Thanks to a rush-job from Congress, and some help from a couple of dozen craven Dem lawmakers, the president signed into law yesterday a new bill that offers him broad to surveillance powers, including the ability to eavesdrop on American citizens’ international communications without a warrant.
How bad is the new law? Details are a little sketchy — not surprising, given the classified subject matter — but it appears all the illegal activities the administration was engaged in have now been made legal.
Congressional aides and others familiar with the details of the law said that its impact went far beyond the small fixes that administration officials had said were needed to gather information about foreign terrorists. They said seemingly subtle changes in legislative language would sharply alter the legal limits on the government’s ability to monitor millions of phone calls and e-mail messages going in and out of the United States.
Whereas the law previous insisted that the administration get FISA Court-approved search warrants to eavesdrop on communications involving Americans citizens on U.S. soil, this new law changes the landscape. If the federal government wants to spy on someone, and the target is “reasonably believed” to be overseas, a warrant is no longer necessary.
And the “target” need not be a suspected terrorist. If the administration believes a U.S.-to-foreign conversation might serve some kind of intelligence-gathering purpose, it can go ahead and eavesdrop without oversight.
The consequences are rather startling.
For example, if a person in Indianapolis calls someone in London, the National Security Agency can eavesdrop on that conversation without a warrant, as long as the N.S.A.’s target is the person in London.
Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, said Sunday in an interview that the new law went beyond fixing the foreign-to-foreign problem, potentially allowing the government to listen to Americans calling overseas.
But he stressed that the objective of the new law is to give the government greater flexibility in focusing on foreign suspects overseas, not to go after Americans.
“It’s foreign, that’s the point,” Mr. Fratto said. “What you want to make sure is that you are getting the foreign target.”
And what about the safeguards in place while the administration is spying on the foreign target? Well, surveillance is now approved by the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence, instead of the special intelligence court. FISA judges will now “review and approve the procedures used by the government in the surveillance after it has been conducted. It will not scrutinize the cases of the individuals being monitored.”
Better yet, the AG and DNI can now force telecommunications companies to cooperate with such spying operations, without pesky legal burdens and court orders.
For more on the bill, I’d encourage readers to check out this item from my friend publius, this from Orin Kerr, and this from Marty Lederman, all of which offer valuable and helpful insights.
I’d just add this: for Congress to carelessly give Bush these kinds of powers is asking for abuse and a grand scale. Lawmakers who voted for it ought to be ashamed.
2 Trackbacks To “How bad is it?“
shame, shame, shame
who will guard the guards? I know if someone gets caught abusing this only a slap on the wrist will follow. Seems all that happens anymore to anyone in the gang, I mean government.
Sounds like criminal has now been made legal. Thanks Dems. Heck of a job.
Face it…. we’re screwed.
Like I said before, the Republic is lost.
Welcome to the United States of George Bush.
Well, now we know why folks had a “feeling” there was an increased terrorist threat - it helped hype giving Bush more power. “Vote for giving Bush more power, or he’ll blame you for any future terrorist attacks on US soil.” Not a good plan to govern.
This vote….
Almost speechless again….
Profound disapointment in the Dems….yes, they are blue dogs in heavily con-servative areas…. But the leadership must assert themselves, screw the DLC consultants (’positioning the party to the center’)….this is a time for the penduluum to swing back to the left…the rise of populism in the West should be guiding their actions…
If you’re in one of their districts….its time to vote for the progressive candidate in the primary…if no competition…then you need to hound them day and night to change their stance…if that fails…then do what you can to get a progressive elected in another district, state, etc….
You have to change the party, the progressives must take the party back, other wise this Republican light, centrist crap, pseudo-con-servative idealogy will destroy it….and people like us…will leave it, and maybe the country
Taken from The Assault on Reason (by Al Gore):
James Madison (Federalist) “The accumulation of all powers, leglislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
As John Adams (Federalist) said “The executive shall never exercise the leglislative and judicial powers, or either of them, to the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men”
Our Founders were keenly aware that the history of the world proves that republics are fragile. In the very hour of America’s birth in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin was asked, “Well, doctor, what have we got? A republic or a Monarchy?” He replied cautiously, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
It’s like the early 70’s all over again!
The law was originally written because during the Vietnam Era, various Fed agencies routinely did spying on US citizens who were protesters and/or belonged to various political groups that they didn’t agree with (ie: anarchists and commies).
