.
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The newspaper originally reported that AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon have been providing phone call data to the NSA. But now USA Today says it can’t confirm that either BellSouth or Verizon provided the data. (AT&T definitely appears to have done so.)
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From Salon.com
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Two former AT&T workers have told Salon that the telecom company has maintained a secret, highly secured room in a St. Louis network operations center where, the two workers were told, employees have been “monitoring network traffic.” Salon’s security experts say the operation has all the hallmarks of an NSA operation.
Summary
Full story (Reg. or ad-watching req’d.)
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Sen. Arlen Specter went on TV to vehemently deny a Washington Post report that he had proposed legislation which included blanket amnesty for everyone involved with Bush’s warrantless spying. But lawyer Glenn Greenwald has apparently proved that the Post was right in its report—and the Specter had lied about it.
Posted on Jun 17, 2006
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History will surely boggle at this one: The architect of the NSA’s domestic spying program has been made the head of the CIA. And the vote was 78-15.
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The attorney general, in defending the NSA’s collection of millions of U.S. phone records, claims it is constitutional—but conveniently ignores the fact that it appears to be illegal.
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By Molly Ivins — “Looking at the wreckage of the Bush administration leaves one with the depressed query, ‘Now what?’ ”
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Via Business Week, we learn that an entire niche industry has sprung up to provide the government with commercially purchased telecommunications records that the government isn’t allowed to purchase itself. (TPM Muckraker has a good sum-up.)
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By Andy Borowitz — The satirist tells us that Bush, feeling low as he contemplates his public approval rating, has turned to a man who knows a thing or two about numbers.
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gregpalast.com
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When the government can’t legally dig up your medical records, call histories and voter registration information, it turns to the data mining company ChoicePoint—which has sucked up over $1 billion in federal contracts.
Do. Not. Miss. this article on how the frightening industry of data mining works.
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“The Daily Show” host tees off on the recent report of the NSA’s phone call database. “It turns out that there was one specific type of domestic call the government was keeping tabs on. All of them.”
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The fiery N.Y. Times columnist returns from book leave with an attack on the real “traitors” in America: a White House that has compounded lies with incompetence to spy on Americans, run “black site” Eastern European prisons and prosecute an unjust war.
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The telecom giant faces two suits—one for $20 billion, another for $5 billion—for handing over customers’ phone records to the NSA.
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From AmericaBlog
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The logo above appears on T-shirts being sold by AmericaBlog. Be the first on your block to get one!
Posted on May 12, 2006
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The Sept. 11 attacks “did not give the president the limitless power he now claims to intrude on the private communications of the American people,” the N.Y. Times says in an editorial about the NSA spying story.
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From ThinkProgress
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The president claims that the program activities “strictly target Al Qaeda and their known affiliates,” despite USA Today’s claim that the NSA has pored over the records of tens of millions of Americans.
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hardnewsnow.com
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“We’re not mining or trolling though the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans,’’ Bush says, without directly addressing the NSA program reported in USA Today.
Meanwhile, GOP Sen. Arlen Specter demands that phone company executives testify before Congress about the data they provided to the NSA.
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“The NSA’s gathering of phone call records of millions of Americans is “something that would make the late Leonid Brezhnev proud of Bush—and [Gen.] Michael Hayden, the Pentagon apparatchik, who saw it through,” Buzzflash writes in an editorial.
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From NSA.gov
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By Robert Scheer — UPDATE: Michael V. Hayden, nominated by President Bush to head the CIA, is the man responsible for the most extensive attack ever on the privacy of U.S. citizens.
While head of the NSA, he oversaw the program that recorded the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans.
Want to take action? Check out StopHayden.org (includes video proof that Hayden is smugly incorrect about the privacy foundation of the Fourth Amendment).
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The Justice Dept. pored through the bank, library or telecom records of 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents—without a court’s approval. Apparently this was legal—it’s just the first time the FBI is publicly disclosing hard numbers.
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From Amazon.com
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Constitutional lawyer and blogger Glenn Greenwald’s book “How Would a Patriot Act” has hit No. 1 on the online retailers’ list. Greenwald attacks the president for abusing the Constitution and setting himself up as a monarch.
