more on govt surveillance - it's not just for terrorists and liberals

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Ryan Singel <prsingel () pacbell net>
Date: November 8, 2005 12:27:43 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: [IP] more on govt surveillance - it's not just for  
terrorists and liberals

Dave,

In the future, you might think twice about posting things from Doug
Thompson and Capitol Hill Blue.  Thompson has a nasty habit of lifting
facts and quotes from other reporters without attribution and passing
them off as his own (such as the 30,000 National Security Letters
refrenced in the story you posted, a fact he stole without attribution
from the Washington Post's Barton Gellman).  His stories at Capitol Hill
Blue include unsubstantiated stories that Bush takes anti-depressants
and that the White House uses NSLs to build files on its enemeies.

He also wrote this graf:

"Perhaps Bush, like other public homophobes, decries the gay life
because of yet another secret in his sordid past. Maybe booze and
cocaine wasn't the only thing our President stuffed into an available
orifice."

Why not include a link to Gellman's blockbuster Washington Post story on
the FBI's use of National Security Letters? It is immaculately reported
and clearly explains the implications of the FBI's power to issue itself
subpoenas that come equipped with gag orders.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/05/AR200511
0501366.html

Thompson could only wish he could do a tenth as well.  Instead he lifts
from real reporters.

Ryan Singel


-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 6:57 AM
To: ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: [IP] more on govt surveillance - it's not just for terrorists
and liberals




Begin forwarded message:

From: Tom Fairlie <tfairlie () frontiernet net>
Date: November 8, 2005 8:27:27 AM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] govt surveillance - it's not just for terrorists
and liberals

Hi Dave,

Ironically, while our government is collecting private information on
thousands of harmless U.S. citizens, the people who are now running the
government are wishing that many of these same citizens would stop
trying to poke around in their affairs. After all, how can you sell a
war to the U.S. people without a large helping of cooked intelligence
and fraudulent propaganda. Too bad the FBI seems to have little interest
in these sorts of crimes.

Tom Fairlie
(Are all Interesting People "persons of interest" by definition?)

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Farber" <dave () farber net>
To: <ip () v2 listbox com>
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 2:21 PM
Subject: [IP] govt surveillance - it's not just for terrorists and
liberals




Begin forwarded message:

From: Jim Warren <jwarren () well com>
Date: November 7, 2005 2:46:04 PM EST
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: govt surveillance - it's not just for terrorists and liberals

[Below is a first-person report by a publisher who appears to be a
staunch conservative!]

Preface by me:  Congress seems likely to approve yet-another ex-
prosecutor, pro-police, soft-on-privacy Supreme Court nominee (Alito)
-- ardently supported by the same folks who brought us the Freedom-to-
Police Act (officially labeled in Orewellian double-speak as the
"Patriot" Act).
    Thus, it's particularly worthwhile to note how wildly-expanding
government surveillance is already being imposed on LAW-ABIDING
citizens.  E.g., consider what's happened to the founder and publisher
of the [conservative?] Capitol Hill Blue daily rant (subtitled, "Because
nobody's life, liberty or property are safe while Congress is in session
or the White House is occupied").

--jim


http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7624.shtml

An Enemy of The State
By DOUG THOMPSON
Nov 7, 2005, 08:14

According to a printout from a computer controlled by the Federal Bureau
of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice, I am an enemy of
the state.

The printout, shown to me recently by a friend who works for Justice,
identifies me by a long, multi-digit number, lists my date of birth,
place of birth, social security number and contains more than 100 pages
documenting what the Bureau and the Bush Administration consider to be
my threats to the security of the United States of America.

It lists where I sent to school, the name and address of the first wife
that I had been told was dead but who is alive and well and living in
Montana, background information on my current wife and details on my
service to my country that I haven't even revealed to my wife or my
family.

Although the file finds no criminal activity by me or members of my
immediate family, it remains open because I am a "person of interest"
who has "written and promoted opinions that are contrary to the
government of the United States of America."

And it will remain active because the government of the United States,
under the far-reaching provisions of the USA Patriot Act, can compile
and retain such information on any American citizen. That act gives the
FBI the authority to collect intimate details about anyone, even those
not suspected of any wrongdoing.

My file begins on September 11, 2001, the day of the terrorist attacks
on New York and Washington. ...

...<snip>...

"Much of this information was gathered through what we call 'national
security letters,'" he said. "It allows us to gather information from a
variety of sources."

A "national security letter" it turns out, can be issued by any FBI
supervisor, without court order or judicial review, to compel libraries,
banks, employers and other sources to turn over any and all information
they have on American citizens.

The FBI issues more than 30,000 national security letters a year. When
one is delivered to a bank, library, employer or other entity, the same
federal law that authorizes such letters also prohibits your bank,
employer or anyone else from telling you that they received such a
letter and were forced to turn over all information on you.

According to my file, the banks where I have both business and checking
accounts have been forced to turn over all records of my transactions,
as have every company where I have a charge account or credit card.
They've perused my book borrowing habits from libraries in Arlington and
Floyd Counties as well as studied what television shows I watch on the
Tivos in my house. They know I belong to the National Rifle Association,
the National Press Photographers Association and other professional
groups. They know I attend meetings of Alcoholic Anonymous on a regular
basis and the file notes that my "pattern of spending" shows no purchase
of "alcohol-related products" since the file was opened in 2001.

In the past, when information collected on an American citizen failed to
turn up any criminal activity, FBI policy called for such information to
be destroyed.

But President George W. Bush in 2003 reversed that long-standing policy
and ordered the bureau and other federal agencies to not only keep that
information but place it in government databases that can be accessed by
local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

In October, Bush also signed Executive Order 13388 which expands access
to those databases to "appropriate private sector entities" although the
order does not explain what those entities might be. ...

...<snip>...

C Copyright 2005 by Capitol Hill Blue


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