WASHINGTON- In a lawsuit filed by People For the American Way Foundation (PFAWF), a federal judge ruled last night that the National Security Agency is not required to answer a Freedom of Information Act request about its domestic spying program.
PFAWF Legal Director Elliot Mincberg announced that the organization is exploring options for an appeal. His statement follows:
"No President is above the law, and no presidential administration should grow so powerful that it answers to no authority but its own. Americans deserve to know as much as possible about how the government collects private information about its own citizens through a program that we and many others believe is illegal.
Our lawsuit does not jeopardize national security, nor seek to expose classified documents. Our lawsuit seeks to discover the results of actions by the government which one court has already found are illegal. We are deeply disappointed by the ruling, and are exploring options for an appeal.
We all want to prevent acts of terrorism, but we must not give up our most fundamental liberties in the process, and the President must act within the boundaries of the law."
PFAW and PFAWF will also expand their push for congressional oversight of the Bush administration's illegal domestic spying program when the new Congress convenes in January.
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Contact: Nick Berning or Josh Glasstetter PFAW Foundation email: media@pfaw.org phone: 202-467-4999 Website: http://www.pfaw.org ______________________________________________
This story is a Public Press Release submitted by the author for the sole purpose of information dissemination.
http://www.ranellirants.blogspot.com/
Frank J. Ranelli is an opinion editorial writer, a research author and critic. He is a former senior editor and current feature writer for the popular online news website, OpEdNews.com. His erudite and chic style of writing has been lauded and extensively published in a variety of news outlets and across the Internet. These include the Naples Daily News, The Online Journal, Information Clearing House, Alternet, The Smirking Chimp, Diatribune, and the former progressive journal of thought, Wicked Philosophy. Frank is currently working on his upcoming book, Rise of the Authoritarians, and is participating as a co-author in prominent philosopher Russell Blackford's anthology, Voices of Disbelief.
Many readers may be aware of how the government is employing such tactics as infiltrating blogs and progressive news websites with "covert operators," posing as members and readers, in order to provide "alternative and benign views" of other wise deceiving and malicious govt. activity.
Here is one such example. I received this in an email. Notice the contrived and canned response as well as the careful "if you don't believe me" nudging directions to the NSA website. This freeper ostensibly wants the reader to assume that the NSA is the "final word" of truth and the website is the "holy grail" and defining authority of all information on the National Security Agency and its activities.
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"The NSA is a goverment agency that works with codes and cryptoligy. True, they sometimes research people, but they mainly deal with codes and cryptology. If you dont believe me then you can go to this public but official website: www.nsa.gov. Then click: view flash site, and then read the information." -- jassysclub@aol.com --------------
The ACLU, The People for the American Way, many MSM newspapers and reports say otherwise. Nice try, though!
by
Frank J. Ranelli (66 articles, 143 quicklinks, 29 diaries, 378 comments)
on Saturday, November 25, 2006 at 2:27:55 PM
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