It is a time of fear in the face of freedom, a time for the widening of previous roads and the opening of new paths, a time of an emptying country and swelling cities, yet a time when these paths are mined by knowing algorithms of the all-seeing eye. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.
 | FBI To Begin FISA Amendments Act Spying Based On Ethnicity |
If anyone doubted whether the passage of the FISA Amendments Act ought to be considered a central political issue, this news ought to put a stop to it: Officials within the FBI acknowledge that they are planning to allow government agents to investigate and spy on people based on their religion or ethnicity.
The autocratic absurdity of this new policy came home to me in the following paragraph from an Associated Press article about it. The paragraph needs to be read a couple of times before its implications sink in.
“Currently, FBI agents need reasons — such as evidence or allegations that a law probably has been violated — to investigate citizens and legal residents. The new policy, law enforcement officials say, would let agents open terrorism investigations after mining public records and intelligence to build a profile of traits that, taken together, are deemed suspicious.”
First, there’s the obvious problem: FBI agents won’t need to have any reason to investigate anybody. They won’t have to suspect a target of any crime, or even prove that the target has a peripheral connection to somebody else who is suspected of a crime. All agents will need is a dislike for the person - for political reasons, for instance. No evidence that the target has done anything wrong is necessary.
Then, the first part of the investigation begins. Did you notice in that paragraph above how an investigation really begins before an investigation officially begins? It starts with FBI agents “mining public records and intelligence”. That’s an investigation isn’t it? Note that this investigation begins before there’s any suspicion of a crime. It’s an admission that FBI agents will be investigating Americans regardless of whether there’s any suspicion of a crime at all.
What is the scope of this data mining of public records and “intelligence”? Remember that under the Patriot Act, especially it’s expansive reauthorization, the government has been grabbing the private databases of private companies like banks, book stores, car rental agencies, hospitals and even libraries. Then there are the private communications that have been seized. Emails, telephone calls, Internet searches, and all sorts of other communications within the United States have been seized by the government.
Think back now. Think way, way back to 2002. Remember Total Information Awareness? It looks like that death star is fully armed and operational.
The FBI isn’t even considering searching through all that personal private information about you to be an “investigation” any more. It’s just the preliminaries.
Then come the wiretaps. The new FBI plan allows wiretapping of your phones, searching through your email, searching your home. Remember that under the FISA Amendments Act, there’s no need for a search warrant, or to consult any judge. The Attorney General, as head of the FBI, can authorize this kind of investigation, and because of the FISA Amendments Act, nobody will have the power to stop it.
Now let’s go back to the original point: The FBI is planning to let its agents do this to you because of your ethnicity or your religion.
Now do you understand why the FISA Amendments Act is such a terrible law? Now do you understand why any member of Congress who votes for the FISA Amendments Act can rightly be called a traitor to the Constitution and to the cause of freedom in the United States?
In about an hour from now, Barack Obama will give a speech about the FISA Amendments Act. Previously, Obama has said that he will vote for the FISA Amendments Act.
With this dark news about how the FISA Amendments Act will be used to target racial and religious minorities in the United States, will Obama finally come to his senses, and realize that the FISA Amendments Act must be stopped…
… or will he just offer more excuses?
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I read about the FBI profiling this morning.
35 years too long ago to remember?!
Comment by TroyJMorris — 7/3/2008 @ 2:20 pm
No kidding. Obama is now supporting the kind of spying they did against Martin Luther King Jr.
Despicable.
Comment by Juniper — 7/3/2008 @ 2:24 pm
i am completely aghast. i actually believed all the rhetoric! It is fucking OVER! Wave goodbye to any and all hope of changing anything before the ship goes down.
Comment by Tom — 7/3/2008 @ 5:31 pm
Tom. Don’t despair, the Convention hasn’t happened yet!
I mean, it’s highly unlikely everyone will switch their vote to say…. Kuccinch, but there’s still (heheh) hope.
Comment by TroyJMorris — 7/3/2008 @ 6:03 pm
No, Troy, the real powers that be are out of the public eye and control what’s going on through their vast network of interests. The big power brokers - the super rich and corporations - have totally taken over the government. We little people and our faux vote don’t count for anything any longer except TAX REVENUE. This is the only means we have now to protest and get our government back. Unfortunately, it’s very unlikely that most of the taxpaying public will decide to stop paying their taxes in protest of the trashing of the Constitution and the steady decline of our rights.
