Secret gov't source tells ABC News: 'Get new cellphones'

Now do you understand why we don't want the NSA spying on us?

Wait, I'm confused; you mean I can't trust this administration when it says they're just using this power to catch terrorists? I did NOT see that coming...

I think reporters and the CIA personal that leaked this information should take a long look in the mirror and decide whose side they are on.

Good Job brothers!

We are now almost ready to unveil the plan to rid the country of all those who are dragging us down. You know who I am talking about! The unfirm, mentally unfit to work at the weapons factory. Those who are old and weak and costing much of our countries valuable resources. It is time for the cleansing to begin!

Adolf Bush

Being a whistleblower implies being courageous enough to 'blow the whistle' in the face of consequences. Wether this latest story (which once again sees print w/o any sort of evidence to back it up) is true, the rules of the game haven't changed in that regard.

Frankly it's high time the government does something to clamp down on a media who seems to have confused 'freedom of press' with 'freedom to spill every state secret we can get our hands on in the pursuit of ratings'.

I cannot believe commenters really think that the people that spoke to the media about these crimes should be "clamped down on". In a free country the government does not clamp down on the press.

wow

Wow - I feel so much safer now....but why am I more scared than ever?

When will our congressmen and women start doing their jobs and do something about this????? I think nothing less than impeachment is in order for Bush. My God, Clinton got impeached for doing something FAR less! It's too bad elections aren't being held today. It's time to clean house. But, unfortunately, all of this will have been forgotten by November and we will vote to keep in power those that are doing us the most harm. Say good bye to the Bill of Rights!

Surely this can't be Pres Geo. Bush and General Hayden ya'll takin' about now can it?

They frum the gov'mint and they heah to hep ya'll...don'cha know!?

Matt, I think you might take a look in the mirror and consider whether you're proud of your country just because you happened to be born here or because you understand and value the principles that once made this nation a beacon to the world.
Personally, I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees, and I think that's an American virtue; unlike cowardly consent to bullying. Those who would trade liberty for security deserve niether.

The biggest problem I have with the NSA eavesdropping program is it does not seem to be cost-effective. Why haven't they made links between large drug or arms suppliers, and prosecuted same. Instead, they are looking at small-level dealers, citizens with relatives/friends in foreign countries, and anyone who disagrees with their policies. Hayden took an oath to defend the Constitution, but it seems to me he must never have read it.

"
Being a confidential source who disagrees with a presidential administration then decides to oppose it by becoming a whistleblower can take courage when discovery means loss of a job and possible legal consequences.
"

There is a difference between being a 'whistleblower' and a 'leaker'. Whistleblowers go to Congress with their complaints, where confidential material can remain confidential and a proper investigation can be done. There are laws to protect Whistleblowers if they follow the process.

A leaker takes their information to the press. Maybe they tried Congress first, maybe they didn't. Considering the animosity toward this administration by many in Congress, I highly doubt that an issue raised with a Congress member would go uninvestigated.

There's a difference between being a whistleblower and a leaker, and that difference is who they tell. The press has a vested interest here in getting a story out, and could care less about proper process being followed in my opinion.

The real problem seems to be that the government has become so paranoid that they deem it necessary to have such secrets. Keep it ethical & legal and it doesn't matter who knows about it!

Welcome to The Third Reich!

How the heck does this administration keep track of all of its scandals. Holy cow!

By the way, the story says, "Under Bush Administration guidelines..."

Call them what they are, "DICTATES" not guidelines.

Wake up Mushroom Nation. A nation of people kept in the dark and fed bovine chewies.

Of course, the reporters at ABC or the rest of the Main Stream media would never leak any intelligence secrets to get ratings! Hey, might be a Pulitzer in it for somebody...

As a contrast, here's how FDR dealt with domestic surveillance during WWII:

-he either imprisoned or deported anyone who could remotely be characterized as a security risk..at least the ones he knew about, as the Soviet archives have now shown us

-he authorized the FBI to monitor any and all domestic mail and any and all cable traffic. I have personally seen a medal and citation given to a woman who steamed the stamp off an envelope found microfilm underneath and helped send 6 nazi spies to the gallows.

-he authorized surveillance on suspect US nationals and foreign nationals even before we actually entered WWII.

Of course, FDR realized that we were in an existential war and that some of the niceties had to be curtailed or eliminated temporarily for the sake of victory. And most of the press, being basically patriotic understood the necessity.

Can't say that today, can we? And a lot of Americans will probably die because of it.

Hey Tribune, still enthusiastic about the rubber stamp endorsing of Republicans as an editorial policy?

For those who would give up their liberties merely to assuage the blood-thirst of a government gone rampant and insane with a murderous grab for power do not deserve to claim the freedom that was bought with the blood of martyrs and revolutionaries such as Patrick Henry et al. They fought against a government who ruled by force so others could be free. Yet today people are all to ready to give up those same liberties because some government said they should. Is there no irony here?

While this article may not have evidential proof and merely be speculation, it does not change the fact that we should ALL be wary of a government, that is known to lie, which says, "Trust me." I THINK NOT! And that applies to ANY POLITICAL PARTY, be it Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, etc. Nixon was called on the carpet for tapes in his possession. When did it become right to eavesdrop, tap, record, etc. without a court order or evidence of a crime? The president is no more above the law than anyone else. He is the EXECUTIVE BRANCH, NOT the Legislative Branch OR the Judicial Branch. The whole thing about separation of powers is to prevent a dictator from ruling. Bush is attempting to take the Office of the President and turn it into the Office of the Dictator.

Must we all say, "Seig Heil"?

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

-Benjamin Franklin

Words to live by i think.

Of course, the reporters at ABC or the rest of the Main Stream media would never leak any intelligence secrets to get ratings! Hey, might be a Pulitzer in it for somebody...

As a contrast, here's how FDR dealt with domestic surveillance during WWII:

-he either imprisoned or deported anyone who could remotely be characterized as a security risk..at least the ones he knew about, as the Soviet archives have now shown us

-he authorized the FBI to monitor any and all domestic mail and any and all cable traffic. I have personally seen a medal and citation given to a woman who steamed the stamp off an envelope found microfilm underneath and helped send 6 nazi spies to the gallows.

-he authorized surveillance on suspect US nationals and foreign nationals even before we actually entered WWII.

Of course, FDR realized that we were in an existential war and that some of the niceties had to be curtailed or eliminated temporarily for the sake of victory. And most of the press, being basically patriotic understood the necessity.

Can't say that today, can we? And a lot of Americans will probably die because of it.

He's got his approval ratings, he's got his paranoia, but Nixon had the courtesy to quit the Presidency.

hey, who cares? if you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. sheesh!

Why criticize China anymore. It's obvious that's the direction the US is going in.

Oh please. Can you show me one person who's had their phone tapped (or his or her library records pulled)? The media persists in spreading these rumors because members don't like President Bush. Will it take another 9/11 for folks to realize that some measures have to be taken to track down potential terrorists? If the media persists in revealing every secret effort made to track terrorists and prevent them from carrying out their "operations", don't be surprised if it's your butt that gets blown up next. We should remember that old WWII slogan: "loose lips sink ships"—and remember that it's fellow Americans on those "ships".

While there is a long history of whistleblowing in this country; the debate about it, pro or con, is still reasonable. The real problem is that the administration never tells us the thuth, let alone the complete truth. First it was just call originating from or to overseas points. Then it was only phone numbers dialed regardless of origination or destination and now it is specific numbers to specific individuals; all without due process.

It is a familiar track with this administration. As one of our founding fathers said: "Anyone who is willing to give up freedoms for security deserves neither."

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" -Benjamin Franklin.

Our Government is doing everything in its power to establish a police state here at home.

George Bush and his administration have done nothing but Lie, Murder, and Steal since he took office.

IMPEACH NOW!!

And the Jews did nothing wrong and millions still died. Who spoke up then?

Wow, this is on huge jumping to conclusion thread. The article which started it admits that the statement is unproven but even then people pile on with more conjecture that starts to become accepted fact in just a few posts. BTW, the government has been monitoring government phones in abut forever and cell phone records are common knowledge. Any one of you can go purchase cell phone records on each other and it is legal. If you think the whistleblowers are all smart enough to use their private line to call in a leak you are misinformed....

For what it's worth, there is a movement to impeach President Bush: www.impeachbush.org

Well, the shocking part of this whole ordeal is that people actually seem surprise. We are talking about an administration that took advantage of a country and people that has entrusted to them certain rights during our darkest hour...........

don't citizens and the military put their life on the line to ensure the most freedom possible? why would we die so our government can restrict freedom so no one gets killed by are enemys, aren't we willing to sacrifice our lives for our liberty? thank god we have people in the us and military that believe just that. thank you armed forces.

The key components of any Democracy are Accountability and Transparency. It looks like our last hope of bringing either back to this country will be this November.

OK put down the tin foil hats and think for a minute people. First off, no way the government would try something like that, they can't even tap bin laden's cell phone without the democrats and liberal media getting all bent out of shape, do you really believe they are gonna tap ABC's phone calls? Secondly, whoever recommended they get "new cell phones" is obviously an idiot, any organization that can crack and tap cell phones could definitely ID the new phones easy enough. Third, anyone who discloses secret information to a reporter (or anyone else without clearance) during time of war is a traitor that is compromising national security, and the government most definitely should be investigating that. Not the press per se, but the person leaking the secret information, yeah that guy needs to go down. Do you people understand the bad guys can read the news?

"I cannot believe commenters really think that the people that spoke to the media about these crimes should be "clamped down on". In a free country the government does not clamp down on the press."

Sharing state secrets with your enemies is treason. So it goes without saying that when yet another CIA or NSA program makes headlines, the person who divulged it and the reporter that printed it should both tried for treason.

Got a problem with the programs, ride your senator and representative to legislate better oversight. Freedom of the press does not give reporters a green light to commit treason and calling treason 'whistleblowing' does not change the fact that a crime has been committed.

Covert wiretapping of political opponents is a sure thing without judicial oversight. Recent campaign triumphs likely are the result of unwarranted domestic spying rather than the genius of political hacks.

The comment "in a free country the government does not clamp down on the press" is misleading - in a free country, the government feels no need to clamp down on the press - with the rush to publish new materiel (confirmed or otherwise, damaging to national security or no) seemingly the only motivating factor behind the actions of the major news outlets, this draconian response was predictable. The government does not precieve yours (not mine, I'm Canadian, thanks) to be a 'free country' - they view the American people as being subject to the media distributors.

And sadly, they might be right. And even if they are not, they will act as if they are.
Ergo, their actions are fairly predictable - clamp down on the media, control the people.

A person with noble intentions does not mind being questioned because they will have answers that are justified and sound. The people that feel they should be trusted without question are the ones afraid to have their motives see the light of day. I agree that some secrets should be kept to protect individuals, but other secrets need to be exposed to protect America from becoming a slave to Tyrants.

"those who would trade security for liberty deserve neither" Right on Nathan. Lock and Load.

Quotations from Arnold Toynbee, arguably the greatest scholar/analyst of history and the structure/dynamics of civilization this world has ever known:

"Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder."

"Of the twenty-two civilizations that have appeared in history, nineteen of them collapsed when they reached the moral state the United States is in now."

"There is a kind of intellectual provincialism in the dogma that 'life is just one damned thing after another.' human affairs do not become intelligible until they are seen as a whole."

reply to someone: "Who Care?"

Well you better start caring because the seeds are in place for a government that has lost it's identity and purpose (serving the people). This regime has totally disregard all rights for the constitution and most shameful of all they have carry out their crimes in the name for freedom; The same freedom they swore to uphold........

I love the " if you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about." excuse. The problem with that is you don't control what is considered "wrong". The govonment can change that anytime making something like honestly reporting a story "wrong", showing the facts wrong. Voicing dissent wrong. Don't give an inch of your freedom so the govornment can't take a mile.

All this business about the government keeping track of people's phone numbers is too much to believe. This has to be just be another conspiracy theory that only you tinfoil hat wearing crazies believe.

Oh wait, President Bush admitted to it. O.K. then just this one thing. Everything else Bush won't answer about is just conspiracy theories. Go back to reporting the real news about celebrity sex relations and lost rich girls on remote islands.

I for one am sick and tired of reading how 'the person spoke on a condition of anonymity' because they werent authorized to release the information.

everyday there is so much news with that exact sentence in them. I'm not saying let the g-men have free reign over everything, but maybe its not a bad idea to catch people who have sworn to their God and country not to tell others about their job, then turn around and start blabbing all the juicy details to the nearest reporter who will listen.

And I'm not talking about exposing a coverup where 100s of children are dying or spying on the entire nation or fake WMDs etc etc etc.

Im talking about the 100+ leaks a day about fairly normal things that were never meant to be plastered all over the news by some grossly over paid blonde bimbo with a bad haircut who doesnt even understand the things she is reading off her teleprompter.

We have been conditioned to think that individuals and companies private details are everyones right to know and is 'news'

As far as reporters being worried about their sources being exposed I have 2 things to say:

(1) Don't let your mouth write a check your butt can't cash and (2) even an idiot knows not to talk about anything important on a mobile phone or any phone for that matter. I love seeing all these reporters acting shocked about it. All this is is fodder for jacking up the advertising that goes along with the story.

Even fish wouldn't get caught if they learned to keep their mounths shut.