Intelligence oversight laws were also passed around the time of FISA because Intel agencies (ie: CIA, NSA) were also used to spy on US citizens in the early 70’s. Those laws started to come apart during the “War on Drugs” campaign during Reagan’s 2nd term, because the DEA was given a free pass to task an Intel agency to spy on someone they suspected had an international drug connection.
You know, I don’t understand why the Democrats in congress cannot understand that they are continuing the distructive ways of this president. Stand up for the constitution & protect the rights of all americans!! Very disappointing!!
Am I to assume all of the people manning this surveillance are Arabic speaking????? I mean, that’s who wants to hurt us, right? That’s all I want to know. What SMALL percentage of the staff actually speaks and understands Arabic?
The Bush cancer continues to spread unabated.
We need keep a running list of every Democrat who caves in on these important issues and votes with Bush’s agenda and against the constitution. This should be compiled and shared among all the major liberal blogs and made readily availiable for voters to see when the elections roll around. We need to vote these Traitors out of office and replace them with actual vertibrates.
Dave @ 10:
They speak the charming folksy language of your grandma… after all, that’s who they strip search before checking passengers on a plane.
When the next grand event comes, who would have been squarely blamed if this bill didn’t pass?? Think about it. These guys are really smart.
It just goes to show you freedom ain’t free. See, we have to give up our freedoms in order to be free to feel safe. But when we give up our liberties, as enumerated in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and we feel free to feel safe we are actually freer than we would have been had we kept our liberties. It’s as clear as the fact that man lived harmoniously with the dinosaurs in the garden of eden. It’s in the bible and the movie version of One Million Years B.C. which itself was based on FACT! (the capital letters indicate that it is absolutely true).
Yesterday I watched the Republican candidates’ debate. As I watched I realized there is a possibilty that one of those men could be the next president of the United States. That was more frightening than a terrorist threat, at least for me. We could have four or eight more years of this kind of shit or worse, if that’s possible.
If this is just a bad dream, why are we all having it at the same time?
it’s showing me and it looks like the rest of the C&L bloggers that we have no allies left, the Republicans have stood against the American people for at least 40 years now and the newly elected Democrats don’t seem to be on our side either. it is truly shameful, what does it take for the public to impeach the whole lot of them, Republicans Democrats and Independents alike and start over fresh of the people by the people and most importantly FOR the people.
Otherwise the whole world is screwed, as soon as they have enough power to start their Hitler like rampage beginning with Mexico and Canada it’s going to get bad very fast and there really isn’t anyone in the world who can stop it short of using Nukes…is this what we are left with? is this where we’re at in the history of the world?
With corporate rule there is no freedom. So all you Republican dip-shits will finally be able to stop blaming the Dems for America’s problems, for a long time they had your back, but it looks like after the Newt years Dems have lost all ability to stand up against what we all know is very wrong with America.
Let’s ignore for now the inherent unconstitutionality of searching without probable cause, and the obvious potential for abuse.
What about basic utility? It’s well-known that the government and military have hardly any translators in Middle Eastern languages. How the hell are they gonna process the deluge of voice data?
I urge everyone to give to the ACLU.
And if you have the balls, stop paying taxes.
It’s terrifying to look up one day and realize that the rousing patriotic songs and loyalty to country we all learned as children are all lies. Land of the free? Yeah right…
I give to the aclu every month. Proud card carrier that I am, I’m not sure even they can’t fight this criminal administration.
i really want to hear from the dems who voted yea on this bill. what are their pathetic excuses for voting AGAINST their contituency. we put them in office to follow our mandates and they turn around and stick us in the back. let’s hear from them. i want to know what’s behind their vote??? personally, i feel all is lost. there is no more pretense of an opposing party that will hold their feet to the fire; there is not more pretense of a crusading press that will expose the truth; there is not more country other than the nation of bush and the dumb asses who support him and his “righteous” causes. welkome to the 4th Reich, the United States.
How much of this wiretapping will be performed outside US jurisdiction?
http://www.informationclearing.....le6480.htm
Home of the brave? Not anymore.
The neocons have moved to the Democrats.
This bill is profoundly disturbing and disappointing. The people of this nation have no one looking out for their best interests, Democrat or Republican.
I mean seriously, why don’t we just go ahead and rip up the constitution. It means absolutely nothing any more. The U.S.A. now resembles the old Soviet Union more than anything else.
Once our consumerist society comes crumbling down under the extreme load of national debt, we’ll be like any other banana republic under a dictator’s rule.
