ABC’s Justin Rood reports that John Brennan, Barack Obama’s intelligence adviser, has gone on-record as being strongly in favor of granting immunity to telecoms that provided information to the national security apparatus in advance of a new law granting them that authority. "I do believe strongly that [telecoms] should be granted that immunity," former CIA…
Category: National Security
Of Criminals & Presidents
Dave Winer wonders: What if you were a criminal President? President Bush wants to give the phone companies immunity. Who would you like to give immunity to? What crimes are you willing to excuse? Interesting question. Here’s one answer: If I were a criminal president, my wife might be running to be the Democratic party’s…
Senate Votes for Telecom Amnesty
Glen Greenwald writes: The Senate today — led by Jay Rockefeller, enabled by Harry Reid, and with the active support of at least 12 (and probably more) Democrats, in conjunction with an as-always lockstep GOP caucus — will vote to legalize warrantless spying on the telephone calls and emails of Americans, and will also provide…
Greenwald on FISA, Congress
Glen Greenwald has an excellent piece up about the FISA amendments that are about to expire, the Bush administration’s bullying scare tactics that got them passed in the first place, and how the "imminent" danger no longer seems important to the president. If the threat isn’t present, why shouldn’t we let the invasive surveillance measures…
Democrats Crumble, Again
A million miles from the campaign trail, House Democrats have been railing against President Bush’s plan to grant immunity to the telecommunications companies that provides information to the government prior to changes in the law that allowed them to do so. As I’ve written several times, this position is all of the below: Useless posturing…
Torture, a
At Pharyngula, PZ Meyers lets off a blast of anti-torture steam that must have been building up for some time: Here is all that torture is good for: inspiring fear in a population. … When the US government announces it’s support for torture, they aren’t talking about intelligence gathering: they are simply saying “Fear us.”…
Dems Likely to Cave on Surveillance
The NY Times says: Two months after vowing to roll back broad new wiretapping powers won by the Bush administration, Congressional Democrats appear ready to make concessions that could extend some of the key powers granted to the National Security Agency. … A Democratic bill to be proposed Tuesday in the House would maintain for…
Progressives Hold Up FISA Modifications?
Earlier today the Huffington Post reported that the Democratic leadership in the House postponed announcing a new set of proposed changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after progressive lawmakers promised to fight legislation that omitted their “principles on wiretapping that preserve the ‘rule of law.’” Steny Hoyer, the House Majority Leader, had planned to…
8 Transferred out of Guantanamo
The Houston Chronicle reports: Eight detainees were transferred from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the custody of Afghanistan and Middle Eastern governments, a Pentagon spokesman said today. Six detainees were transferred to Afghanistan, and one each to Libya and Yemen, said Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Defense Department spokesman. Their identities…
Patriot Act Unconstitutional, in Part
The WaPo reports that a U.S. District court ruled earlier today that two provisions of the Patriot Act are unconstitutional because warrants issued under FISA may not demonstrate probable cause: U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, “now permits the executive branch of government to…