My comment:
If in what the government intends to do is protect the citizens of the United States from harm, then what is the problem with phone numbers being tracked. I'm a veteran of OIF and have people I still keep in contact with from Iraq. I've got no secrets, as far as I'm concerned I will give anyone the phone numbers I have and the dates I called them. I've got nothing to hide.
The government wants to protect is people from harm (I'm sure they could do better). The media is in it for the ratings. Do you honestly think the media is going spend it's resources to protect you? On my tour in Iraq I've seen stories unfold in front of my eyes that were reported a "little" different. This is only one: remember the state department official that was "killed on the airport road" in 2004. He wasn't killed, he died of a heart attack. But that little play on words makes it sound a whole lot different, doesn't it?
You all keep fueling the fire of the media, I've put my two cents in and got change back.

It was only a matter of time before someone carefully studied "All the President's Men" and considered how to uncover whistle blowers.

So, what's next? Anyone that criticizes the US government will disappear in the night. I dread the thought of what the final limit will be for this administration as far as usurping personal rights granted in the US constitution.

I'd say CONGRESS needs to do it's job and ask honest questions of this administration and seek honest answers.

Long live King George, Ministers Rumsfield and Cheney!

I really doubt the government is targeting reporters with this. They are more likely targeting the leakers. The leakers are the source of the problem, and the press should not be blamed. I would imagine that anybody who has access to sensitive government intelligence or works in an intelligence agency must have signed a form at some point that said that the government may monitor their communications and conduct surveillance on them as standard operating procedure to protect against leakers and double-agents. If so then there should be no outcry when the government actually does its job and follows through. If you take an oath to protect national intelligence secrets, and then turn around and leak them to the press, then you are hurting your country. As patriotic as it was for the press to keep secrets in the past, those days are gone--the press is under no obligation to keep intelligence secrets and thus cannot be trusted with them.

...and in a (yet to be taken) poll of Americans,60% say that it's great that news organizations other than Fox are being spied upon by the U.S. Government. "We're so scared of everything that we don't mind giving up our freedoms," said Pat Everyamerican. "Besides, an unchecked government is o.k. with me!"

If your concern is so valid and the fear so intense over the "Spying program", step up and be an overseer of this. Otherwise your just crying wolf just to be heard.

STATE SECRETS? Is this Russia? This isn't Russia! Is this Russia? Well I guess it is, now that we start wars, torture people, and detain them without trial.

Of course, if the president was really serious about keeping secrets, he'd have fired Cheney, Libby, and Rove for leaking the name of a CIA operative.

Remember when George said the NSA program "strictly targets Al-Queda"? If the president isn't lying, that means ABC is an Al-Queda affiliate, right? I should have suspected by the way they criticize our Glorious Leader. Hail George!

"hey, who cares? if you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. sheesh!
Posted by: some one | May 15, 2006 1:11:38 PM"

And who is to say that you haven't already done something wrong according to someone else. Any law can be changed to make you a criminal. You shouldn't really get too comfortable in your new police state, it will make your transition to prison a little easier.

A little bit of fear mongering huh... This article and comments are so lopsided in their politics it is scary. There are way too many ignorant and far fetched comments here from the very americans this government is trying to protect but can't see past their hatred of everything "Bush" to put this in a little context. I am an immigrant and appreciate what is being done so that I can be safe here.

To those who really believe "I'm not doing (saying) anything wrong so I don't care if the Government tracks/monitors my phone calls/internet/library useage". Does that sentiment also apply to your bedroom? "My wife and I don't engage in any deviant sex so I don't mind if the government monitors us."

It's about PRIVACY, and if you give up any - you'd better be prepared to give up all.

Here here, Robert Rutherford! Well put.

i hope this finally means that cheney and bush will be put where they belong, in prison...at least for gross incompetence if nothing else. how can 2 fools, knowing that at least 80 out of every 100 people who hear them think they are full of crap can be so clueless....its actually frighteneing if you think about it...

Republicans are a pack of crooks hooked up with religious "sheep" for votes. Anybody who votes Republican is an idiot!

OUR "FREEDOM" AND "WAY OF LIFE" IS BEING ATTACKED EVERYDAY, BUT NOT BY OUR ENEMIES BUT BY OUR GOVERMENT........I SERVED MY COUNTRY MANY YEARS AGO AND COME NOVEMBER I WILL DO MY PART AND SERVE MY COUNTRY AGAIN. BY SHOWING THE ADMINISRATION AND REPUBLICAN CONGRESS THE DOOR....

Do I have to pull out my National Security case book and research wiretapping on Westlaw again? Then again sometimes certain people are above the law.

Ok, so if I post a comment to your blog and say that I'm a "secret government source" and warn you that the sky is falling, you're just supposed to believe me right? I'll take the bet that this story has been brought to you by the very same people who gladly send their account information to people emailing them to tell them that they've just inherited millions of dollars from their long lost rich uncle in Nigeria. Get a clue people, somone just managed to make the news with a joke.

Ok, so if I post a comment to your blog and say that I'm a "secret government source" and warn you that the sky is falling, you're just supposed to believe me right? I'll take the bet that this story has been brought to you by the very same people who gladly send their account information to people emailing them to tell them that they've just inherited millions of dollars from their long lost rich uncle in Nigeria. Get a clue people, somone just managed to make the news with a joke.

Conditions of "war" do not supercede the tenets of the US Constitution. Where does it state in ANY part of the US constitution that the rights of the people may be abridged in times of "war" ? As a matter of fact, the Constitution EXPLICITLY addresses certain aspects of a United States at "war"..... and in no way does it permit principles enshrined in this document to be abridged simply because the nation is at "war", as President Lincoln found out when he revoked the right of "habeus corpus". BIG no no !

How dare anyone question the administration's decision to ignore the Constitution. The Constitution has a Pre-9/11 mindset. Its old, its dusty, its irrelevant. We don't need a Constitution. Just go to Church, pollute the land, bash the gays, beat the women, kill the immigrants, and praise Jesus. Be a good Patriot. King George will make your decisions for you. No need to think here, just move along. The end times are coming. King George will make sure of that.

what do you have to hide... Seriously it's not that big of a deal...

What are you guys terrorists? There should be nothing to hide and it's not like the goverment has "aired" anything it has recorded since Gov Phone Taps started

We can't afford to wait any longer, hoping things will get better without us - people with consciences - taking action, independent of politics that exist to reduce us tails on donkeys. www.worldcantwait.org

It's good to see so many folks saying they weren't fooled by the Bush regime's insistence that they're only spying on "the bad guys". I guess we're all bad guys in their eyes, eh?

Dear Diane Kemp,

You, my dear. Libraries are prohibited from telling patrons the feds have sucked up their records, and all phones are having the numbers they call recorded.

WWII also brought us internment camps, I suppose you think those are justified.

It actually goes: "Loose lips hinder sips..."

You know, it doesn't really matter whether this latest story regarding ABC cell phone is ever substantiated. The things that have already been substantiated should alarm even the staunchest republican. How much more head nodding before conscience and fact stiffen the neck and "no more" is finally uttered. We are further down the slippery slope of a police state than anyone could possibly predicted just a few short years ago.

Just say, "no more."

Ross

"Do I have to pull out my National Security case book and research wiretapping on Westlaw again?"

Maybe just pull out the newspaper and see if you can remember the difference between wiretapping (not happening) and pattern recognition (happening).

What do you get when you combine a government that runs black bag ops with anyone who thinks differently than the President, who has his own personal world view? We get what we have: the end of Democracy.

To those that write they have nothing to hide so eavesdropping on them is a-okay, I say...

It's not like there's a history in this country of the government using its powers to spy on people for narrow political, even personal and vindictive purposes.

Oh wait... Damn those history books. (These books also seem to have a lot of info about absolute power corrupting absolutely...)

The FDR parallels are also pretty amusing. The only things George Bush has in common with FDR is a history of drinking and a handicap.

But regardless let's get a few things straight:

NO REASONABLE PERSON has any problem with eavesdropping. No liberal, no Democrat, no Republican, and certainly not the cult of personality around Dear Leader. What a few people (you know, lawyers, judges, career goverment officials and inspectors, career NSA officers who've said this is wrong, Republicans like Newt Gingrich and Bill Kristol) DO have a problem with is circumventing the LAW in order to eavesdrop. All these critics have asked is, "Why not follow the law which requires a judicial review? And if the law doesn't work, why not work with Congress to change it?" The point is that the president is not allowed to break the law anymore than you or I are, and it's the job of Congress to make laws, not his.

It's called separation of powers and it's one of the philosophical pillars of our nation. Those of you conflating critics and terrorists might want to check into it.

And in the meantime, consider what you would have said if we were talking about President Hillary deciding to spy on Americans without any of the legally required judicial oversight.

Yeah, exactly.

Jim, they can't target the "leakers" without targeting the news agencies. They don't know who the "leakers" are. See the logic there? You go after your known quantities to reveal the variables.

"Ok, so if I post a comment to your blog and say that I'm a "secret government source" and warn you that the sky is falling, you're just supposed to believe me right? I'll take the bet that this story has been brought to you by the very same people who gladly send their account information to people emailing them to tell them that they've just inherited millions of dollars from their long lost rich uncle in Nigeria. Get a clue people, somone just managed to make the news with a joke."

Notice that the artical says that it was an inperson conversation. Not some email.

Before criticizing the government for their efforts to track down illicit "sources", we ought to be expressing outrage that our major media outlets are willing to reveal classified information. Any reasonable person would agree that certain information and activities need to be safeguarded. If the USA Today (or any other media outlet) has reason to believe that information is classified, then they need to respect that, period. Otherwise, whose side are they on?

To those of you who need it put this simply,

Choice 1) sacrifice my civil liberties

Choice 2) possibly die in a terrorist attack

Americans, patriots, have taken choice #2 since the dawn of our nation. We chose it in the founding of the nation, in the declaration of independance, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.
It is the harder choice, not to be sure, not to fear.

I am a citizen, who lived in NYC during 9/11. I was directly impacted by this assualt on our nation, and I lost some friends that day on Manhattan's South Side.

I choose option #2 even after 9/11. I am not a coward, I am a patriotic American. Let them try to bring another attack. I will face it on my feet, and I will not be beaten. Even should I personally die in the attack, America will not perish from an outside influence. Only by submitting and giving up our freedoms can America be destroyed. Those of you who choose to give up your freedoms for a false sense of security are not only fools, but cowards, and clearly UN-American.

Terrorists can hit us no matter what we do, there will always be airplanes, buildings, gas tankers and nuclear power plants in America. How we die is not up to us, how we LIVE, is. Not even George W. Bush is the 'decider' on our Constitutionally assured freedoms. We are all, and my life will gladly be traded for the continued freedom of my fellow Americans.

-Morrison of PowersAndMorrison.com

The White House has stated that it thinks it is prefectly okay and legal to simply keep a huge database of all the numbers dialed in this country and when.

Doesn't that outrage anybody?
My best friend is pakistani and he frequently visits family in pakistan. Now I have the government monitoring when, and how often I call him when he is in Pakistan?!

That is simply ridiculous and anyone who says that is okay needs to go back to the third grade and learn about the Bill of Rights and the struggle to create this nation.

The sad fact that he got re-elected which means that too many believed the rhetoric he spews. I will be glad to see Bush got, unfortunately, we have two years to go. :/

As far as leakers, I think if you took an oath that you should hold to it. The problem with leaks is the kickback that people get from them. I don't see much altruism with leakers. Its usually for personal gain or political party gain.

Cheers

The sad part about everything? People will still vote along party lines. Especially the Ultra Right Republicans. They say there is nothing wrong with the NSA garbage but they think differently. They say they believe that "DUBYA" is doing a great job but they think differently. They say the country, economy, job outlook, war, are all fine and dandy but they all think differently. That's a problem.

The time is now to admit that this country is under a Dictatorship. The administration is using scare tactics, just like during the election, to make you think that infringing on the Bill of Rights and the Constitution is OK. How many AMERICAN men and women have to perish in the name of freedom before this country opens it's eyes to the hypocracy.

The military is fighting for the IRAQI freedoms and liberties that we are so eager to give up. WHY? Because the Republicans tell us it's OK. We have to protect ourselves. FOOEY.

If your willing to give up our freedoms so easily, bring the troops home. You don't deserve your freedom.

I was an intel analyst at the NSA for a few years, and I can tell you. What is happening there now is rubbing their own people the wrong way, in a big way. We had to sign paperwork annually stating that we would NOT collect intel on any US citizen, inside or out of the country. The wistleblowing on the part of NSA employees will not stop, they are being asked to violate the rules of collection that were instilled so completely up till now.

Today, the government schools don't teach about the security measures taken by BOTH sides in World War II, but street patrols had transmitter detectors to catch operatives for the enemy. Where was the ACLU? Where was Kennedy? Where was the liberal press? We learned to keep our mouths shut and get on with what needed to be done.

So let's knock off the crap; shut up; and get the job done.

"A little bit of fear mongering huh... This article and comments are so lopsided in their politics it is scary. There are way too many ignorant and far fetched comments here from the very americans this government is trying to protect but can't see past their hatred of everything "Bush" to put this in a little context. I am an immigrant and appreciate what is being done so that I can be safe here.
Posted by: Matthew | May 15, 2006 1:48:42 PM"

Fear mongering is precisely what makes you so willing to give up your right to privacy.

What is the government trying to protect us from by data mining your phone calls? If I was a terrorist, do you think I would be so foolish to use the telephone to devise my plans? This is the same government and president that ignored specific, documented warnings about the attacks on 9/11. It is in fact the same government that presided over the largest security failure in American history on 9/11! How can you think you are being "kept safe here" with these incompetents in charge? How did they suddenly become smart enough to interpret data derived from billions of DOMESTIC phone calls to uncover terrorist activities? This is all about politics as you said, but not the politics of your convenience. This is all about a paranoid, inefective government looking for ways to discredit its political enemies, strike fear into the gullible, and cover its huge and truly dangerous blundering.

