As for the warrantless wiretapping and retroactive immunity, the above facts should have us very concerned. Doubtlessly, the FBI will be able to serve more National Security Letters than they already have, if warrantless wiretapping of citizens is coddled and shielded in this way by Congress's vote for telecom immunity. NSL's are gag order-containing subpoenas issued at the FBI agent's unilateral whim, without any warrant or judicial involvement, thanks to the Patriot Act. The gag order carries a six-year jail sentence (reduced from seven years in the first version of the Patriot Act) to anybody who utters a peep. In other words...if your doctor is ordered to fork your records over to the Feds, he/she would be jailed if s/he told you that s/he did so. Ditto as regards any telecom provider and your records. You can read the true story of someone who was served with a gag order/National Security Letter here, in the Washington Post:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/22/AR2007032201882_pf.html
But here is a little bit of hope with which to end this article. We all may be thinking in black and white, where warrantless wiretapping and telecom immunity are concerned. Fortunately, according to John Dean, former counsel to Richard Nixon and Watergate whistleblower, the new telecom immunity is granted only in civil cases, not in criminal ones. It also does not render Congress or the Prez immune from lawsuits. See more in the article below:
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20080702.html
Time to sue Congress, big-time. Undermining the power of the judiciary, as a fundamental arm of government with the function of putting a "Check" on government power, ain't no joke. We've got to oust 85% of them if we want our country back. Let's get to it! Perhaps if we show them the stuff of which we are made, they will no longer even try to literally get away with murder, let alone actually get away with it. The state of affairs is as much enabled by our collective silence as it is by the crooks themselves. Let's go! Upward and onward! Lawsuits, ahoy! (While we still can...do it, FAST!)
Please circulate this widely and post all over the Internet. Dial in to radio talk shows, send out chain emails, and get this information out to the public! Letters to college and underground newspaper editors...the big problem can be remedied in simple ways, and people need to know! Thank you for being part of the hope and the solution by spreading word. Bless you.
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