Comment by Tom — 7/4/2008 @ 9:26 am
U.S. Senate Spy Bill—Locked and Loaded to Shoot Down 1st and 4th Amendments
THE FISA AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2008, HR 6304.
More frequently U.S. Senators can be seen on Television reading sections of HR 6304 that they claim will protect lawful persons in the U.S. from being targeted by government wiretaps. Not mentioned by the Senators, is that THE FISA AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2008 includes a low level of “probable cause” that will permit Government to wiretap U.S. phone calls, faxes and emails.
The U.S. House of Representatives on June 20th, 2008 sent to the U.S. Senate, THE FISA AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2008, HR 6304.
H.R. 6304 EH may be found at:http://thomas.loc.gov/
As most of us know, several Telecoms have gotten caught helping U.S. Spy Agencies—illegally wiretap millions of U.S. and International phone calls, faxes and emails.
Will U.S. Government’s illegal-Wiretaps be made available to U.S. and International Criminal & Civil Courts after HR 6304 is Passed?
Before the U.S. Senate passes THE FISA AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2008, shouldn’t the Senate first disclose to U.S. Citizens what may happen to the Government’s millions of illegally seized Electronic Communications that belong to U.S. Citizens?
Still, Congress hasn’t clarified whether the Bush Administration’s years of illegal wiretaps are admissible into U.S. criminal and civil courts. It is problematic after HR 6304 is passed, that police agencies and private government contractors will want to use illegally collected NSA/FBI and other illegal government wiretap surveillance to go back years to arrest Americans and or civilly forfeit their homes, business assets and inheritances using only a “preponderance of civil evidence” under Title 18 of the United States Code; or under the Patriot Act.
There are over 200 U.S. criminal laws, violations and U.S. Government cooperating agreements with other countries that can make property subject to civil asset forfeiture. No one need be charged with a crime for government to civilly forfeit an owner’s home or business.
Perhaps breaking the trust of Americans, the U.S. Senate is pushing forward THE FISA AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2008. If enacted, HR 6304 shall provide Telecoms blind-immunity for most any crime a Telecom might have committed under President Bush while helping Government illegally spy on U.S. Citizens’ private electronic communications.
More frequently U.S. Senators are seen on Television reading sections of HR 6304 they claim will protect lawful persons in the U.S. from being targeted by government wiretaps. Not mentioned by the Senators, is THE FISA AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2008 includes a low level of probable cause that will permit Government to wiretap U.S. phone calls, faxes and emails.
See the following example found in the HR 6304 (2) Probable Cause section under (C)(Order). That HR 6304 paragraph is shown below: see how the Act’s Probable Cause wording undermines the protection for persons in the U.S. exercising 1st Amendment rights. The Act’s use of the word “May” in “May Be Considered” a foreign power, agent of a foreign power…”appears legally to protect no one from government wiretapping and spying.
This is from the Probable Cause section in HR 6304: “No United States person may be considered a foreign power, agent of a foreign power, or officer or employee of a foreign power solely upon the basis of activities protected by the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States.” The House inserted the very weak word “may” and failed to insert, e.g., “SHALL NOT” which legally would have been more binding on Government and police not to violate the 1st and 4th Amendments rights of U.S. Citizens. Consequently it will be harder for persons in the U.S. to defend against government wiretap evidence.
Contamination by Lawful Association:
THE FISA AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2008 should concern U.S. activists, any person in the U.S. who networks, especially with groups and causes overseas. For example, the Stop the War Campaign, labor and environmental organizations transcend countries. Some of those countries oppose U.S. policies such as the U.S. War in Iraq. After HR 6304 is passed, any person in the U.S. that exercises his or her 1st Amendment Rights, under the vague provisions of HR 6304, “MAY BE CONSIDERED” by U.S. Government an agent of a foreign power.
The U.S. House of Representatives left out protective words, like “Shall Not Be Considered.”
Comment by Dan Scott — 7/5/2008 @ 3:38 pm