If they are looking at your phone.Your ISP has already let them looked at your emails,web sites,bank accounts, credit cards they know everything about you. So get ready for that knock on the door. Get cash and leave quick.
Mein Fuhrer
Sig Heil

O my God! The third Reich allusions are SO original!! It's completely clear to me now - Bush is a Nazi!

Come on!! He's either an idiot who talks funny, or he's a brilliant mastermind of lies and deception. Libs - make up your mind! For God's sake - WE'RE IN A WAR WITH PEOPLE THAT HAVE NO QUALMS WHATSOEVER ABOUT KILLING US SIMPLY FOR THE FACT THAT WE EXIST!!!

Oh, but please, we must face our enemies politely, and treat them with dignity and compassion. Give me a break!

I think the comparisons between Bush and Hitler are a little unfair. However, I think that all Americans ought to go back and read both the Declaration of Independance and the Constitution so that we can be saved from our new King George III (for he sees himself as our king, and he is the third head of state named "George").

The statement

"If you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to hide"

is logically equivalent to

"If you've got something to hide, you've done something wrong"

You poor poor saps. Do you believe everything you read? Get new cell phones! That is funny. I think Motorola and Nokia are behind this news flash.

The word "Privacy" is not mentioned once in the constitution. There is no constitutional right to privacy.

As much as I detest this administration, thats the truth.

I feel that it is wrong to justify the newly assumed power of the government with the notion that it is acceptable to encroach on the rights of US citizens during a time of war. The war on terrorism is a war on a tactic, and an end to the war on terrorism has no visible ending... What this means is that the government will continue to justify its actions under the cover of "wartime."

WOW! So many people have commented on this article as if it were fact. When in FACT, the author states that this information has not been confirmed. I guess if you dislike someone enough, there is no reason to search for the truth when unsubstantiated accusations will do. Very sad!!

America land of the Free and land of the brave.
Land of the free not anymore
Land of the brave maybe the government is commited to scaring the hell out of it's citizen that half of us are scared stiff. Terrorist there, terrorist here, terrorist everywhere. Terrorist now, later, soon, anytime. Even folks that live in small towns are afraid of terrorist. It like being afraid of sharks and you live by the lake.

Unfortunately, we are in a very real war, and this is being fought on our home soil. Doesn't anyone out there remember the horror of the WTC attacks? 19 skilled terrorists, recruited by a well-financed terrorist network, carried out the biggest attack on US soil. It didn't happen again; happenstance? I doubt it. Surveillance and detention? Military strikes? Probably. I would rather be alive with some compromised rights, rather than dead right. If this information is being used for other than terrorist catching, there are remedies.

At what point do we rise up and say "I"m mad as hell and I can't take this anymore?" None of us wants to die in a terrorist attack, but anyone who is unable to truly see what is going on here has their head in the sand. This administration MUST be taken to task and the ONLY way this is going to happen is if the people who "mad as hell" work as one to boot Republicans out of Congress and resurrect the balance of power. Three more years of this is more than this country can take.

Roba said :

" Before criticizing the government for their efforts to track down illicit "sources", we ought to be expressing outrage that our major media outlets are willing to reveal classified information. "

We should prosecute people for exposing illegal activity ? ? ? When has that EVER been a precept of the American system ?

Nobody says that George B. should endevour to protect his nation. However.....as he promised us in his oath of office, he will UPHOLD the constitution, not distort and pervert it to his own ends !

Wow, just wow.

You are so right to compare Bush to Hilter is a insult.

To Hilter

We have met the enemy and he is us.

Before you get bent out of shape about "leakers", remember the "leaker in chief and his buddy" who apparently okayed the leaking of the name of an UNDERCOVER CIA OPERATIVE just for revenge on her husband.

David Said :

" The word "Privacy" is not mentioned once in the constitution. There is no constitutional right to privacy.

As much as I detest this administration, thats the truth"

You're wrong ! The constitution EXPLICITLY states that goverment agencies MUST have a warrant to intrude in our lives.... There's no ambiguity there...last time I read the document, it clearly stated in the 4th Amendment :

" The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Not one IOTA of ambiguity there !

GOOD!!! Now secrets can remain secret!!!!

Those loose lips need to be punished! Not EVERYTHING needs to have a whistle blower!

Folks:

There is an election this November. If you are not
scared about the NSA you should be looking into the
COPE Act that is going for a vote next week. If this new regulatory act regulating the www doesn't
scare you nothing will.

This once fine country under the Dubya is heading
towards a Police state. It will make the Gestapo
and KGB look like Barney Fifth of the old Mayberry
RFD show.

Wake Up

*NEWS FLASH*

NSA is listening in as you talk to yourself! Run for the hills!

Many think the surveilance program is legal and does not involve information that the law covers. However, it might help the terrorist if they knew the detals. Are we going to have to spell out these details because some in the public do not trust the President. This seems just a puffed up story or leak designed to force the President to describe exactly how his program is legal and possibly make it useless.

Now that is really patriotic!

We can all go back an forth, calling each other names, but we know we will not change each other's minds. Our minds are made up.
What remains to be seen is whether or not the American people as a whole can swallow the new "administration guidelines". We'll find out this November. I encourage you all to vote.

if you have nothing to hide, what are you afraid of? wake up people, the world is changing. if you could see the future and knew that your family would be killed by a terrorist bomb that could be prevented through the virtues of this program, would you still oppose it? who here has the balls to say yes, probably no one. case closed.

Take care to whom you give power, it might be difficult to get it back.

I can understand why people are resistant to compare Bush to Hitler. Usually it is because they see Bush and the NSA as nice guys just having a difficult time of it. But most are unaware of certain historical facts... both these men:
1) Joined an occult society involving rituals with skulls and bones.
2) Were not elected by a majority but were appointed when election was called into question.
3) Gave out lucrative contracts mostly to very large corporations.
4) Allowed and encouraged large corporations to consolidate the media into a very few corporations.
5) Created the illusion of prosperity through the use of government debt and military spending.
6) Were fervent Christains involking gods name in speeches.
7) Promoted family values.
8) Provided moral and financial support to faith based initiatives.
9) Were illedgedly attacked by terrorists from the Middle East which rallied the people to give him new powers.
10) Suspended many constitutional guarantees after the terrorist attack.
11) Cleared protesters so that no one saw the protests when they were in the area.
12) Put a 4 year time limit on the constitutional suspensions.
13) Held "suspicious" persons without access to laywers or courts.
14) Determined that they needed to consolidate many agencies into one that would protect the homeland (the SS).
15) Claimed they had the right to strike pre-emptively in self defense.
16) Claimed that after the first invasion, they came as liberators.
17) Said "You are either with us or you are with the Terrorists".
18) Would repeat the same things over and over and would manufacture news with paid reporters.
19) Tied support for the war to support for the troops.
20) Claimed a second country had WMD's and needed to be attacked also (in Hitlers case this was Poland and non-exstant poison gas)
21) Used a war technique of "Shock and awe" or "Blitzcreeg".
22) Often refused to listen to their generals.
23) Removed from around them anyone who disagreed with them.
If you don't believe this please check it, the history lesson is good for everyone afterall those who dont know history tend to repeat it. Seems to me like a lot of stuff that is similar.. one big difference is that Hitler started a World War. We know Bush would not do that.

Hm.. Let's see, so many to choose from;

Look in the mirror or read the Constitution?

Security or Liberty?

Corporations or People?

Government for people or government for profit?

My body, heart, mind and soul or yours?

Treason or patriotism?

A majority of 400 million and minority of 399,999,997? That still works?

Media feeds or government trough?

Terrorism is what terrorism does.

Choose death.

One commenter posted: "I seriously doubt that any complaint given to congress by a whistleblower would go uninvestigated." indicating in his post that those "sources" talking to the media are "leakers" and thus not deserving of any respect. Two things, 1st: Here's an illegal act reported to congress that has gone uninvestigated - THE NSA WARRANTLESS WIRETAPPING OF US CITIZENS. The Justice Department (controlled by the Executive Branch, look it up) has dropped it's investigation of the NSA (controlled by the Executive Branch again) since it can't get the security clearances to view the material. How would the US Citizen know of the NSA activity if not for the press? 2: If Leakers don't deserve any respect, then Bush, Cheney, Rove, and Libby fall into that category since we now know that they were the "leakers" in the Valerie Plame case, and could have avoided a huge taxpayer bill for investigation if they would have said so in the first place, rather than deny and cover-up their involvement.

"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in shackles."
"The falsification of history has done more to impede human development than any one thing known to mankind"
“I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery”
“To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties”
“Force does not constitute right... obedience is due only to legitimate powers.”
-Rousseau

Gary Said :

"However, it might help the terrorist if they knew the detals. Are we going to have to spell out these details because some in the public do not trust the President"

It's not about "trusting" the president, or not "trusting" the president....It's about George Bush violating the constitution, a document that he SWORE to uphold, in order to achieve his aims...... A lot of good men....a lot of good PEOPLE...died to defend that document !

"The ends do not justify the means"

The problem with this whole situation is that an earlier commenter made the distinction between a 'whistleblower' and a leaker. This is very true, there are laws that protect whistleblowers. In the case of this administration, there HAVE been Whistleblowers from WITHIN the NSA, but Congress hasn't been able to pay attention to him.

Here's the copy of a letter sent to the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee saying he knows about illegal activity from the NSA:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/2006/05/050106.html#3

The Honorable Pat Roberts
United States Senate
Chairman, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Member, Senate Armed Services Committee
109 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-1605

25 April 2006

Dear Chairman Roberts,

Over four months ago, on 16 December 2005, I wrote to you requesting to report to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI)
probable illegal conduct in the Intelligence Community (IC) regarding Special Access Programs (SAP)s. I made this request under the provisions of the Intelligence Community Whistleblower
Protection Act (ICWPA). My concern was that probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts were conducted while I was an intelligence
officer with the National Security Agency (NSA) and with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). I informed you that these acts involve
the Director of the National Security Agency, the U.S. Air Force Deputies Chief of Staff for Air and Space Operations, and the U.S. Secretary of Defense.

To this date I have not received a response from you or the SSCI addressing my request to testify about these SAP programs. In a letter addressed to me by NSA on 09 Jan `06 (letter provided), of
which NSA also provided you a copy, they asserted that neither you nor any senator on the SSCI retains high enough security clearances
to hear about the intelligence work I performed in these very highly classified programs and operations. NSA's assertion did not appear
credible to me, considering I was an intelligence officer and the ICWPA suggests that the congressional intelligence committees are
responsible for intelligence oversight.

The press has suggested that the Senate Armed Services Committee may be the proper place for me to testify about the SAP intelligence
misconduct that I would like to report. Other rumors circulated that no one in congress is allowed access to this information. One news
article said that the SSCI Vice Chair admitted that the intelligence committee did not have jurisdiction.

In their letter, NSA did not make mention of any other congressional committee that was cleared. The staff of the HPSCI believes that I fall into a "gray" area between intelligence and military special programs.

As the responsible committee for intelligence in the Senate, I have been waiting for your directions on this matter. If another
committee is the proper place for me to testify, I believe it is your responsibility to forward my request to that committee and keep me informed of the process.

You are also a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and, as such, should know if SAP related intelligence programs fall within
the jurisdiction of intelligence and/or the military committees. If the SSCI is indeed the proper place for me to convey this intelligence related misconduct, I likewise believe it is your
responsibility to inform me of such. This, of course, has not been the case.

In the absence of any direction, I recently have been researching this question of jurisdiction. In doing so, I have stumbled upon a directive that seems to address the question of who in congress is cleared to know about these SAP programs. U.S. Code, Title 10, Subtitle A,Part 1, Chapter 2, Subsection 119 (Special Access
Program: Congressional Oversight), dated 12 July 2005 (provided) states that the Senate and House Appropriations, Appropriations Defense Sub, and Armed Services Committees are responsible for
reviewing "waved" SAP programs. No mention is specifically made in regard to the considerable intelligence missions associated with these SAPs.

Nonetheless, with this Title 10 directive clearly addressing congressional oversight of SAPs, and in the absence of any direction
from the SSCI committee you chair, I have decided to direct all further intelligence related inquires and requests that involve the
SAP related ICWPA concern I need to report, to the aforementioned alternate committees. The very same request I made of you and the SSCI over four months ago, I am now making to these alternate committees.

They will be receiving letters from me in conjunction with this letter to you.

Very Respectfully,
Russell D. Tice
Former Intelligence Officer,
National Security Agency
cc: The Honorable Barbara A. Mikulski
The Honorable Paul S. Sarbanes

They're finding people who leak classified info so they can prosecute them. No problem there. Next they should go after the reporters who actually release the stories.

If the spilling of these state secrets had happened during WWI, WWII, or even the Korean War, the suspected leakers along with their willing accomplices in the media would have been arrested and thrown in jail on charges of sedition and providing aid and comfort to the enemy.

Many of you just don't get it. Are we in a war, or not? Is the enemy trying to kill us, or not? Do we want to win, or should we just give up now and start praying on our knees to Mecca 12 times a day?

In my opinion, the leakers and their accomplices in the media should be found and deported to Syria or some other 3rd world nation.

hey, who cares? if you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. sheesh!

So why am I so worried? Must be my case of megalomania!