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From mundanesounds.com
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OK, OK, it’s not time to get hysterical yet. This one doesn’t look likely to pass, but…
Four senators have introduced a bill that would allow the NSA to eavesdrop, sans warrant, for up to 45 days. GOP Sen. Arlen Specter objected, saying the law would allow government to “do whatever the hell it wants.”
Oh. Right. What a departure that would be.
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From nndb.com
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Think Progress puts together an in-depth cheat sheet on all the ways Roberts has shrunk from his responsibilities as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Posted on Mar 9, 2006
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An all-out White House lobbying campaign has dramatically slowed an investigation into Bush’s spying program and may eventually kill it.
The White House may have botched Cheney’s response to the hunting incident, but the administration sure hasn’t lost its touch when it comes to leaning on moderate Republicans (and even Democrats) to rally around the president. Call your senators—especially Olympia Snowe of Maine—and urge them not to cave in to political pressure.
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The former president criticizes “political shots” taken at his son by former President Jimmy Carter and the Rev. Joseph Lowery during the Coretta Scott King funeral last week. Bush defends the administration’s domestic spying program, tritely invoking 9/11 as a blanket justification for trampling constitutional freedoms. Story | Listen Interview.
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From Comedy Central via Salon.com
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Leahy, exasperated at Alberto Gonzales’ refusal to answer questions about Bush’s spying program, lets rip a Jon Stewart-quality zinger: “Of course, Mr. Attorney General, I forgot. You can’t answer any questions that might be relevant to this.” | video
Posted on Feb 10, 2006
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By Molly Ivins — Can impeachment heal the malady of executive privilege and wiretapping? It has before.
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Bush attends the services of Coretta Scott King while simultaneously pressing on with a warrantless spying program. | story
Forty years ago, the FBI used illegal wiretaps in an attempt to blackmail King’s husband. | Truthdig files
Plus a change…
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From thinkprogress.com
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That’s the Republican chair of the Judiciary Committee reacting to the attorney general’s attempts to explain how spying without warrants is, in fact, legal. Check out the AG’s explanation of why Bush earlier said that spying without warrants is, in fact, illegal: “The President is not a lawyer.”
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From moveon.org via crooksandliars.com
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Watch the current president morph into the former president in this new video advertisement from the liberal advocacy group. | video
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Walter Pincus, one of the best-informed national security reporters in the country, offers a video critique of the Senate appearance of the nation’s new spy chief. | video
Posted on Feb 3, 2006
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The Gray Lady, in an editorial, eviscerates Bush’s defense of his spying program, point by point. | editorial
Posted on Jan 29, 2006
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Paul Conrad
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The White House rejected a 2002 Senate proposal to ease surveillance warrant restrictions, saying such a move would probably be unconstitutional. The Washington Post picks up the story blazed by Glenn Greenwald.
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Charlie Riedel / AP
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The president is now calling it the “Terrorist Surveillance Program.” | story
OK, Mr. Bush, but what about the non-terrorists being swept up in your nets? Not that we’re surprised by the new moniker; this is the guy who legalized an increase in air pollution and called it “Clear Skies,” and labeled a tree-slashing program “Healthy Forests.”
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Fox News / via Think Progress
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Think Progress notes that the Arizona senator is the latest in a long list of Republican conservatives who have expressed strong doubts about the program’s legality. | blog
Crooks and Liars has the video.
Posted on Jan 23, 2006
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The transcript of the Al Gore speech that’s got everyone talking—as well as links to C-SPAN’s downloadable video of the event.
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Susan Walsh / AP
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The former VP, hot and bothered, says a special prosecutor should investigate Bush’s spy program. | story or transcript
The NYT reports that even the former FBI director had qualms about the legality of the spying. | story
Meanwhile, the ACLU and another group sue Bush over his wiretapping. | story
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From www.isoc.org
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The NSA began its data-mining activities early in 2001. This disclosure contradicts the president’s claim about the program being a product of his post-9/11 “smoke ‘em out” mind-set. | story
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Bush now says he welcomes a hearing on domestic spying—while again warning Americans to watch what they say. | story
Posted on Jan 11, 2006
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By Blair Golson An intense debate has been raging on Op-Ed pages and in the blogosphere over the legality of President Bush’s warrantless domestic surveillance program. What follows is a roundup of some of the most influential, talked-about and linked-to analyses.
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