Trust Us! We Won't Abuse the Power You've Given Us... Ha! Ha! Fingers Crossed!

Yet another reason we might want to change up the 'old guard' in Washington this election. You know, that "freedom thing" that we might want to keep around for all of us and our children. This repost from ABC News.

-Maltok 5


Exclusive: Inside Account of U.S. Eavesdropping on Americans
U.S. Officers' "Phone Sex" Intercepted; Senate Demanding Answers
By BRIAN ROSS, VIC WALTER, and ANNA SCHECTER
Oct. 9, 2008

Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia.
Intercept operators allege the NSA is listening to citizens' phone calls.

Watch the video.

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), called the allegations "extremely disturbing" and said the committee has begun its own examination.

"We have requested all relevant information from the Bush Administration," Rockefeller said Thursday. "The Committee will take whatever action is necessary."

"These were just really everyday, average, ordinary Americans who happened to be in the Middle East, in our area of intercept and happened to be making these phone calls on satellite phones," said Adrienne Kinne, a 31-year old US Army Reserves Arab linguist assigned to a special military program at the NSA's Back Hall at Fort Gordon from November 2001 to 2003.

Kinne described the contents of the calls as "personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism." [more]

Throwing Our Freedoms Out the Window??

This great opinion piece from a man with a unique perspective on America. He's a Brit who's been in the US for many years and who three years ago took a solemn oath and was proclaimed a citizen of this country. He has a cool blog, too.
-Maltok 5

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it." - Mark Twain

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

The Eagle Has Landed (maybe for good)

Today the Senate passed Bush's bill extending the government's power to eavesdrop on it's citizens & granting immunity to the telco companies who assisted in illegal surveillance. Obviously the news & blogs are all over this with what appears to be pretty consistent condemnation of the bill & the 69 Senators who voted for it, including a certain Presumptive Candidate for President, Barack Obama.

The democrats are running on a platform of Change. But we already have a majority of Democrats in BOTH houses and yet the war continues and the trampling of the 4th Amendment alongside it. Perhaps I'm worrying needlessly, in fact Sen. Bond (R-Mo) claimed that "unless I have al Queda on speed dial I have nothing to fear" This from a government that can't even implement a functional no-fly list.

Three years ago this fall, I stood in a room with 842 others & swore an oath of allegiance to a country that I truly believed represented the highest ideals of freedom & liberty on our planet. It breaks my heart to see small minded, self-serving politicians, their lobbyists & the corporations that support them, trample on the very ideals I stood up for. To wit: “I will from this point forward grant my allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, and to its Laws, defending the Constitution and the Laws from all enemies that attack them.” Seemingly in 2008, defending the Constitution from enemies will serve only to get me wiretapped?

Harry Buttle, Meet Harry Tuttle...

Remember the movie Brazil, the Orwellian dark comedy by Terry Gilliam, where the plot evolved around a mistake in a government machine that ended the life of one man, "Harry Buttle," while leaving the real "terrorist," "Harry Tuttle," (played by Robert DeNiro) free to perform his nefarious deeds of Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning repairs. Well, now we have more evidence that truth is stranger than fiction. Not surprising with this administration. I just hope when they're surveying you, they don't mistake a "T" for a "B."

Sleep well tonight America...
-Maltok 5

Bush Signs Expanded Wiretap Law
By Paula Wolfson White House 10 July 2008

Wolfson report - Download (MP3)
Wolfson report - Listen (MP3)

U.S. President George Bush has signed legislation expanding the government's surveillance powers. VOA's Paula Wolfson reports from the White House the measure also protects telecommunication companies from lawsuits stemming from assistance they provide to help track potential terror suspects.

President Bush (right) speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, 10 July 2008, prior to signing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)

One day after the bill cleared Congress, the president signed it into law.

"Today I am pleased to sign landmark legislation that is vital to the security of our people," he said.

The measure is the most extensive revision of U.S. surveillance law in 30 years. It is designed to enable intelligence agencies to move quickly to monitor communications involving terror suspects, in some cases without a special court warrant.