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Tag(s): Bill Of Rights; Bush Liar-in-Chief; Bush Reasons To Dump Impeach; Civil Liberties; Civil Rights; Congress Oversight Failures; Constitution The; Domestic Surveillance-Wiretapping; Lies Bush; War Of Deception
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August 2, 2006 at 02:41:13

"Terrorist Surveillance Program" Commandeers Civil Rights

by Frank J. Ranelli Page 1 of 1 page(s)

www.opednews.com

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The Bush Administration's highly criminal surveillance program of innocent Americans continues its assault to suspend civil rights under the guise of patriotism and false national security reasons.

A few months ago, Senator Russ Feingold (D) of Wisconsin gave a galvanizing speech to the Senate denouncing the President's, illegal NSA warrantless wiretapping program and has since introduced a resolution (S. Res. 398) to censure the President. The Senator, since then, has continually cut Bush at the knees while the President continually tries mightily to twist and spin his euphemistically named "Terrorist Surveillance Program" into something other than what it is: illegal and unconstitutional spying on innocent American citizens.

Feingold sliced through the stale, musty muttering of a President who long ago lost his credibility with the American people in this forthright assessment of this highly illegitimate attempt to commandeer civil rights under the guise of patriotism and national security. Feingold's speech was clear, accurate and succinct: spying on American's, without probable cause and a warrant from the appropriate courts is unlawful; period. No justification can be made, with any sense of decorum, legality or integrity, that wiretapping Americans without a court order and probable cause is legal. In fact, it is in direct conflict with the fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States!

Further, Feingold repeatedly points out the deceptive and misleading statements, that Bush continues to spew forth in irresponsible fashion, are utter nonsense and untrustworthy. By cutting through the murky fog that this administration has created around a crystal clear abrogation of the Fourth Amendment, the Senator defines in simple language what warrantless wiretapping is- against the law!

Just to be sure, let's review what Bush said on April 20, 2004 in Buffalo, New York about how wiretaps are to be carried out:

"Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so." - George W. Bush

Bush foolishly wanted us to trust him, that he was telling the truth on April 20, 2004 and that he was not breaking the law. Need I remind anyone what another famous republican President once said? "Trust, but verify..."- Ronald Reagan.

By his own admission on April 20, 2004, President Bush clearly states he knew the law- that warrantless wiretaps were illegal, but Bush chose to break the law in spite of this obvious declaration of deception. He brazenly lied to America on April 20, 2004, hid this unlawful, clandestine program from the public and only when exposed by the NY Times, he developed an implausible, mind-boggling defense as to the legality of his "Terrorist Surveillance Program". Under the auspices of henchman U.S. Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, team Bush rolled out an argument of pure conjecture- that Congress gave him authority to wiretap Americans on U.S. soil without a warrant when it passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force after September 11, 2001!

Senator Feingold didn't trust this president from day one. He sought and continues to seek the real truths through verification of facts, plain-spoken language and common sense, not newspeak and demagoguery. That's why he (Feingold) voted against the Patriot Act, voted against Bush's many tax cuts to the wealthy, grilled Alberto Gonzales in his confirmation hearings, Samuel Alito during his and now Feingold's resolution to censure Bush and put a stop to the out of control tail-spin of treachery from the executive branch.

Feingold is deadly accurate in his calling out of Bush and the injection of adrenaline that the democrats and this nation needs as a whole. A dose of expectorant, if you will, to clear America's phlegm-ridden throat and give us the piercing voice we all need to cut through Bush's fog factory of misinformation deception and Bush's brand of fascism- American-style.

Pass the Robitussin ®, please!

Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:
Cosponsor S. Res. 398- The Censure of George W. Bush

Click here to see the most recent messages sent to congressional reps and local newspapers

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.

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David Manchester is a former military journalist and recovering IT consultant. His articles have appeared in OsOpinion, LinuxToday, e-Commerce Times, and Technocrat among others. In December 2006 he published "Personal Account - Earth: Blogging and The Emergence of DotCommunism" online. Since then Manchester has created a downloadable collection of documents related to the Bush administration's warrantless domestic surveillance programs at http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/nsa.html .
David C. ManchesterDavid Manchester is a former military journalist and recovering IT consultant. His articles have appeared in OsOpinion, LinuxToday, e-Commerce Times, and Technocrat among others. In December 2006 he published "Personal Account - Earth: Blogging and The Emergence of DotCommunism" online. Since then Manchester has created a downloadable collection of documents related to the Bush administration's warrantless domestic surveillance programs at http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/nsa.html .

Warrantless Domestic Surveillance - HTML Document Collection

I have put together a collection of documents relating to this warrantless domestic surveillance. Most of these were originally released in pdf format, and I have converted them to HTML that they may be more available. In many I have embedded links to references, sources, or citations. In each case I have prominently linked to the original. (This collection is also mirrored here.)

Although I have had to suspend work on further conversions to look for work, there are some useful documents here for journalists, litigants, historians, scholars, and Citizens.

I hope OpEdNews Readers find this a useful resource.