How can the public possibly think that domestic communications spying, including warrant-less wiretaps, electronic surveillance, call logging, internet monitoring (all protocols, email and web browsing, alike) is an "only since 911" phenomena. Do you, the public, really think that this is a “new” policy? Good Grief, people! We have been spied on by our government, our neighbor, the Ruskies, Koreans, Chinese, Israelis, etc, with every advance the technological community has developed from the moment it was perfected and some before perfection. Don’t kid yourself. The techno-genie is way out of the bottle and long since looking over your shoulder. No amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth now will ever change that. Oh I agree, protest.. but protest with pragmatism. Protecting privacy is YOUR job not the governments (who in-fact is the greatest offender). Don’t put in electronic form what you don’t want to surface two or three decades later. Al Qaeda has at least learned that, haven’t we?

Isn't it true, that an terrorist is "someone that instills fear into someone". Isn't this what G Bush does? He instilled fear in us that terrorist are every where. One of my friends and I were watching a movie. A bank robbery happened, he called the robbers terrorist. If you do call a bank robber a terrorist, then a car speeding is also a terrorist. It scares me when I am going 75 mph, and someone passes me and is out of site in 5 seconds. Which this could be true, if the above quote is correct, but I do not consider a bank robber or a speeder to be a terrorist. G. Bush has sent over 2,000 AMERICANS to there death. Just about more than that died on 9/11. Great Job cheating your way into running the "greatest country in the world." Wiretapping is legal. According to the Patriot Act. But I do not agree with the Act.

EMPEACH THE WHOLE GROUP.. GEORGE, DICK, and RICE!!

I find it interesting that media sources have created blogs in order to get front page headlines about stories they couldn't get out in their usual format because they can't substantiate the information. Seems to me they are now doing the same things they rag about on such publications as the Enquirer. I guess the new wave of journalist no longer cares about publishing the truth. Rumor and innuendo are just fine as long as they can get a byline on a story picked up by the AP. No wonder newspaper readership and big 3 TV News viewership is down.

"Under Bush Administration guidelines, it is not considered illegal for the government to keep track of numbers dialed by phone customers."

Are these not the same guidelines authorized by the last Democrat administration? So, what Bubba did before 9/11 was OK, but now that there is no question about our need for vigilence, the Democrats whine.

Remember, this program concerns data collection and analysis of third-party archival billing information. This is not the clandestine recording of conversations as in Clinton's secret ECHELON program.

Where is the promised Democrat plan? When will the detractors stop their destructive rhetoric and do something - anything - positive?

BTW, in The Trib, John Schmidt, a lifelong dem, argues in favor ot the President's authority. A DINO?

Resist the Democrat masters and start thinking for yourself...first step: review the record.

You can buy anyone's cell phone records for $100... Worried your wife will find all those phonesex calls? Use a payphone, wear masks when in front of surveilance cameras and talk in code if you want to sling rocks or other crap that will get you arrested you stupid pedophiles...

There never has been a right to privacy when cellphone calls are concerned. Anyone can listen in just like the early days of the telephone and the party-line system in which many people shared the same phone line. Anytime one picked up the phone, one expected others to be listening. In the case of cellphones, we are broadcasting our conversations into the ether upon public airwaves. Most of our hardwire telephonics are also transmitted thru microwaves, too.

The data collection is of the origin and destination numbers, not conversations. If the same numbers to suspected persons comes up then those numbers are tagged. One must have an incredibly large ego to think that you, an average Joe or Jill, would be of such high import the government would spent real-time work hours on your petty conversations.

Communications in times of war have always been monitored. Ben Franklin was aware his letters were being read before he received them and those he sent were also read. Benedict Arnold was caught because of an accidental communication intercept thereby saving hundreds of lives and the strategic location of West Point from being captured by the British.

If one does not wish to be included in the datastream, don't use your phone to call Osama, Zawahiri, or Zarqawi; don't spill the beans to reporters over the phone. Rather, go see these people in person or send them a Hallmark card instead. Handwritten letters are a dying art. This crisis may breath new life into snail mail.

I wonder, what would Joe McCarthy have done with this?

Part of me died when I saw this cruel killing

HALA JABER
EVEN by the stupefying standards of Iraq’s unspeakable violence, the murder of Atwar Bahjat, one of the country’s top television journalists, was an act of exceptional cruelty.

Nobody but her killers knew just how much she had suffered until a film showing her death on February 22 at the hands of two musclebound men in military uniforms emerged last week. Her family’s worst fears of what might have happened have been far exceeded by the reality.

Bahjat was abducted after making three live broadcasts from the edge of her native city of Samarra on the day its golden-domed Shi’ite mosque was blown up, allegedly by Sunni terrorists.

Roadblocks prevented her from entering the city and her anxiety was obvious to everyone who saw her final report. Night was falling and tensions were high.

Two men drove up in a pick-up truck, asking for her. She appealed to a small crowd that had gathered around her crew but nobody was willing to help her. It was reported at the time that she had been shot dead with her cameraman and sound man.

We now know that it was not that swift for Bahjat. First she was stripped to the waist, a humiliation for any woman but particularly so for a pious Muslim who concealed her hair, arms and legs from men other than her father and brother.

Then her arms were bound behind her back. A golden locket in the shape of Iraq that became her glittering trademark in front of the television cameras must have been removed at some point — it is nowhere to be seen in the grainy film, which was made by someone who pointed a mobile phone at her as she lay on a patch of earth in mortal terror.

By the time filming begins, the condemned woman has been blindfolded with a white bandage.

It is stained with blood that trickles from a wound on the left side of her head. She is moaning, although whether from the pain of what has already been done to her or from the fear of what is about to be inflicted is unclear.

Just as Bahjat bore witness to countless atrocities that she covered for her television station, Al-Arabiya, during Iraq’s descent into sectarian conflict, so the recording of her execution embodies the depths of the country’s depravity after three years of war.

A large man dressed in military fatigues, boots and cap approaches from behind and covers her mouth with his left hand. In his right hand, he clutches a large knife with a black handle and an 8in blade. He proceeds to cut her throat from the middle, slicing from side to side.

Her cries — “Ah, ah, ah” — can be heard above the “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) intoned by the holder of the mobile phone.

Even then, there is no quick release for Bahjat. Her executioner suddenly stands up, his job only half done. A second man in a dark T-shirt and camouflage trousers places his right khaki boot on her abdomen and pushes down hard eight times, forcing a rush of blood from her wounds as she moves her head from right to left.

Only now does the executioner return to finish the task. He hacks off her head and drops it to the ground, then picks it up again and perches it on her bare chest so that it faces the film-maker in a grotesque parody of one of her pieces to camera.

The voice of one of the Arab world’s most highly regarded and outspoken journalists has been silenced. She was 30.

As a friend of Bahjat who had worked with her on a variety of tough assignments, I found it hard enough to bear the news of her murder. When I saw it replayed, it was as if part of me had died with her. How much more gruelling it must have been for a close family friend who watched the film this weekend and cried when he heard her voice.

The friend, who cannot be identified, knew nothing of her beheading but had been guarding other horrifying details of Bahjat’s ordeal. She had nine drill holes in her right arm and 10 in her left, he said. The drill had also been applied to her legs, her navel and her right eye. One can only hope that these mutilations were made after her death.

There is a wider significance to the appalling footage and the accompanying details. The film appears to show for the first time an Iraqi death squad in action.

The death squads have proliferated in recent months, spreading terror on both sides of the sectarian divide. The clothes worn by Bahjat’s killers are bound to be scrutinised for clues to their identity.
Part of me died when I saw this cruel killing

Bahjat, with her professionalism and impartiality as a half-Shi’ite, half-Sunni, would have been the first to warn against any hasty conclusions, however. The uniforms seem to be those of the Iraqi National Guard but that does not mean she was murdered by guardsmen. The fatigues could have been stolen for disguise.

A source linked to the Sunni insurgency who supplied the film to The Sunday Times in London claimed it had come from a mobile phone found on the body of a Shi’ite Badr Brigade member killed during fighting in Baghdad.

But there is no evidence the Iranian-backed Badr militia was responsible. Indeed, there are conflicting indications. The drill is said to be a popular tool of torture with the Badr Brigade. But beheading is a hallmark of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by the Sunni Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

According to a report that was circulating after Bahjat’s murder, she had enraged the Shi’ite militias during her coverage of the bombing of the Samarra shrine by filming the interior minister, Bayan Jabr, ordering police to release two Iranians they had arrested.

There is no confirmation of this and the Badr Brigade, with which she maintained good relations, protected her family after her funeral came under attack in Baghdad from a bomber and then from a gunman. Three people died that day.

Bahjat’s reporting of terrorist attacks and denunciations of violence to a wide audience across the Middle East made her plenty of enemies among both Shi’ite and Sunni gunmen. Death threats from Sunnis drove her away to Qatar for a spell but she believed her place was in Iraq and she returned to frontline reporting despite the risks.

We may never know who killed Bahjat or why. But the manner of her death testifies to the breakdown of law, order and justice that she so bravely highlighted and illustrates the importance of a cause she espoused with passion.

Bahjat advocated the unity of Iraq and saw her golden locket as a symbol of her belief. She put it with her customary on-air eloquence on the last day of her life: “Whether you are a Sunni, a Shi’ite or a Kurd, there is no difference between Iraqis united in fear for this nation.”

Think. Are you a patriot or a nationalist? Waving a flag is Nationalism. Criticizing a flawed government is Patriotism. In light of the debate tearing this country apart, I strongly feel that we may wisely turn to the thoughts of the patriots and forefathers of this country for guidance:

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."
-Thomas Jefferson

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President."
- President Theodore Roosevelt

"I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually."
- James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son

"It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from the government."
- Thomas Paine

"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people."
- John F. Kennedy

A President is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution".
- President James Madison

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither."
- Ben Franklin

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
- Edmund Burke

"The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings. "
- John F. Kennedy

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it."
- President Abraham Lincoln

"In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce and brave man, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot."
- 'Mark Twain'

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
- Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph."
- Haile Selassie

"Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion."
- Oscar Wilde

"If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin."
- Samuel Adams

"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
- President Theodore Roosevelt, 1912

Please... don't hand this great society over to those who would subvert the liberty of the many for the benefit of the few. May the Constitution prevail, or this union be shattered into 50 pieces.

"Give me liberty or give me death."
- Patrick Henry

I don't understand why the said Law Enforcement Official is saying, "Get new cell phones." What good would that do? No doubt any new cell phone will have updated encoded chips or "whatever" to keep tabs on its users. Sounds like they want us to get new upgraded cell phones to better track us... It makes no sense, and who is this person? An anonymous whistle blower in this case, and in my opinion has no credibility at all. The article doesn't give me one bit of use full information, and only excites the reactive minded. The point is we the reader don't have this persons name. If wrong is wrong everyone should stand up for truth without fear! I have done that at work before with the risk of loosing my job. I have discovered that they are more afraid of you then you are of them! They may threaten your family but if you believe in God then you know that nobody gets away with anything. I love My country for what it should have been, not for what it is now. The biggest problem I myself have with the NSA eavesdropping program is The PROGRAM itself!!

con grats to all of you neo-cons when will you be
happy when big brother controls all aspecs of our lives
you people make me sick go away and take ohio and florida with you

Hm... so this week, leaking government secrets to the press is good, and it's an outrage when the government tries investigating those responsible for the leak. When do we get back to leaks being bad and how evil the government is for not hunting down whoever "leaked" Plame's nepotism?

(For that matter, when will someone leak enough detail on these alleged secret prisons that someone can succeed where the EU's investigation failed and identify at least the country where these prisons might exist?)

The word "Privacy" is not mentioned once in the constitution. There is no constitutional right to privacy. - DAVID -

Then why do we have the 4th Amendment? Or the 9th?

"This once fine country under the Dubya is heading
towards a Police state. It will make the Gestapo
and KGB look like Barney Fifth of the old Mayberry
RFD show."

Right...We are SO close to gathering up and murdering thousands of...ummm...people who don't like....uhmmmmmm...I mean, those types of people who look like...uh...well you know they're always talking about things...and then there are all the beatings and uh...stuff!! Just like with HITLER!! OMG! Fascists are ruining my marriage!!!!! I had to eat my sister's leg last week because we had no food! Just like in China in the 60's!! I need to go home and make a poster that makes Bush look like Darth Vader, or some bad guy from some movie with BAD GUYS in it! That'll get people thinking! WHO WILL SAVE US FROM THIS EVIL EMPEROR?!

oh wait, elections!...I forgot! We don't have Kings and Princes anymore....

..except for the Kennedys, Bushs, Gores, and Clintons and everyone else in Gov't.

STOP PUTTING FAMILIES in control of the country and perhaps we won't have these issues...

Top government source warns Enquirer magazine that we know your source on the Brangelina alien baby story. Be afraid, be very afraid!

The assertion that the media wouldn't "spend it's (sic) resources to protect you" is completely unfounded. The media is not an armed force nor does it have the unfettered access of a spy agency. It does, however, often conduct itself with the public good in mind. There have been a number of investigations that spoke to the culpability of government and protected civil and human rights.

You needn't look hard to find such examples of how the media.

In strictly military terms, several quick examples that come to mind:

The Huey helicopter had a design flaw that resulted in the deaths of 250 pilots. An enterprising reporter investigated the records and wrote a series of articles that highlighted the problem with the Bell Helicopter. The articles prompted a major redesign.

Alan Miller and Kevin Sack of Los Angeles Times wrote articles examining the Harrier aircraft linked to deaths of 45 pilots. So common were accidents with this aircraft, that it had been nicknamed “The Widow Maker.”

In 1962 the Miami Mews t a very early stage, the installation of soviet-built missle bases in Cuba that included the deployment of a number of MiG fighters. The subsequent Cuban Missle crisis drove the two nations to the brink of nuclear war.

The My Lai massacre in Vietnam. The killing of innocence civilians and children may have gone unnoticed hadn't it been for the efforts of key military personnel and the press.

"Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, after extensive conversations with Lt. Calley, broke the My Lai story on November 12, 1969, and on November 20 Time, Life and Newsweek magazines all covered the story, and CBS televised an interview with Paul Meadlo. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) published explicit photographs of dead villagers killed at My Lai. As is evident from comments made in a 1969 telephone conversation between United States National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, revealed recently by the National Security Archive, the photos of the war crime were too shocking for senior officials to stage an effective cover-up." (Quoted from Wikipedia)

Human rights have had many examples. There is no better piece of journalism that that produced by Mark Fritz of the Associated Press. He wrote a series of articles detailing genocide in Rwanda, a story that was largely ignored by western media and completely ignored by the government. This was THE great failure of the Clinton administration (my favorite moment: when the press secretary was debating whether or not it consituted genocide). If you are not familiar with the slaughter that occurred there, please look it up on the Internet. Anywhere from 500,000 to 800,000 were killed in 100 days. To give you some perspective, that's approximately two or three 9/11s happening a day, every day, for more than three months.

Meat packing plant conditions have been detailed twice. Once and most famously documented by Upton Sinclair in “The Jungle.”. More recently in 1967 when Nathan K. Kotz of Des Moines Register and Minneapolis Tribune reported on conditions that led to the adoption of federal meat packing standards.

The Watergate conspiracy. The Nixon White House authorized the break-in of Democratic National Committee headquarters. The result was an investigation by the Washington Post that revealed an administration engaging in a number of illegal and highly unethical activities. It also reveled the deep paranoia of the Nixon White House.

There have been dozens of cases that an investigator proved that the person sitting on death row was innocent of the crime. Also revealed were the often haphazard investigations and sloppy police practices that led to wrongful conviction.

The National blood supply was the focus of a Philadelphia Inquirer story that led to massive changes in screening practices.

The 1960s Civil Rights movement benefited from the pictures and stories on television and in print journalism. The pictures of protesters being beaten at a lunch counter spurred a nation.

Just last year, a series of articles appeared in the New York Times detailing how at a number of work places, employers were ignoring safety rules with disastrous consequences.

In short, the assertion that a free press does not protect us rings hollow. A free press provides us with information that we would otherwise not have. An active press isn't the problem in the United States – though a lazy, inactive press is a liability.

You guys are pretty funny. The fact is every electronic phone call is tracked for BILLING puroses. How hard do you think it is to get a copy of those records. I would be concerned if the govt was actually recording our voice transmissions but that is not the case. BTW, same with email, it is an electronic transaction that is being stored on a server or in a database "Somewhere". All you conspiracy theory believers need to take another prozac and come to grips with modern technology and the capability it offers, "big brother".
I can not wait to hear you howl when they drop an RFID tag in your life which can track your individual movements. A lot like GM on star system tracks your car.
In fact this Blog will allow someone to track me back to my MSN acct and then to my ISP which will supply my IP address and ultimately supply my location as a hotel in San Francisco. The hotel will tell the Govt who was renting the room when this was written and OH NO a govt agent will knock on my door. Just grow up people this the modern world we live in. There are no secrets

Every body is upset about NSA requesting phone records, but I haven't seen any reporting on the government program called ECHELON which has been in place since the 80's. Big brother and his friends has been snooping for a very long time...

blah blah.

Like the writer of the blog is a purveyor of truth by sheer virtue of his existence. Uncollaborated information is just soooo helpful.

Sure. Let's impeach Bush. What foolishness. That would make Cheney president. Yup. That's better. Then he could run for President as an incumbent. It would be far more politically expedient to let this lame duck president dissappear in a whimper during the next election. And does anybody really believe that Democrats are above the abuse of power?

Comparing Bush to Hitler? That's a terrible analogy. Especially when you consider that if he can't get any legislation passed now, how the heck is he going to change the constituion so he can stay in power? And using allusions to the Third Reich in the context of this administration do a grave dis-service to the victims of The Holocaust.

Will civil discourse ever be a part of public dialog? Too much of our communication is couched in confrontational and inflammatory rhetoric. All I have to do is hop over to a conservative blog and I can get a mirror image of what I'll find at a liberal site.

Communication and dialog should exists as a means of advancing understanding between people. It seems to have little more than a way to proclaim one's opinion and the hell with what others might think. Many of the reponses to this blog demonstrate exactly what I mean.

Politics is about money, in case you needed a reminder. Currently, the money leads back to oil companies and big business. But some time in the future, the Democrats will be on top and their money trail will go off in a different direction. But it is still a big, fat, corrupting stream of money.

I might go with the security / patriotism arguments and comparisons to WWII that some are providing if any study on the US security situation - from 9.11 Commission to views of the security at our ports, nuclear facilities, borders, etc., actually found effective commitment from this administration in improving our security.

Unfortunately, effective commitment has not been found on these truely critical fronts.

That failure stands in stark contrast to the smear campaign (started at the Bush/Cheney level) in the CIA "LEAK" case, the misinformation constantly given by the administration over why and how we got into Iraq, the newly revealed scope of NSA operations, and Porter Goss’s tenure at the CIA which, to many in the spy community, looked like a hatchet job (of course, that Porter inexplicably quit just before his very close friend and recently promoted #3 was indicted on bribery charges doesn’t look too good either).

I don't find Bush comprable to Hitler, but nor do I find him in any way comprable to Roosevelt or any of our great leaders. Frankly, his policies in the face of the threats that we face are, at best, misguided and petty.

In the end, Bush's petty, poorly directed policies standing in the face of real danger equate to a small man, a weak presidency, an insecure nation, a divided citizenry, and a threat to our freedoms as a people.

People...people...people....RELAX!

The Bush Regime...represented so ably by Generalissimo Hayden will only - ONLY - examine the phone records of people linked to al-Queda....like the 49.5 million Americans who failed to vote for Bush!

Who is deciding what is "right" here? George Bush and friends that think lying is okay when it comes from right wing supporters, but telling the truth is akin to terrorism. We don't need to impeach this administration. We need an outright coup...

Paranoid comments like I am reading here just support the fact that ignorance is bliss. Cell phones have NEVER been secure. I would be more concerned about the neighbor down the street listening in on conversations than the government. Radio Shack and other electronic outlets have sold scanners for years allowing anyone with to listen as they please. Concerned, don't use a cell phone. Still concerned, have a face to face conversation and give up phones all together.

Carnivore, echelon... didn't you folks watch 'war games' this stuff is not new. What is new is that you might actually have a leg to stand on due to this crazed state of media.

The only reason stories like this get published is because society is working fairly well locally. People are not rioting over my phone calls. The fact that abc news is worried that people know who they call is amusing. Perhaps they might be avoiding the LAW in som eof their reporting. I don't care if your a junky reporter, It only hurt society when you break the law.

Accross the country you can't yell FIRE in a crowded public space, is that a loss of free speech? or just common knowlege.

Thank God for the NSA the CIA and this great nation. So many of you think it's ok for these stories to "leak out". I say these leakers are traiders and should be put in prison. We all know the government has this capability. All the things that make are lives easier(tv, internet, cell phones, don't forget satellites) were developed and approved by the government.

We as a nation must not allow the media to decide if our government is doing the right thing or not. President Bush is trying to protect you and me. Let him do what is nescassary. The more we judge him the more likely we'll have another attack. Let's rally behind our current President. The sooner we do that the sooner things will return to normal. That's what we all want, right?

Well, if they (the government) wanted your sources but they missed the opportunity already, what better way for you hand them over. To get a new (trackable) cell phone and what is the first thing you will do? You will call your source to let them know of your new number. Silly rabbit tricks are for kids.

Freedom and security. You can't have both. Everyone was crying about security after 9/11. Now its a freedom cry until the next security breach.

Terrorists are using our technology against us. Our calls are being analyzed. What do you have to hide? Its not like your neighbor is listening in and spreading rumors about you. Its a computer analysing keywords. Who cares?? Really?

If you all had a transcript of my cell phone calls it would put you to sleep.

Make a choice America. Lets see it in the voting booths. Stop complaining and choose.

BUSH IS A TERRORIST.... as KC BBQ said...."a terrorist is someone that instills fear into someone" I find this to be very true...Bush is trying to scare us into not wanting to hear about all of his misdoings....Upping the security on the Mexican border, to stop immigrants from comming here? He should be happy to have them come in...it helps big businesses, because they will more than likely be uneducated and can be paid much less than the College grad. Also, Bush needs to stop helping his comrads make $$$$ with the gas price fixing. We have more oil being imported today than last year at the same time but are paying over $1 more per gallon!!!!! LIES LIES LIES.

Here Here Nathan Morrison

It's inconceivable that anyone leaking the details of D-Day or the Manhattan Project 60+ years ago would have been hailed as a 'whistleblower'. Many of you are speaking complete nonsense to charge that the government is acting illegally or immorally by keeping any secrets from the public. And in your hatred of Bush and his administration, you are forgetting that the NSA and the CIA have monitored signal information for decades... yes, even during the Clinton administration. The current administration is doing *nothing* new. The only thing new is the media's adulation of anyone attempting to destroy this country's administration, no matter what the cost.

Do some research on the UKUSA agreement and Echelon and you'll find that blaming this kind of intelligence gathering on Bush is naive.

And why would you assume no one is ever listening in on your land-line or mobile phone calls? A friend who works at a major wireless telecommunications company informed me that it's common for customer support people to broadcast private telephone conversations over the loudspeakers to kill time... of course to ensure the quality of your service.

If the American media would stop digging up national secrets and publishing them to the world public, including our enemies, this would not be a problem.

Free media has it's place, but not when it puts the State at risk.

Triman wrote:

"You guys are pretty funny. The fact is every electronic phone call is tracked for BILLING puroses. How hard do you think it is to get a copy of those records. I would be concerned if the govt was actually recording our voice transmissions but that is not the case. BTW, same with email, it is an electronic transaction that is being stored on a server or in a database "Somewhere". All you conspiracy theory believers need to take another prozac and come to grips with modern technology and the capability it offers, "big brother"."

No kidding, but so what? Of course the information is stored. Our lives are full of trackable data, but it's the illegal RELEASE of that information that us "funny" civil rights advocates are concerned with. It's not the spying, it's the law-breaking.

And besides, this is not a new issue. My doctors, lawyers and accountants have all collected information on me in order to supply a service, and have being doing so for a long, long time. But we have laws that protect that info from being shared, even with law enforcement, without a court order.

This is because this nation was set up so that government would be transparent, and the private lives of citizens would be sacrosanct. It's disturbing that we live in times where that dichotomy is exactly reversed, and that seems okay with so many of you.

Once again, judicial oversight is what keeps everyone honest, so why not just adhere to it? That's the main issue. How hard is that? If the NSA had just gotten approval from the FISA court, this entire eavesdropping story would have been a non-issue. But as we learned from the USA Today article, the NSA feared both the courts and the DOJ would reject the legality of their request.

If you think it's funny and unimportant that the NSA is pursing activities that other branches of government would likely find illegal, not only does this display a shocking lack of historical knowledge, it may be time to re-define "the American Way".

I find it amusing that with all of the rhetoric and cheap jabs at the left, all of this nonsense about abiding our enemies and fearing our government - that it is the Right who are nonetheless willing to relinquish all power to the President, like a frightened child cowering behind his father's pantleg.

Do what you must, but do it according to the law of the land. Is that so much to ask?

Listen up people! Banks, credit card companies, and insurance companies know more about you then the government will ever know. Every time you use a debit card or a credit card. The companies track everything you buy. Then sells the information to other company. Maybe not your name but it is your information (information is king cash cow). Insurance companies track how many accidents, tickets, and other mishaps. Then medical insurance tracks prescriptions, diseases, and more. The insurance companies will sell your information also. Not your name but it is your information. There is no privacy in the good O’ USA. So get over the government tracking your phone numbers. Are you afraid they will find out that you didn’t call you mother on mother’s day.

Do you have any idea how easy it would be to track phone records? I have personally set up a computer which monitors the frequency for cordless phones and cellular phones, it could log all calls made from any wireless device within about 500 feet of my computer, using a single metal antenna. (transistor radio style). With the cordless phones, you could have the computer count or read the clicks or the tones in order to get the destination phone number. It was a long time ago that i set this system up, so i don't know about reading cellphones the same way, but anyway... my point.

If a lonely kid in his basement can do it, then i would hope the government would do it, because most likely other people which have mal-intent are doing it...

Attention Attention Attention

We know who you all are.

Report to reprograming stations NOW

Don't make us come and get U

The press wants us to have privacy?

Government sources that have a legal obligation to protect sensitive information and the press getting scrutinized for potentially illegal activity are why you guys are suddenly crying foul out of concern for your personal privacy? People, can you be any more boring? Do you really think anyone at the NSA or CIA could stay awake looking into your life?

Is this a sitcom?

Dan Zubey wrote:

"If the American media would stop digging up national secrets and publishing them to the world public, including our enemies, this would not be a problem.

Free media has it's place, but not when it puts the State at risk."

Digging up national secrets, like the Pentagon Papers? Or just political payback like the Watergate break-in?

Are you channeling J. Edgar Hoover? How's the spying going on MLK and the Kennedy brothers? What are you wearing?

My only question is who decides what place the media has? You? Perhaps, "the State"? "Free media has it's place" is one scary phrase.

Okay, and honestly, since when did citizens in democratic countries start writing "the State" with a capital S? Should it be more like "the Citizen"?

out of all the comments, the ones that stick out are the ones that say something to the extent of

"It's not the whole thing of eavesdropping, it's the whole thing that they did it in an illegal way, what makes them above the law?"