There are still lots of good people in the U.S., but ultimately we are judged by the actions of our leaders, which means we are viewed as a lawless, immoral, paranoid, and murderous people. And there’s really no one else to blame but us*.
*Did not vote for GWB in 2000 -or- 2004
As if this wasn’t bad enough, the man who no one on earth trusts except geo bush gets to make the decisions about which calls will be tapped. How insane is that? The good thing is maybe he won’t recall that he’s involved.
Widespread,
Let’s hope the govt. processes the info. better than they did the Iraqis they sent to Abu Ghraib; I’m not optimistic. The genius politicians who voted for this in both houses must have been thinking something along the lines of: yeah, let’s give arguably unconstitutional and unaccountable spying power to the same boobs who brought us bankruptcy reform, the politicized justice dept.,the pharmaceutical welfare drug plan for seniors, Gonzo in his many iterations-don’t forget his genius insight into torture and the Geneva conventions, the my pet goat moment, Katrina relief, the afghan war and tora bora pass, and the run-up and execution of the Iraq war and occupation and on and on and on. The MSM response: tee hee boobs.
One party government.
Fascism.
Huzzah for the Democrats!
Hooray!
Three cheers!
Remember: they hate us for our freedom; ergo, the less freedom you have, the safer you are!
But don’t worry - the next batch of Democrats you’re told to elect will do a good job! Scout’s honor!
To the intelligence underling(s) assigned to monitoring this discussion (and don’t kid yourself, they are):
Hi, did you know that what you are doing would make the Founding Fathers want to throw up?
Do you realize what you are doing is wrong?
Do you realize that what you are doing will not stop terrorists in any way, shape or form?
Pelosi got to go. Pelsoi got to go. Pelosi got to go.
Another sad day for America.
I’m sure Hillary will enjoy her new powers, as well. I have no use for the Democratic party at this point.
I just heard a guy call in to c-span saying if tapping phones would save his life, then it was fine by him.
So it’s all about his safety and to hell with our country? That’s what it sounded like.
We’ve been SLIMED!
I guess Congress will enjoy their pricey vacations while the rest of us hunker down and work ourselves to death just to get spied on by wankers whacking off to private phone conversations! Listen for heavy breathing on the line.
They have not yet been made legal, they have been authorized. Only the courts can say if they are legal. Of course, the way W has been able to stack the courts makes it likely it will be held to be legal.
My wife is Venezuelan…she’s in Caracas right now doing some necessary things before coming home. We spend at least 2 hours a night instant-messenger-ing, with mic and camera. The thought that some filthy nosy wanker in our “government” is drooling and panting while he listens in to our personal conversations is absolutely disgusting.
Fuck the Democrats…I am voting Libertarian. (not that our votes even matter any more)
Simon White-Thatch Potentloins @ 32:
Simon, these people don’t give a shit what you or I think. They are making obscene amounts of money off our tax dollars and rubbing our noses in it. They are enjoying a good laugh over this thread right now, I’m sure.
Dave @ 10:
This has nothing to do with Arab terrorists. This is neocon criminality keeping tabs on its enemies, industrial competitors, and defense contractor biz, and building a massive database at American taxpayer expense. Since all the wiretapping companies are Israeli, and the base site of the taps, according to Fox News, are overseas — with the exception of the Israeli company hooked up to AT&T and the NSA in San Francisco: Narus [http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/4/8/14724/28476/] — there’s nothing you can do about this.
Until, as New York Observer’s Phil Weiss wrote about the official YearlyKos chatroom yesterday, the netroots grow the balls to discuss Israel, we will continue this corruption.
Where’s the list of the bastards that did this ? Why is no one in their face about it ? Let’s target them. Show them how furious we are. Flood them with mail, protests, and ACTIVELY work to remove them from office ! !
I for one welcome our new wiretapping overlords.
pissed off patricia @ 36:
There are enough bed-wetters in the U.S. such as the C-Span caller who make the Bush mis-administration appear almost legitimate. These chickenshits will give up their own mothers to be protected by the man from this phoney-baloney war on terrorism.
KGB!
So, how can the Dems now look Gonzo in the face and grill him over activities that were unlawful, but which they’ve now made lawful? This Dem Congress feels even worse than the last 6 years of GOP bootlicking because the Dems led us to believe that they would reclaim the government for the people.
Snickerdoodles McPoppycock @ 12:
I agree with this. If someone is keeping a list, please put a link to it here. Looks like next month’s budget will have to include an ACLU donation.