- dcm

WARRANTLESS DOMESTIC SURVEILLANCE
DOCUMENT SUMMARY

Document Site Main:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/nsa.html

January 20 House Judiciary Democratic Briefing Materials

Here is The Briefing Transcript:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/nsabrieftranscript12006

Here is Bruce Fein's Statement:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/feinstmt12006.html

Here is Jonathan Turley's Statement:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/turleystmt12006.html

Here is James Bamford's Statement:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/bamfordstmt12006.html

Here is Richard Hersh's Statement:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/hershstmt12006.html

Here is Caroline Fredrickson's Statement:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/fredricksonaclustmt12006.html

Here is Kate Martin's Statement:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/martinstmt12006.html

Here is Rep. John Conyer's Statement:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/conyersstmt12006.html

Here is Rep. Maxine Water's Statement:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/watersstmt12006.html

Here is Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's Statement:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/jacksonleestmt12006.html

Here is the January 6, 2006 Letter to the President requesting information, signed by 28 Members of Congress:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/presnsawiretapltr1506.html

Here is Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe's Letter to Rep. Conyers. (Tribe is the author of American Constitutional Law):
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/tribensaconyersltr10606.html

Here is the Judiciary Committee's Ranking Member Conyer's 20 January 2006 Letter to Telecommunication Carriers:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/telecomspyingltr12006.html

Here is Charter Communication's Response to that letter:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/chartercommresp12706.html

Here is AT&T's Response to that letter:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/attresp2206.html

Here is TimeWarner's Response to that letter:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/timewarnerresp2906.html

Here is T-Mobile's Response to that letter:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/tmobileresp2606.html

Here is Reps Conyers' and Scott's January 6, 2006 Letter to Rep. Sensenbrenner asking for an investigation into the FBI's mishandling of the Brandon Mayfield Case:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/mayfieldmishandlehrgltr1606.html

Here is the February 24, 2006 Letter to the President, again requesting the appointment of Special Counsel, signed by 18 Members of Congress:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/presnsaspconltr22406.html

Here is the March 3, 2006 Letter to Senate Minority Leader Harold Reid from Senate Majority Leader William Frist, M.D., threatening to unilaterally restructure the Intelligence Oversight Committee to prevent a full investigation:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/frist_letter_to_reid_030306.html

Here is the former Assistant Secretary of State and current Yale Law Professor Harold Hongju Koh's February 28, 2006 Statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/022806_Koh_To_Senate_HHKNSAtestfinal.html

CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE PAPERS

Here is Elizabeth B. Bazan's and Jennifer K. Elsea's January 5, 2006 CRS report, "Presidential Authority to Conduct Warrantless Electronic Surveillance to Gather Foreign Intelligence Information" (includes lots of links):
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/CRS_Jan_5_2006_Bazan_Elsea.html

Here is Alfred Cummings' January 18, 2006 CRS analysis, "Statutory Procedures Under Which Congress Is To Be Informed of U.S. Intelligence Activities, Including Covert Actions":
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/CRS-informing-Congress-of-intel.html

LAWSUITS:

ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION:

Here is the EFF's (initial filing) Class Action Complaint against AT&T (internal page links):
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/att-complaint.html

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION

Here is the ACLU's Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief against the NSA. (extensive internal navigation links included):
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/aclu-nsa-complaint.html

FOIA

Here is the ACLU'S Pentagon Spying FOIA February 1, 2006, seeking from the Pentagon records from Talon, CIFA, MX of infiltration, intimidation, dirty tricks, and spying on Richard Hersh, The Truth Project, Inc., Patriots for Peace, Ft. Lauderdale Friends, Melbourne Florida Counter Inaugural, Broward Anti-War Coalition, Jeff Nall, Maria Telesca-Whipple, and others:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/PentagonSpyingFOIA_020106.html

ISSUES BRIEFINGS

Here is the ACLU's October 30, 2003 Issues Briefing "THE MATRIX: Total Information Awareness Reloaded - DATA MINING MOVES INTO THE STATES" with addendum, Shane Harris' February 23, 2006 National Journal report, "TIA Lives On":
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/aclu_matrix_report.html

Policy Statements

AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION

Here is the American Bar Association's Letter to President Bush:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/aba_domsurv_ltr_whthouse-0206.html

Here is the ABA's Roster, Recommendations, and Report sent with that letter.
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/aba_house302-0206.html

Public Interest Law

OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE

Morton H. Halperin is the Open Society Institute's US Advocacy Director.

Here is Morton Halperin's January 6, 2006 paper
A Legal Analysis of the NSA Warrantless Surveillance Program

http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/nsasurveill_20060106.html

CENTER FOR NATIONAL SECURITY STUDIES

Kate Martin is the Director of the Center for National Security Studies. Here is Kate Martin's and Brittany Benowitz's December 20, 2005 NSA Spying Memo
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/cnss_martin_spyingmemo.html

David C. Manchester

ARTICLES

David Manchester created this collection of converted warrantless surveillance documents. He is a former military journalist, an IT Contractor, and his articles have appeared in such diverse publications as ECommerce Times, Technocrat, OsOpinion, and Linux Today.

Here is Manchester's February 27 article "Big Brother Is Watching You," a collection including reporting from MSNBC on the 902nd Military Intelligence Group's infiltration of peaceful groups opposing Bush administration policies, Congressman Wexler's response, an October 2005 OMBWatch article, Shane Harris' National Journal article "TIA Lives On," and an article by Manchester:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/big_brother_talons_on_you.html

Here is David Manchester's May 18 article "Big Brother Is Watching You Part 2" - a collection of May 2006 USA Today articles about the NSA Call Database, to which he has contributed an introduction and a closing editorial:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/big_brother_talons_on_you_2.html

DOWNLOAD THE SET

They are all in this zip file:
http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/012006_HouseDemJudBriefing.zip

(NOTE: All links are local, and only refer to the filename alone. So You can download the archive, unzip into any directory, and this page will still work when You are not online... Once You download and unzip it into a specific shared folder, another User on Your local network can download, or browse, as well -dcm)