I remember as a kid it was drilled into my brain that if you record a conversation on the phone, you MUST inform the other caller that you are doing so.....growing up i always wanted to record friends saying stupid shit, but was always scared cuz it was so damn wrong.....and now all of a sudden its not wrong....so hey i guess its okay to record phone calls without consent of the other party.....sounds like a case study there

The other comments i agreed with are the one from Morrison where he said

"How we die is not up to us, how we LIVE, is"

the justification is the eavesdopping program is for our own safety, its all being done for our own safety.....people die everyday, NOT from terrorists....How We Die Is Not Up To Us, How We Live Is!!

Also going from the comment about The War On Terror....i agree...its a war n a tactic, the first war against no particular enemy, just anyone who wishes to terrorize...And The War Was OFFICIALLY Over When? We Won The War How Many Years Ago? Wasn't it like 6 months after we invaded Iraq? And it's how many years after and even though we've "won the war" we are still in WarTime and so any civil liberties taken from us are justified because we are in WarTime even though we won the war years ago....bass ackward

This is not the America that I know and love. The coward cowboy from Crawford has taken us to the edge and most of the American people are like lemmings waiting to jump off the edge taking the bill of rights and the Constitution with them all in the name of keeping us safer. We have truly become a pathetic nation hyped up on fear.

The terrorists have already won! They never need to hit us again. One shot and Bush took it from there. And speaking of the 911 attack, has it not crossed the minds of the citizens that this was a direct result of this administrations horrible policies and attitude toward the world.

Thank god for those who are willing to speak up and who are willing to print it. These reporters need to take a lesson from Bob Woodward and Deep Throat stick to flower pots and newspapers to pass information. Maybe Deep Throat knew what they were doing or planning to do back then and that is why he took the precautions that he did.

George Bush makes Richard Nixon look like a saint! As for those who comment on what FDR did and think it was great should consider what he set into motion. He wasn't right either.

First they deny wiretapping without a warrant.
Then they admit to it.
Next they deny wiretaping domestic only phone calls.
Then they admit it.
Then they deny data mining telephone records.
Then they admit it.
Then they deny that the data mining was not done for political reasons...

James B. in Plano couldn't be more correct. In order to blow the whistle you have to go through legal channels. Any person wishing to voice concern over classified government actions can not legally talk to the press about such concerns. If they do so, they will find themselves in violation of their security clearance and are subject to government investigation. Anyone violating their security clearance is legally fair game for FBI wiretapping at least.

To those of you who are so upset about the collection of phone numbers for pattern matching, picture yourself in this scenario: In the aftermath of another catastrophic terrorist attack on our soil, we are discussing the report of a congressional investigation. The report has told us there were patterns of terrorist phone calls that would have led the FBI and CIA to the plot but none of our spy agencies were doing the data mining required to pick up the patterns. If you are honest with yourself, I'd bet about 100% of you would be doing the same Bush bashing you are now. I doubt any of you would be sticking up for Bush or his administration and saying how happy you are that he was watching out for our constitutional privacy even if it meant another attack.

I can't see the collecting of phone records doing much good. By targeting all available info, rather than specific persons with questionable contacts, the NSA is going to be bogged down by overkill. The real threat will slip through their fingers (again) leaving us just as unsafe as we were on 9/10/01.

Hi guys,
Sounds like everyone's talking about every
project nowadays...figured I'd brag about
what I'm working on.

We're tracking the source/dest of all emails.

Supposed to be part of some mega database
(called Porcupine)...that's supposedly used
for terrorism tracking, but we're putting in
the hooks so we'll be able to do most anything.

Figure down the road we'll get some requests,
and it'll be easier having the hooks in there
now rather than retrofitting.

Just tracking email addresses..not looking
at content or subject line, so no need for
anyone to get all upset.

Some pretty cool stuff in powerpoints I've
seen.

If I were you, I'd start using random characters
for email addresses, and change it every couple
of weeks.

-Joe C.

Can I hear you, now?....Good!

Republics don't die in a flash...they die slowly.

Ruth:
Bush had the on watch on 911

Guess he was sleep

"To those of you who are so upset about the collection of phone numbers for pattern matching, picture yourself in this scenario: In the aftermath of another catastrophic terrorist attack on our soil, we are discussing the report of a congressional investigation. The report has told us there were patterns of terrorist phone calls that would have led the FBI and CIA to the plot but none of our spy agencies were doing the data mining required to pick up the patterns. If you are honest with yourself, I'd bet about 100% of you would be doing the same Bush bashing you are now. I doubt any of you would be sticking up for Bush or his administration and saying how happy you are that he was watching out for our constitutional privacy even if it meant another attack.
Posted by: Ruth | May 15, 2006 3:29:43 PM"

once again, what happened to the specific warnings and documentation given to the president prior to the real attack on this country, not your hypothetical one? Junior was busy cutting brush at the ranch that week wasn't he?

And let's talk about patterns, shall we? Saudis enrolled at flight schools? Do you seriously think you could derive that from phone data? Real intelligence can be gathered by boots on the ground in the places where ther is likely to be trouble, not from sniffing the bedsheete of you political opponents.

I am kind of worried about this wiretapping stuff... I have just left college and have a few friends that live in India, and other middle eastern countries. I bet the my conversations are being documented. You know, this is BS....I have a right to not having all my conversations listened to. Soon if I were married and having an affair, the government might know, and then I could get arrested. Due to the fact that they know, I cheated and was married, just like DUMB BUSH and his homophobic since of security. BUSH needs to realize that two people will still live togeather even if they are gay...let them be married all it is...is a document that saves them a little money on income taxes which in turn will be spent and get put back to good use.

Top government source tells NBC reporters to buy new cell phones and while your at it a new iPod too and pick up one of those new chicken sandwiches at Mcdonalds if you don't mind.

The two phone tapping/tracing programs per se are not what worry me about this situation. If they were being carried out in a controlled, limited fashion with sufficient oversight and by a trustworthy administration, it would be scary but reasonable, given the nature of the threat. But here we have an administration that has repeatedly claimed immunity from any kind of oversight while demonstrating no tolerance for dissent -- witness its muzzling of NASA and NOAA scientists who disagreed with it. Given politicians' long tradition of abusing this kind of information, this combination scares me. Maybe Bush won't ever do anything of the sort, but what's to stop the next guy from using this information to stifle his critics, once the precedent has been set?

I should also point out that there are significant differences between the situation in World War II and today. One is technology. Although the government did slip into a fairly repressive mode during the war, they were limited by practicality in how many people they could watch. For better or worse, they did not have the means to monitor every single American's communications constantly without their knowledge. Now we do.

Secondly, for all of its size and scope, World War II was focused: it was a war with specific aims, against a specific set of enemies. Today, we're in a "war against terror," whatever that means. At the moment, it means Al Queda and similar groups, but there's no reason why it has to remain that way. What if some crazy right- or left-wing group of Americans decides to blow something up? Does that mean that every one of us with any kind of connection to that side of the spectrum should have our communications tapped? Where does it stop? And if Congress can't monitor it, how do we know that it will stop?

Nathan Morrison (see way way above) got it exactly right. I couldn't agree more.

a42

These whistleblowers have only shown that the Bush administration has no intention of following the law of the land. They prove that if their is no oversight then the Bush administration will abuse the system. They deserve medals for trying to preserve the integretiy of our governence, an impossible task given the current adminstration.

These whistleblowers have only shown that the Bush administration has no intention of following the law of the land. They prove that if there is no oversight then the Bush administration will abuse the system. They deserve medals for trying to preserve the integretiy of our governence, an impossible task given the current adminstration.

I'm watching you.

In response to a previous poster - your nation was never a "beacon to the world". That was just one of the slogans previous governments used to make you feel good about the evil stuff they were doing in your name. I expect the image of a bright light evoked by that slogan had less to do with guiding boatloads of unfortunates to your shores, than it did with blinding and confusing "interviewees" in interrogation rooms..

To Alex who says that it is sad to see so much attention on an unconfirmed bit of information...

For those of us who have been closely following this story for a long time (back when the argument was over whether "eschelon" even really existed), there are few new revelations that can surprise us. There is indeed enough information out there for any joe with a web browser and a little time on his hands to reconstruct the basics over how the NSA wiretapping system works (and why it doesn't actually help us much). For those of us who know something about telecom technology, we know that the hooks have to be there for every telephone call whether that call is monitored by machines or not.

Therefore it really would be unsurprising if this turned out to be true. We don't know that the NSA is using their resources to track down government leaks but we do know that they are stymying Congressional investigations by refusing to offer security clearances to congressional investigators, etc. We do know that they are datamining general files of Americans. We do know that they have the data necessary to track down leakers.

So we are to believe that they just going to ignore this data simply because they are legally required to? I would believe them if there was enough transparency to reasonably assert that they were telling the truth but to date there is not.

Two points for those who rail against leaks:

1. Many of the "leaks" you see in the paper (not these specific ones, but the more minor cases) are not real leaks at all; they are simply people in government trying to float ideas or information out there in a non-official way. It's a time-honored tradation.

2. In cases where the subject of the leaked information is itself illegal (e.g., the warrantless spying), my understanding is that it is NOT illegal to reveal it to others. That is considered free speech and is protected by the First Amendment.

For everyone who says that we have to give up some of our liberties during this "time of war," please tell me what "war" we are discussing. I know we are not talking abou the "War of Terror," because the media designated that name (either Fox News or CNN). Can the media now declare war (sarcasm)? I know the president does not have the power to declare war under the US Constitution, so it can't be him. I don't remember congress, the only group that has such power, declaring war. So why do I have to give up my freedom again?

Cell phone records are not public records as far as I know, so you need a warrant to get them (unless the Patriot Act makes some exception for informants and reporters, which would be odd since they have nothing to do with terrorism). To get a warrant you need probable cause. It is not a very tough standard to meet - an anonymous tip plus some sort of substantiation will do. If Bush or the NSA or anyone else is getting reporters' cell phone records, then they should need probable cause. It's that simple.

What if next they want to go into a reporters' homes and search under their mattresses for terrorists or informants without probable cause. Is that okay? A line has been drawn by our laws and it's time people start forcing this Administration and the next one to abide by them.

I for one know what FDR did and I don't agree with it. Just because it has been done before (and by a democrat) does not make it right or mean that we have to do it again. Wake up! The President had no right then to imprison Asian Americans and German Americans because of their ethnicity and he he no right now to search and seize without a warrant. What's so wrong with probable cause?

To all of you worried about the NEXT BIG ATTACK OH MY GOD WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!! Ahem, sorry, got carried away. But anyway, don't you think that steps like securing our ports, chemical plants, nuclear facilities, shipping industry, etc. might be more practical than gathering gadzillions of records of people ordering pizzas and talking to grandma? Granted, not as amusing, but certainly more practical. Just a thought.

If you t think that this information won't be used for coporate and political gain, enjoy the view from your asses.

"If you ain't done nuttin wrong, you ain't got nuttin to be worrying about."

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag, carrying a cross" - Sinclair Lewis

What I want to know is who is going to save us from the alligators. People are being eaten alive by hungry reptiles and the Bush administration does nothing! What we need is someone to listen in on the alligator enemy within!

ABC News folks should get a temporary, tossable phone number for their sources to call. The government can see that they are calling a temporary number, but doesn't know where it forwards to.

http://tossabledigits.com/?affid=ct

Who's been to public school lately? We're told wonderful stories about how George Washington could never tell a lie, how Christopher Columbus discovered America, how the ones that study the most and get the best grades are the most powerful and successful, and most importantly, how it's important to obey the law. We are taught to be subservient sheep who do what they are told and wait for their shephard (our governmental agencies) to lead them to wherever the shephard wants them to go. We are asked to be blind for our own protection, because we do not know any better.

Now, if we have a trustworthy government, we don't necessarily need to worry. We do what we are told and then we get to focus our attention on things like hiking, skiing, kayaking, sailing, fast cars, country clubs, fine dining, friends, and family. The best thing to do if we notice an imperfection in our government is to assume it's okay to make these kinds of mistakes or that they are necessary evils.

We ignore questionable deals between government officials and contractors, we ignore things that clearly violate our constitutional rights, and we try to forget things like Vietnam and write them off into history. Do we do this for love of country, or do we do this because we are trained to do this? If you ask questions that are to upset very powerful people, you are likely to be penalized. Is that okay? Sure, if you have enough money to pay for legal protection (because our legal system rewards the wealthy). Otherwise, you're not in a pretty situation.

Ever notice someone who's patriotic but never bothers following the news, rather paying attention to ESPN, Fox Sports, Sports Illustrated, college football games, etc.? It's okay because they take time off to watch the State of the Union address so they can talk about it during their wine & cheese tasting.

Reality check, people. Our youth (people ages 18 - 35) are getting fed up with seeing their rights disappear. Your current government officials are geting older, and you will soon be dependent upon us. You will be dependent on our incomes in order to support your social security, roads, buildings, etc. You will need us to work for your (or our) corporations (statisticians, financial analysts, CPAs, scientists, programmers, teachers, CFOs, CEOs, directors, portfolio managers, HR personnel, security), run your government agencies (protection, maintenance, foreign relations, social services), and innovate (entrepreneurs & inventors). Our childhood friends are fighting wars in different countries for you, and we may have done the same if we weren't questioning what was going on (i.e. the Army's trouble finding recruits). We are not your dissidents, you are dependent upon us. We are a very large part of the population, and we are not being heard.

Is it just the NSA? No. This is a complex issue resulting from the fact that our government does not feel the need to serve or represesnt its own people. Isn't that the job of government?

