From The Ramparts

Can We Really Trust The Government?

Can We Really Trust the Government?

“As on-going revelations about the Denver “spy files” illustrate, these are not practices
that can be safely relegated to the past. Nor are they limited to a ‘chilling effect’ on freedom of expression. The federal government has subjected the American people, those it is charged with protecting, to false and deliberately misleading propaganda, wrongful arrests and arbitrary detentions, physical assaults and assassinations, and the crushing of law-abiding organizations. What has been ‘disrupted and destroyed’ in the process are not only the targeted individuals, organizations and movements, but the core values the government claims to be protecting: freedom, democracy and the rule of law.” Whose Liberty? Whose Security? The USA PATRIOT Act in the Context of COINTELPRO and the Unlawful Repression of Political Dissent-NATSU TAYLOR SAITO

If George W Bu$h were Pinochio by now his nose would be as long as the Empire State Building or the Sears Tower, given all the lies he and his administration have told. When the New York Times broke the story about the NSA spying on AmeriKKKan citizens (after suppressing it for over a year) Bu$h and Co said the monitoring was only on international calls. That proved to be another lie. When it was leaked the tapping and monitoring was more wide spread, then they said it was not a tapping system but harmless data mining. Missing in all this is the fact Bu$h and Co, including his nominee for the position of Director of CIA General Michael Hayden who oversaw the NSA spy program, did all this in direct violation of the FISA Law and the FCC Communications Act of 1933 and without Congressional over sight. Now we have learned the big three telecommunications giants: AT&T, VeriZon and BellSouth colluded with the government to cull and monitor millions of AmeriKKKans phones and E-mails. “The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY. The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.” http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm Only Qwest Communications refused to cooperate with the Bu$h administration’s illegal invasion of US citizens’s privacy.
Big Brother has been exposed and it is ugly. The NSA has been spying on the whole world via its’ global Echelon spy network for decades. It’s just the AmeriKKan public has not known about this super secret spy system until recently. The NeoCon spin machine/corporate media mind control apparatus are attempting to spin this as part of the president’s responsibility to defend AmeriKKKa from the omnipresent “terrorists” under our beds and protect national security. Funny thing is, Echelon was in use prior to 9-11 and that didn't stop 9-11 from happening! In many ways this whole process can be viewed as a trial balloon the ruling elites floated to see if Joe ad Jane Sixpack would make a fuss about being spied upon. Thus far they have not. At least there haven’t been massive demonstrations or civil disobedience as a result of this information being leaked and reported. Perhaps some citizens believe their elected representatives (those not caught in a Web of corruption, white mail and graft) will make an issue of it and fight for their constitutional right to privacy. Time will tell. However, Bu$h’s approval ratings continue to plummet, perhaps this is a clear indication the people no longer trust him or the direction he is leading the country?
Every day more and more information comes out about the nefarious and secretive dealings of this administration. The NSA information gathering is by far more extensive and sophisticated than during J Edgar Hoover’s pernicious COINTELPRO. The dangers and potential abuses are even greater during these times of intentional fear mongering, media induced xenophobia, deceit, secrecy and power grabbing. “Two of the most frequent and most apt criticisms made about the secret Presidential order authorizing spying by the National Security Agency (“NSA”) are:1) the order violates the Constitution’s separation of powers by authorizing activity in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (“FISA”) and by thus usurping legislative authority; and 2) the secrecy of the Presidential order violates principles of democratic accountability. While each point independently has merit, it also is important to understand the connection between the two points. Presidential adherence to legislative mandates is so important in large part because of the protections that are built into the legislative process, including the relative openness of that process. It is no accident that the Constitution both leaves room for the President to operate in secret and subjects the President to substantial legislative control. This constitutional design suggests that while secrecy often is a legitimate tool for the President to use in executing legislative policy, the propriety of such usage itself must be subject to reconsideration and to checking by the legislature to prevent it from turning tyrannical. White House arguments in defense of the secret spying program -- that a general military force authorization should be read so broadly as to encompass such a program and that such a program is within the President’s inherent powers even absent legislative authorization -- fly in the face of a constitutional design meant to keep the President, and Presidential secrecy, under careful control. This interpretation follows from the Constitution’s text and structure. The Constitution brilliantly provides for relatively public, dialogic, dual-branch review before legislation may be passed. The Constitution also provides for substantial legislative control with respect to military and domestic matters. Thus, while the President is the 'Commander in Chief,' it is for Congress to declare war in the first place, to provide for the common defense, to raise and support the army and navy, to 'make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces' and to make other laws 'necessary and proper' to effectuate its own powers and those of the President. And it is the legislative process through which new policy affecting citizens’ rights generally must pass. The arduous public and dialogic process through which policy must be made is among the Constitution’s most important protections against government tyranny. Among other things, it reflects the founding generation’s well-known fear of monarchical power. It would be antithetical to this careful system were the President permitted to formulate and to execute secret policies that are immune from public and legislative checking.” Presidential Secrecy and the NSA Spying Controversy Heidi Kitrosser http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2006/02/presidential-secrecy-and-nsa-spying.
Some people see Bu$h as an incompetent frat boy or an imbecile. Others see him as a cunning sociopath and pathological liar. Most of the world sees him as a clear and present danger to global peace and environmental security. Only his hard core following of religious fanatics, the super rich and Necon crazies are in his corner now. Bu$h’s approval ratings are subterranean and the disdain the common people hold for Cheney is unanimous. Both have been caught in so many devious policies and lies that have resulted in so much loss of life, they are like the boy who cried wolf. If they ever told the truth, no one would believe them!

posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 11:57 AM