American Victims Of A Corrupt Presidency
The news of the NSA domestic wiretapping is now known in almost all corners of America. The Bush administration has claimed that this is a tool for fighting terrorism and has attempted to squelch any lawsuits or harnessing of their percived "Presidential Power" run amok.What if this was another example of fabrication and/or misinformation in order to manipulate our once great country and use it for selfish political opportunity?
Before you break out your flags on Tuesday to celebrate the birth of America, you should consider what we have allowed to be done to her. If you are still a Bush/Cheney fan and not angry as hell, you really should think of mental health programs and just what kind of "Christian values" it is that has forsaken America and made a mockery out of all who have sacrificed their blood for the freedoms that the GOP has so willingly stripped from us for their own political gain and dominance.
Just like the Downing Street Memo, there is now proof that the NSA program is nothing more than a sorry excuse to spy on and manipulate America.
Spy Agency Sought U.S. Call Records Before 9/11, Lawyers Say
June 30 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc. to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lawyers claimed June 23 in court papers filed in New York federal court.
The allegation is part of a court filing adding AT&T, the nation's largest telephone company, as a defendant in a breach of privacy case filed earlier this month on behalf of Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. customers. The suit alleges that the three carriers, the NSA and President George W. Bush violated the Telecommunications Act of 1934 and the U.S. Constitution, and seeks money damages.
``The Bush Administration asserted this became necessary after 9/11,'' plaintiff's lawyer Carl Mayer said in a telephone interview. ``This undermines that assertion.''
The lawsuit is related to an alleged NSA program to record and store data on calls placed by subscribers. More than 30 suits have been filed over claims that the carriers, the three biggest U.S. telephone companies, violated the privacy rights of their customers by cooperating with the NSA in an effort to track alleged terrorists.
``The U.S. Department of Justice has stated that AT&T may neither confirm nor deny AT&T's participation in the alleged NSA program because doing so would cause `exceptionally grave harm to national security' and would violate both civil and criminal statutes,'' AT&T spokesman Dave Pacholczyk said in an e-mail.
U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Charles Miller and NSA spokesman Don Weber declined to comment.
Pioneer Groundbreaker
The NSA initiative, code-named ``Pioneer Groundbreaker,'' asked AT&T unit AT&T Solutions to build exclusively for NSA use a network operations center which duplicated AT&T's Bedminster, New Jersey facility, the court papers claimed. That plan was abandoned in favor of the NSA acquiring the monitoring technology itself, plaintiffs' lawyers Bruce Afran said.
The NSA says on its Web site that in June 2000, the agency was seeking bids for a project to ``modernize and improve its information technology infrastructure.'' The plan, which included the privatization of its ``non-mission related'' systems support, was said to be part of Project Groundbreaker.
Mayer said the Pioneer project is ``a different component'' of that initiative.
Mayer and Afran said an unnamed former employee of the AT&T unit provided them with evidence that the NSA approached the carrier with the proposed plan. Afran said he has seen the worker's log book and independently confirmed the source's participation in the project. He declined to identify the employee.
This story can be found at Raw Story or by going to Bloomberg.com
I get emails from The Wasington Post every day and the story was also in today's email.
Now...IF the domestic wiretap program launched by Bush and the NSA were ONLY for tracking terrorists as they claim, then WHY were they attempting to initiate such a program as soon as Bush was placed in the Oval Office...seven (7) months before Sept. 11, 2001?
We have had the Republican controlled Congress and Senate frantically trying to find a way to make Bush's actions legal (retroactive) but with this new information finding the light of day how can this be justified in the slightest?
The Supreme Court, which Bush wanted to stack, has smacked him to the carpet and ruled that he overstepped his presidential authority when he attempted to set up military tribunals for Gitmo detainees and now is attempting to get his lapdogs in Congress to find a way to let him do it anyway.
Does this kind of behavior not tell us something about those running our country into the ground?
Bush wants to give nuclear technology to India but in the same breath tell Iran that they can not have it. Is it just me or is there a double standard here?
Oh, I'm sorry...Iran has oil and we have to control it (like Iraq) so they can not switch their oil currency to the Euro. Sad how we only got interested in "liberating" the Iraqi people after Saddam tried to switch Iraq's oil currancy to the Euro which would have weakened the U.S. dollar even more than the Republicans in control.
Too bad we are more interested in helping ourselves and the only things we "liberate" are those things we want.
Americans want to bitch about how our soldiers are killed and sometimes mutilated by the Iraqis...we are just now seeing news of what we have been doing to them since we invaded...murder, rape, etc. Would you not be furious if your country were invaded, stripped and your friends and family treated as such? They are more rightous than the U.S. has been.
Our soldiers should never have been sent on a self rightous crusade and those who are killed do not necessarily share the horrible traits of some who find it easy to abuse civilians. Not all deserve what they get in return but the fault lies with a corrupt U.S. administration, corrupt war profiteers and individuals who take with them the worst traits of America and have little, if any respect for human life or decentcy.
We condemn others for terrorist associations and sit on our hands when Isreal carries out acts of terrorism. Now they have forcibly kidnapped (we call it arrested) elected members of another country's government and I've heard they have threatened to kill the Palestinian PM if they do not turn over a missing soldier.
The West took land from the Arabs to create an Isreali state...theft. Now we condemn others while allowing Isreal to commit terrorist acts. They have never been held to account for the attack on a U.S. naval vessel and the murders of over 30 men on the ship they tried to distroy and they are never held to account for murders they commit. Collusion with the self ritghous means they are above the law, just like Bush with his signing statements and fabrications.
Think about this on July 4th. We no longer have such reason to be proud
Last thoughts in closing...
In 2003 Gearge W. Bush was at a rally, in Ohio I believe but can not remember, where he defaced several American flags by signing his name on them as "autographs". Our Republican controlled government should remember things like this before wasting the time and money of American taxpayers trying to add amendments to the Constitution in an attempt to curtail any freedom of expression we may have.
Same issue of "English" being America's national language after getting your undies in a twist over the National Anthem being sung in Spanish, when in fact, George W. Bush attempted to sing the anthem in Spanish for a rally in Texas when he was Governor.
Lastly, the pathetic excuses for not allowing the American people to have an increase in mimimum wage when several states have a set minimum wage higher than the national minimum wage...and then giving yourself a raise AGAIN. At least Harry Reid had a decent idea...block political raises if those who pay your salery are not entitled to a raise themselves.
posted by Myst @ 10:12 AM
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