We have a large adult population that lives very comfortable lives that seem to ignore the fact that they are in dire straits. Who's going to help close the gap for our trade deficit? Who's going to help bring fiscal responsibility back to our country? And who, by the way, is currently keeping relations with our neighbor countries behind the scenes of politics? In response to these kinds of questions, it seems that the answer is "we don't care". As long as you can drive your luxury sedans, put your kids in high quality schools, and group together in the false belief that you are more important that your inferiors, the outlook is not good.

Your Einsteins, Warren Buffets, Benjamin Franklins, former generals, current and previous soldiers, friends, neighbors, and maybe even your children are in this group. We are a credible collective source asking this question, not conspiracy theorists. It is also an insult to our intelligence to assume we don't know the difference between protecting our nation and controlling it.

It's time to start being held accountable for one's own actions, rather than getting away because of status or wealth. Otherwise, this country will deteriorate and will lose its POWER.

Wow a story from the press that might be or might not be true. Seems to me that this is antoher half truth story that the press will print, as someone else put it, to gain ratings or to sell pieces of leftover wood.

Please do not get me wrong i am no fan of what W has been doing in office espciecally with the resigning of the patriot act and how that power could be, and probably is, misused. I'm also no big fan of W is doing and this is a perfect reason why. One of the problems right now are, of course in my opinion, is we are never sure if what the press is reporting is true or if it is fabricated to any extent either by their knowledge or unknowingly. Too many times have we seen things reported and not much truth was behind it. I have learned to query multiple resources to find what are presumed to be facts and make my own decision on what has happend.

And a correction. It was Benjamin Franklin who said "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. "

How nice it would be to have House and Senate that is willing to do its job of oversight. In addition, it would be nice if the President and the VP actual read and understood the Constitution and the BIll of Rights.

It seems that the checks and balances on the executive branch are gone. I don't have a problem with some of the things that are being done...if they went through some type of oversight or warrant process...and yes, probable cause would be nice.

Only a couple more years before the Bush II Administration is gone and historians can go about consigning this administration to the list of colossal presidential failures. Hopefully our reputation around the world won't be completely wrecked by then.

To Sean,

Edmund Burke and Oscar Wilde were a British statesman and playwright, respectively--not forefathers of our country.

"Come on!! He's either an idiot who talks funny, or he's a brilliant mastermind of lies and deception. Libs - make up your mind! For God's sake - WE'RE IN A WAR WITH PEOPLE THAT HAVE NO QUALMS WHATSOEVER ABOUT KILLING US SIMPLY FOR THE FACT THAT WE EXIST!!!

Oh, but please, we must face our enemies politely, and treat them with dignity and compassion. Give me a break!"

"We as a nation must not allow the media to decide if our government is doing the right thing or not. President Bush is trying to protect you and me. Let him do what is nescassary. The more we judge him the more likely we'll have another attack. Let's rally behind our current President. The sooner we do that the sooner things will return to normal. That's what we all want, right?"

These posters who wrote these words don't have the slightest idea what it means to be an American. Yes facing the WORLD with dignity and respect is what made this country great and allowed us through diplomacy to affect change throughout the world. If you have to become your enemy to beat your enemy than what were you fighting for to begin with?

Oh and to the poster who says we shouldn't allow the media to tell us whether the government is doing the right thing or not? THIS IS EXACTLY THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA! The press is our voice and our watchdog in a free society. If they're not paying attention to what the government is doing who will? Cetainly not the people who wrote these ignorant posts.

Listen the real issue is not that the government is looking into ABC reporter's confidential sources. neither is it that the NSA has collected phone call records on millions of Americans. No, the issue is that every day there is one more log on the fire of freedom. Every day our once great society is eroding ever further, and our government admits it's illegal activity and says it's for the good of the people. Beyond that the issue is that many people have begun to believe that the liberty that so many American soldiers have fought and died for over the last two centuries is something to be thrown away because they are afraid. Somewhere our Founding Fathers our weeping.

Oh and lest I forget, Hitler was both things, an idiot who talked funny and a brilliant mastermind (in the short term only I might add). Mainly he was a pathetic little man with a meglomaniacal streak. You do the math.

For those claiming that reporters should be burned at the stake for treason, perhaps you should go back and rethink what you are suggesting.

The people sharing this information are not behaving in a treasonous manner. They are informing fellow citizens of the consequences of their past decisions made rashly in an effort to restore some peace of mind after 9/11. Finding out who reporters are talking to is doing nothing to further the 'war' effort and informing Americans of NSA activities on home soil is not helping our 'enemies' in any manner that is going to make their goal of destroying the evil power that is the united states any easier.

Did you ever stop to think that there would be no story had the NSA actually followed procedure? Think of it this way, if you were in the military, taken hostage and treated in a manner that is outlawed, wouldn't you want someone to stand up for your rights?

Knowing that the government is doing all of this doesn't make me feel any safer. Then again, I do not feel threatened either. It is amazing what one fluke attack has done to America, and yes, I call it a fluke because it is my personal belief that they shouldn't have happened. And no, I do no blame the government for letting information slip past them, I blame the lack of action on the part of the crew of the airplanes that went down. What good is having a life if you are not willing to fight for it?

But I digress. The problems we face now are not with reporters seeking ratings or individuals leaking state secrets. It is with an administration that has been given too much power by people who felt that doing so would be in their best interest.

But you know, maybe if more people actually read those documents that helped to form our country and understood them, then perhaps it would be the government that is afraid of its people as things should be instead of the other way around.

I'd rather die from a terrorist attack than be spied on by my own government!

Down with spies and down with fear. There is hardly anything in this country worth saving anyway, considering as it has been overrun by greed and corruption. Crooks these days don't even have to hide -- they just become employed in the corporate marketing departments and executive boards. Mafia is so yesterday. What is there to protect? We have no freedom. We have no free market (consider the insane barriers to entry in most markets, many of which are artifically maintained by government, as lobbied for by the industries that want protection).

I'd rather die in peace than live under the lens of our government.

“When the Nazis came for the communists, I kept silent since I wasn’t a communist. When they locked up social democrats, I was silent since I wasn’t a social democrat. When they came for unionists, I did not protest since I wasn’t a unionist. When they took the Jews away, I did not protest since I wasn’t a Jew. When they took me away, no one was there any more who could protest.”

Martin Niemoller

The Media is what we make of it. To be honest if you want to find the people to blame for what the media prints and reports right now. all you need to do is look in a mirror. Media publishes what sells, people buy death, destruction, depression and chaos. Its just a fact of life. BUT!!! as people have guided what is being printed to broadcast today, it can be changed. If people refused to buy newspapers with bad or though to be fabricated news, then the reporting agencies would be forced to print what the people will buy.

If the people demand a return of integrity in reporting and refuse to purchase anything until that has been accomplished, then the broadcasting institutions will change. We as a group shape the world from the condition of our yards to the news that we read, it is our collective decision that shapes everything.

If we all stood up and said "no, i will not tollerate this anymore" as a whole then it will change. Too bad America is now a society of people who are lazy, uncaring, and walking around with blinders on. Its a shame we let this happen and not stand up a whole and say we are not going to tollerate this anymore. Its a shame we let the gov't and coporations walk over us dictating how we should run our lives. Seems to me people in this country have enjoyed the costless freedom for so long that no one knows how to fight for it anymore.

Before people get mad, im not talking about what our acolytes have been doing overseas and what they have been fighting for. Im remarking on the cost of domestic freedom on our own land, from internal villany and national strife. No one has really had to pay for any personal freedoms at home lately and i think people have forgotten how to fight for personal freedom even as its being taken away right from under their noses. Its a shame to see this country slip away into something that we have been fighting against since the inception of this great land, and its also a shame that even if someone stands up and trys to fight he will get no support because people are either stupid or cowardly.

All i can say is.. its a shame....

"frankly it's high time the government does something to clamp down on a media who seems to have confused 'freedom of press' with 'freedom to spill every state secret we can get our hands on in the pursuit of ratings'."
Posted by: RG | May 15, 2006 12:56:20 PM

Declaring something a "State Secret" in order to hide an act of questionable legality or Constitutionality is the worst from of tyranny.

As Patrick Henry said, "The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.”

Ah yes. The evil republicans are more of a threat to this country than even the terrorists.

So where was the outrage when the news broke about the Eschelon and Carnivore programs? Where were the courageous whistleblowers? Where were the Democrats to champion the cause of privacy? Where were the billion dollar lawsuits against the telcos and ISP's? Oh, that's right...Clinton was in office.

**silence**

So the Bush Administration is spying on it "enemies" in the press -- Maybe now instead of worrying about Stephen Colbert crossing the line into "possibly rude," the D.C. news-gatherers can begin looking into the President crossing the line into "certainly illegal."

The government does NOT have the right to declare illegal activity "classified". So whistle-blowers who expose illegal government activities, often at great risk to their own career, should never be maligned as "leakers" - they should be lauded for their courage and commitment to the ideals that made this country great.

It's heart-breaking that the current administration is trampling the rights and freedoms, such as freedom of the press, that this country was founded upon. It's infuriating that they're getting away with it.

it is a good thing that most liberals are athiests. otherwise they would be hopping mad at a God that monitors their every move, thought and feeling!

What other stories have been released to the public thru the mainstream media that have not been fact checked. The Swamp releases this story, without any confirmation. But as the mainstream says "WHY LET THE FACT(CHECKS) STAND IN THE WAY OF A GOOD STORY!!!"

There is one word which best describes the NSA's sifting of private lives, fascism. If you truly believe that the actions and policies of the NSA, as directed by the Bush administration, are appropriate and legal then you must be a fascist.

He who trades liberty for safety deserves neither.

L.G.

Yes, yes, RM (and others), those who pass secret information are guilt of treason.

You mean like outing a secret CIA operative?

Meanwhile, those who speak out against a federal government spying on its own citizens are heroes and patriots.

"...most liberals are athiests..." (sic)

Dev, you must be kidding, right?

And most conservatives are holier-than-thou, Bible thumping Puritans who are without sin, I suppose? Wait a minute, you may be on to something here...

Your biggest joke, Dev, is making an analogy between an omniscient and all powerful God and the federal government.

Which is pretty much the way G.W. actually sees it, I fear.

The impression is that the Bush administration is on the ropes. Maybe we should think again.

I think the NSA's normal job is to actually record millions of (foreign) electronic communications so that they can be retrieved for later analysis if justified.

If this is the capability that is now aimed internally at U.S. citizens ... how many free media and free elections do you think we have left?

This government is breaking laws with impunity ... mostly by just declaring that everything is legal ... a few more crucial judicial appointments, and the law becomes what George Bush or his masters say it is.

The capacity to really take over is not that far from their reach.

here you go

bleat your sheep lips
follow the moron into more deserts
the stupid can be taught
the ignorant stay ignorant

2 great books need to be re-printed and given to any one not ignorant enough to still be able to read...
"animal farm and 1981" and while were at it re-print "farenheit 451"

way before their time and not read by most of the sheep that voted this nutbar into office.

www.itmfa.com

enuf said

i'd like to direct those making "9/11" related comments as rationale to page 263, last paragraph of 9/11 Commission Report. I've read it. I have my own copy. That paragraph clearly states that the Federal Agencies charged with investigation and the Executive Branch (the Bush Administration) knew this was going to happen.

Did it ever occur to anyone how they got such fresh shots of Atta right after the event? They were tailing him! Nice work! Let 'em collect phone numbers, these guys can't even deliver the mail.

Lot of the 29% ers here,
Stay the Course,PLEASE
Don't change, I need the material
for for my Joke BUTTS.
I'd really be lost without your types.

Once again:
“Reality has a well-known Liberal Bias.” ~ Stephen Colbert

Remember, We DIS-Member in November !!!
(Yuck!-Yuck!- Yuck!)

This is what happens when faith based crypto-fascists take over a country. Only now, they ain't so crypto, as in no longer hidden.

Electing, uh, appointing, uh, whatever we did in the 00 election was a big mistake. We walked right up to the edge of the cliff. It should never have been close enough to steal.

But 04 was the monumental catastrophe. In 04 the country jumped off the cliff, willingly, stupidly.

Bush supporters; He looked into Putin's eyes and saw righteousness for God's sake.

Look at W's eyes, next time you see a speech of his, just after he stops talking and the smirk leaves his lips. See the dead, psycho gaze as he ponders the next few moments of his awful, blighted existence? Give up on him.

Has everyone forgot that the Decider was also the Leaker when it suited him? Leaking in a time when the government is taking every possible liberty with the Constitution is an important step in keeping the people informed about what is going on. I really cannot understand how anyone can take this as being in the national interest!

Big Brother Bush is destroying our democracy. The policies of this government have become ever more totalitarian in recent months. The Senate and House races in November should not be viewed as isolated contests between individuals, but rather as one big contest between two forms of government...one that tolerates a totalitarian, intrusive, and lying executive branch...the other which has adequate checks and balances in place to guarantee that liberty and freedom will continue to prevail in this blessed land. Do those famous words of Patrick Henry--"Give me liberty or give me death!"--still ring true today? Do we still value liberty and the right to our own privacy? Or have the terrorists won and have those words become hollow echoes symbolizing a glorious past (i.e. years 1776 to 2000) when we truly had freedom in this country? Wake up, Republicans! It is time to behave more like Americans! Don't vote Republican in November!

All this blather and 9/11 is still a fraud.

First lets get something straight. WE the citizens are the Employers the Government is the Employees.

Employees DO NOT KEEP SECRETS from EMPLOYERS thats how you lose your job really fast so how is that the government is even permitted to keep "secrets" at all.

With the exception of immediate military need (IE an actual event action or conflict) The government should not be permitted to have ANY SECRETS whatsoever.

