The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
I use this category when posting about the military or military actions.
The former head of the National Security Agency and the current principal deputy of National Intelligence, Michael Hayden, yesterday revealed a fundamental misunderstanding of the 4th Amendment.
Read moreNSA SPYING ON UNITED STATES CITIZENS may be the least of it. The Department of Defense, in its “?force protection??tracking threats and terrorist plots against military installations and personnel inside the United States? is spying far more than the government would like you to know. It?s doing it on the internet, it?s hiding its tracks through the use of proxies, and even the most innocent Americans may be in data bases longer than the law allows.
Read moreThe line of excuses/justifications being offered by the Administration is interesting. First, the President is saying that FISA is being followed, and warrants are being obtained. This is available on tape, and are statements made to an audience.
Read moreJust a couple of days before Karl Rove gives a speech to Republican politicians outlining a “war on terror” strategy for the 2006 elections, a tape from Bin Laden is quickly authenticated by the Porter Goss CIA. Does anyone besides me find that interesting?
Read moreWe human beings have created this concept of time. We like to have beginnings and endings, and we American’s seem especially prone to the shorter increments of time. We celebrate almost all of our important holidays annually. We acknowledge birthdays and anniversaries every year. We note seconds (nano-seconds sometimes), hours, days, the months, the annual cycle of the seasons, and especially the years. It?s pretty traditional, as the we close one calendar and open another, to evaluate the year just past, and contemplate the year to come. So as 2005 fades, I?ll follow tradition and offer up my review of 2005.
Read moreAs the old saying goes, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” There is no clearer example of this than the Bu$h Administration’s lack of concern for laws and the Constitution. We have seen, over and over again, in the past how government agencies, authorized to snoop, always overstep. Now we begin to learn that the NSA has been spying on its own people, journalists, and even Congressmen. So, it’s no wonder Bu$h gets his way, Karly Rove probably has a dossier on most members of Congress and the Government.
Read more“The whole key here is agility,” he said at a White House briefing before Bush’s news conference. According to Hayden, most warrantless surveillance conducted under Bush’s authorization lasts just days or weeks, and requires only the approval of a shift supervisor. Hayden said getting retroactive court approval is inefficient because it “involves marshaling arguments” and “looping paperwork around.”
Read moreLet’s be sure we are totally clear about this warrant-less search issue. The President is not granted this authority as Commander-in-Chief, nor did the resolution permitting action in Afghanistan or Iraq. Further, they have not prevented any acts of terrorism, and they would not have prevented 9/11 as the V.P. is trying to claim. These actions are direct violations of the 4th amendment, and, the applicable are quite specific that no type of wiretaps are permissible other than those specif iced under the applicable laws. This is a dangerous precedent, and a revelation that rises to the level of an impeachable offense. However, since no apparent sex is involved, Congress will continue to sit on its hands.
Read moreA senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung’s tome on Communism called “The Little Red Book.”
Read moreThis is what things like the PATRIOT Act have brought us to. Perhaps the Constitution should be moved from the Washington area to a safer location (maybe Canada can hold it for us until our own government is grown up enough to know how to use it safely). Apparently no one in Washington is over 21 years old. Obviously our previous lessons about the dangers of domestic surveillance by government agencies have been forgotten.
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