Newswire

Restoring the Rule of Law and Constitutional Government

Spying on American Citizens

Restoring the Rule of Law and Constitutional Government
Repeal the PATRIOT Act, End warrantless
domestic spying, Declassify the FISA court.
That we depend on a secret court to uphold peoples’ rights shows the sorry state of civil liberties in this country. Secret courts are for Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, not the U.S. of A. Why not declassify the FISA court? Regular courts handle espionage and organized crime cases by protecting witnesses. The same could be done for surveillance requests. The court’s lack of public accountability has allowed it to become a virtual rubber stamp for whatever administration is in power. Only a handful of the tens of thousands of secret surveillance requests have been denied. This lack of meaningful oversight erodes the checks and balances of our multi-branch government, as created by the Constitution.

Secret Eavesdropping: Courts or Congress Should Take Independent Look
Finally Congress is finding its voice. Members of both parties are calling for investigations of whether the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping on telephone calls that have one foot in the United States and another in a foreign nation is constitutional. That's good, but it's not enough. What must happen now is a full-blown evaluation of the program by someone outside the executive branch. That means either the courts or Congress itself.

Senators Must Exercise Authority On Spying
No member of the Senate is more conservative than Sam Brownback of Kansas - a loyal Republican, an ardent opponent of abortion and, not coincidentally, a presidential hopeful for 2008. As a member of the Judiciary Committee, he has supported President George W. Bush on every one of his court appointments. He is not one to find fault with the administration. And that is why the misgivings he has expressed about the surveillance policies Bush has employed in the war on terror are so striking. Along with three other Republicans and all eight of the committee Democrats, Brownback emerged as part of a majority that could insist that Bush come back to Congress for authority to continue the wiretaps - but under court supervision.

Call Your Rep on the House Judiciary to Unlock the NSA Wiretaps
H.Res.643 is a "resolution of inquiry" that calls for the Attorney General to hand over to the House of Representatives all documents "relating to warrantless electronic surveillance of telephone conversations and electronic communications of persons in the United States conducted by the National Security Agency." We're asking EFF supporters whose representatives are on this key committee (find out if you are one) to call him or her, and vote to uncover what's going on at the NSA.

Judge: Cell Phone Surveillance Requires Warrant
A federal magistrate judge has rebuffed an attempt by federal authorities to trace the cell phone of a criminal suspect without obtaining a warrant. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Feldman ruled late Friday that federal prosecutors have wrongly interpreted federal statutes when they claim they can trace cell phones without first obtaining a warrant. Prosecutors had sought to trail a suspect by tracing the individual's cell telephone. They argued that they would not be violating the individual's privacy because they would only obtain general information about the suspect's location. But Feldman determined that federal statutes don't allow the warrantless surveillance.

Lawmaker Questions Value of Spy Program
WASHINGTON -- The House Intelligence Committee chairman on Sunday questioned the value of President Bush's secret eavesdropping program, saying al-Qaida undoubtedly has changed its means of communication to avoid Washington's monitoring. Bush said two weeks ago in his State of the Union address that the program of monitoring calls and e-mail between the United States and suspected terrorist associates overseas "remains essential to the security of America." But Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., suggested that the public disclosure of the program's existence in December in the New York Times has undermined its effectiveness.

Students To Petition for Bush’s Impeachment for Wiretap Abuse
One of UCSB’s newest student organizations wants to impeach President George W. Bush for ordering, without judicial warrants, the placement of wiretaps on the phones of American citizens. Students for Impeachment is currently gathering signatures to petition local Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-23) for her support in stopping federal investigators from using wiretaps on citizens without court warrants.

Hey, Kids: Spying Is Fun!
Using cartoons, games and kid-friendly websites, the federal intelligence community is seeking to win the hearts and minds of America's children. The NSA, based at Fort Meade, Maryland, has seven CryptoKids in its trademarked menagerie, including Crypto Cat, versed in Navajo, the language of the storied code talkers of World War II; Decipher Dog, a cryptanalyst who learned the fine points of broadband networking from his stepmother, an NSA network engineer; T. Top, a turtle who knows how to design and build computers; and a language analyst named Rosetta Stone.

Posted by Editor at February 14, 2006 07:09 AM