Allowing them to HAVE secrets is where half or all our problems are coming from to begin with.

They are OUR employee's they are there to do OUR BIDDING not there own.

The sooner we learn this the sooner we can get this country back on the path of being right free and powerful (in a good way)

Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/

What was it the Jews did wrong?
Those who say, "If you've done nothing wrong, then what's the problem?" should study history, at least a teensy bit.

Things that people do wrong (according to the Decider):
1) Vote Democratic
2) Disagree with the President, Vice-President, the Secretary of Defense, etc.
3) Pray to a different God than Jesus
4) Love someone of the same sex
5) Be of Arabic descent.
6) Be poor
7) Read books by socialists

None of these are illegal, but that doesn't matter now. The Decider says we're at war and that he now makes the laws and that none of them apply to him.

http://www.impeachbush.tv/

First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.

by Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945

http://www.impeachbush.tv/

Ok; Bush, Rove, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, etal are ruining the country, but what's being done about it? Are we as Americans protesting in the streets en masse? Maybe we should hire illegal Mexicans to do it for us so we won't be inconvenienced... One thing's for sure, Rove and Cheney did their homework in figuring they could get away with m*rder, since Americans can't be bothered with such trival matters such as the Iraq war, outrageous tax breaks/free rein for the oil companies, exposing CIA agents, invasion of privacy, torture... the list goes on and on... What's it going to take to get people pissed as hell and protesting by the thousands in the streets? Are we really so complacent? I personally believe we're at the twelveth hour; the police state is here and now, and one must have one's head up one's *ss if one can't see it...

No foul language, or put downs...

Just a brief description of what this nation
is becoming:

A dumbocratic police state with lacking
leadership and declining moralistic character.

It's obvious that Bush wants the total and complete control of a dictator.

He can't be trusted to use the tools of intelligence wisely, and refuses to have his plans approved by a legitimate authority.

This democracy is in grave danger.

Remember the fun debates and surveys back in '99? Who will be declared 'person' of the 20th century? There was mentioned Roosevelt and Roosevelt and Churchill and Einstein, Curie et all.

But we now know the actual 'person of the 20th century' was Dr. J. Goebbels.

Well lets see here Im 60yrs old and everything started going down hill when the late Preident Kennedy was assinated. Stop and think the now infamous Nam war etc etc. Now the Iraq war ,just another Nam waronly a heck of a lot more costly is it going to be if Pres. Bush don't pull our men out and get them home. that brings up another thought DOES HE EVEN KNOW WHERE HOME IS ???????

I say bring back former Preident Clinton at least he kept it on the home front and he would bring our boys home.

No jobs in this country is because the Mayors and high government high ups don't want people to have jobs one of them may take there job. Now there a thought that makes ya go HUMMMMMMMM.

Well I best shut up for now or ya all won't put this on the site.

The rest of the story stay tuned !!
Ya all have a nice day now ya here !!!
Thanks for the oppurtunity to voice my pennies worth used to be 2 cents but heck thats not around anymore !

it's all about the $ and the longevity of capital perpetuated by greedy people. it's time to understand the true issues at hand here. the secrets that are valued are those that sustain power. national security is all about self preservation. what would the world do if all the secrets were known. the problem with security clearances is there are NO CHECKS AND BALANCES. once behind the veil of secrecy, only a select few are blessed in, manipulation and cunning criminal acts can be accomplished... the country only knows what the government wants them to know, the rest is up to speculation. Believe what you want but there are forces behind our country that are not healthy..

It may help to remember that whistle-blowers and secret-keepers both come in good and evil varieties.

One is not always good and the other bad by definition. Some 'whistle blowing' kills innocent people. Some secret-keeping allows the good guys to win wars -- Sieg Heil.

So the discovery is made (again) that a cell phone is easy to tap. Who's surprised? All cell phones transmit in the clear by line of sight. Anybody who really wants to can intercept one.

That individual who says 'Take my privacy, take my rights, take my freedoms, but at all costs keep me SAFE.' - that person is a coward.

Diane, do you honestly think that the government would tell you if they had tapped your phones or pulled your library records? Just because we don't know about it doesn't mean it hasn't happened and won't continue to happen. We're not too far from being pulled from our beds in the middle of the night, never to be heard from again.

Any American not appalled by this government's domestic spying tactics doesn't have the foggiest notion what it means to be an American. You take your freedoms for granted and don't deserve the protection of the Constitution. My advice: Move to China.

Your kind would have made perfect little Nazis, reporting your neighbors for cursing Hitler while their houses were firebombed.

What is all this talk about protecting state secrets?

Is the fact that the CIA and the US Military are operating in Pakistan a state secret? Certainly not to Musharraf or most other citizens of that nation.
Well then certainly the practice of extraordinary rendition and clandestine foreign prisons must be the state secret that we are trying to keep. It wasn’t a secret to Maher Arar, the Canadian who was plucked from an American airport and sent on a private plane to Jordan to be interrogated (read tortured) by the Syrian military (hmm… thought Syria was terrorist state). What had Mr. Arar done wrong? The Syrians believed that Arar might be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Why? Because a cousin of his mother's had been, nine years earlier, long after Arar moved to Canada. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police reported that the lease on Arar's apartment had been witnessed by a Syrian- born Canadian who was believed to know an Egyptian Canadian whose brother was allegedly mentioned in an al-Qaeda document. That was his crime and Ashcroft signed off on it.

This practice certainly isn’t a secret to the governments of Jordan, Syria, Poland and Romania, or to the British who allow stops for these flights at Heathrow.

Was ‘Iran-Contra’ a state secret?

Was ‘Watergate’ a state secret?

Do you think that Osama, or al-Qaeda do not know that they are being watched? No, these are only meant to be secret from the American public. Allowing the American public to know that Big Brother is watching would probably create an ‘electibility’ problem that not even Karl Rove (aka Turdblossom) could overcome. And we must stay in office at any cost.

And to those who say, “hey, who cares? If you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about.” I would say, why is the President keeping this practice a secret, why do they care if we know? After all, if you haven’t done anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about, right? Instead of fear mongering by telling us tales of the ‘big bad terrorist whose gonna getcha!’ they should be trying to alleviate those fears. At the outset why didn’t they just say “we got this new surveillance program that is going to keep you safe and it goes a little something like this…” The answer is simple; they knew what they were doing was (and still is) illegal. We are a nation of laws for every citizen, including the President.

As far as leakers vs. whistleblowers goes, where do you go when the person’s you are supposed to tell won’t listen? I thought that we determined at Nuremburg that “I was just following orders” was an insufficient excuse.

To those that point out Echelon (it’s not Eschelon, Etan) and Carnivore and Bill Clinton’s involvement, I am as vehemently opposed to Bill listening (or mining) without a permit or an OK from a judge. Echelon is a multi-national effort and has been around since 1948 and the ‘cold’ war and was not an invention of President Clinton’s. The only two ‘semi’ scandalous stories about Echelon are the Aibus-Saudi kickback story where Airbus lost a $6Bn contract because, allegedly, the NSA found that Airbus was kicking back money to the Saudi’s for the contract. The other story centers on the alleged use of Echelon data to get Raytheon a radar contract with Brazil over France’s Thomson-CSF. A single British journalist made both allegations. Carnivore is a program that you can download on to your own PC (or MAC, or Linux) and run yourself. Carnivore was essentially completed in 1999 at the end of the Clinton presidency. Furthermore, I do not recall a story where the Clinton administration used electronic surveillance data to track down anyone on an enemy’s list and purge them. Or where information was gathered on US citizens without a warrant.

Let's get something straight here: All this talk about leaking in a "time of war" etc. etc... I don't recall Congress (which was set up purposefully to be THE MOST POWERFUL branch of our government) ever voting on a formal declaration of war. So, technically.... well figure it out.

That whole argument about "leaking" in a time of war being treason. Well, am I the only one here who has actually read the Pentagon Papers, you know, the proof of just how much our govt. dug itself into a deeper and deeper whole while withholding any and all information about what it was doing in Southeast Asia from its citizens (national security, right).

In the end, if Congress isn't doing its job, then by all means get the information out the citizenry any way you can (purpose of a free press, right)

If only somebody would have leaked the Pentagon Papers much earlier than the Nixon administration....

So, to all those "patriots" out there (doesn't matter what party affiliation) if you want to blindly trust your govt. (Democratic, republican, green---doesn't matter) without any oversight well then there are still some paradises left in the world just waiting for you, like warm sunny Cuba, and always freedom friendly China, to name a few.

For all those willing to blindly trust their government (or in this case one single branch of our govt.), try learning a little national and international history to get some perspective on just how terrible an idea that really is.

Why is this such a shock? When you have crooks and liars running the White House and its lackey agencies, there is no protection, no privacy, no rule of law. The sooner the facts about Dubya's and his cronies' illegal exploits can be exposed, the better for America. We can fight terror without threatening and intimidating our own people. And while I'm at it, F*** the NSA.

This can't be fixed at the polls. They control those new voting machines.

Any cellphone can become a listening device. Foreign intellegence agencies, Corporations, and terrorists often use spoofing and redirection technologies to obtain information. I am not saying you need a tin foil hat but it is best to have private conversations in a secure environment. If your a terrorist I bet your glad this came out so you can now plan better. Maybe it is best if all terrorists visit ABC rather than using a phone to disclose sensitive information. Hey did anyone think that now that all these articles are out the terrorists will use other untraceable means? Is an American city worth the government not knowing about your secret girlfriend or pot stash? Really think about it ... The government doesnt care about you and we are fighting a war against an enemy who is pretty proficient with technology.

Mr. Rumpke:

Do you really think that Osama and al-Queda depend on these leaks? The first rule of 'war'(or in this case an undeclared war, or executive action) is know your enemy. Like it or not, the 9/11 attacks, in addition to being incredibly violent, reprehesible and inexcusable was tactically a stroke of genius. It took a studied, measured approach that incorporated advanced knowledge of engineering, architecture, aeronautics, chemistry, and physics to acheive their goal. It was also abetted by an administration that was (charitably) 'asleep' at the wheel.

The Washington Post ran an article last December that dispelled the myth that Osama was acting on leaks. Here is the pertinent part of that story.

"President Bush asserted this week that the news media published a U.S. government leak in 1998 about Osama bin Laden's use of a satellite phone, alerting the al Qaeda leader to government monitoring and prompting him to abandon the device.

The story of the vicious leak that destroyed a valuable intelligence operation was first reported by a best-selling book, validated by the Sept. 11 commission and then repeated by the president.

But it appears to be an urban myth.

The al Qaeda leader's communication to aides via satellite phone had already been reported in 1996 -- and the source of the information was another government, the Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan at the time.

The second time a news organization reported on the satellite phone, the source was bin Laden himself."

As our illustrious leader constiently haraunges "this is a different kind of war." I agree, there is also no longer real validity to the old adage "loose lips, sink ships." This is the "information age" and our would be enemies already know more about our military, DOD, and surveillance than you or I. These leaks are only embarrassments to a government that has taken the law into its own hands and demand whatever they say is law. These leaks threaten the tenure of that rule. Pure and simple.

Clever criminals assume that they are being watched, and these guys aren't dumb. They have gone to low tech communication, disposable cell phones and web sites that pop up and then dissapear. The thought of any serious terrorist using a land line is ludicrous.

I do agree with your statement that "the government doesn't care about you..." They only care about themselves.
Bush = Oil (in 2000, price was $18/bbl. Now its $75/bbl. Mission accomplished)
Cheney = Halliburton (no bid contracts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Louisiana)
Rumsfeld = Tamiflu (still owns an estimated $5 to $25 million dollars in Gilead Research where he served as chairman until 'W' brought him in as Sec Def)

No, they don't care.

despite the desperate attempts by TRULY evil muslims, has the United States been the victim of a terrorist attack since 9/11? have you all been allowed to live your pathetic lives in safety and continue to make absurd comparisons about Bush and Hilter? (which is an disgusting insult to the 6 million jews whom Hitler murdered) do you go to bed safe and blissfully ignorant that there is in fact a war going on around you and that there are radical muslims out there who would slit your throat in a heartbeat, just because you are American...whether or not you think Bush is a nazi?

i suggest you seriously reevaluate the state of the world and realize the measures the government are taking now could very well be keeping you safe. i suggest you think hard and long about what side you are on, whether you like it or not. i know, i know "safety isnt worth liberty...blah blah blah". thats really easy to say on an internet message board. go tell it to the children of 9/11 victims. besides, who has actually had their lives altered by Bush's "evil" policies? all i do is have to wait longer in line at the airport.

I have been told that if I have done nothing wrong then unwarranted government wiretaps are nothing to worry about. Gosh! Now if I am arrested but have done nothing wrong I won't have a care in the world.

[sarcasm]
Thank you, everyone who voted for Bush! Your choice in electing this fine individual to run our country was excellent, as you can see by current events! I hope all the Bush voters are proud of themselves!
[/sarcasm]

If only Hitler would still be alive to see what Bush has done ot America... he'd be so proud!

David, don't be a fool. Of course privacy is constitutionally protected.

Article 4, Section. 2: "The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States."

Also, in the Amendments (Bill of Rights) which are also a part of the Constitution:

AMENDMENT [IV.]
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Simply because the word 'privacy' does not appear in a word search does not mean that the framers did not consider it important enough to outline within the document. Obviously, it was so important that an Amendment (the 4th no less) was necessary in order to guarantee the right.

Nice try, but the Constitution has no help to offer this Administration, they ignore it, and call it 'a piece of paper'.

-Morrison

The only difference between the communist citizens and the u.s. citizens is that the communist citizens KNOW they aren't free.