Meanwhile, the Pentagon is still spying on you, Quakers, peace rallies, etc

I just read that story this morning! They're probably reading this right now.

Hi!

I went to Quaker school!

You think they share the info with the FBI/CIA/NSA and all the other folks doign this?

ph3ar the power of nonviolent citizen action! ph3ar words and ideas and their ability to defeat armies and topple govenments. If you ever doubted this to be true, understand that the Pentagon doubts it not.

just the idea of quakers being a threat cracks me up. especially because the way they are a threat is so predictable. "oh no, what are they going to do now? CONTINUE TO NOT COMMIT VIOLENCE?"

aaaand so's the NSA.

Which the President ordered.

Which is illegal.

will they try to impeach next year, or will the democrats use this as leverage to finally destroy the GOP? stay tuned!

haha - the answer is, of course, neither. "Illegal"? Whose gonna bring what charges against DubyaCo.?

Good thing that the NY Times sat on this story for a year after the White House asked them to

Haha, All Things Considered asked an expert on the NSA what "legal safeguards" (which the admin kept referring to) were in place to prevent abuse of the power to spy on folks, and the expert basically said "Only the same safeguards that the president bypassed by ordering this spying"

too bad this is all happening on a friday

i have a feeling it's not going to go away over the weekend

Surprise surprise -- more secret stuff that people have known about for decades causes a little stir in the media for a few days before everyone forgets about it again.

I don't know if it's fair to say people have "known about this for decades" -- at least with regard to the NSA part. It might have happened decades ago, but then laws were passed that were supposed to safeguard against it.

I wouldn't underestimate the impact of the revelations, either -- it's certainly hurting the chances of the Patriot Act being extended. Even some Republicans sounded a little miffed about this story.

I guess as for the spying on Quakers part, yeah that's been going on for decades, though probably not to the same extent under every administration.

What fucking nonsense. The QUAKERS as a national security threat...

Hey, since they're digging into email logs & shit for international contacts, does this also extend into americans accessing message boards based in other countries?

They don't need wiretaps or anything for message boards. Posting (anywhere) is like making a public statement. The only aspect where legal issues might come into play is when they try to figure out who "kingfish holiday travesty" is or trace "jds4lm0n@mail.com." If they need to figure out who you really are, or where you really are, then then may need help getting the ISP or the forum admin to provide them the information.

thanks for posting my full email address, dumbass

Also, how dare we question the Preznit from continually breaking the law?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051218/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush

Often appearing angry in an eight-minute address, the president made clear he has no intention of halting his authorizations of the monitoring activities and said public disclosure of the program by the news media had endangered American

Bush's willingness to publicly acknowledge a highly classified spying program was a stunning development for a president known to dislike disclosure of even the most mundane inner workings of his White House. Just a day earlier he had refused to talk about it.

Since October 2001, the super-secret National Security Agency has eavesdropped on the international phone calls and e-mails of people inside the United States without court-approved warrants. Bush said steps like these would help fight terrorists like those who involved in the Sept. 11 plot...

[...]

James Bamford, author of two books on the NSA, said the program could be problematic because it bypasses a special court set up by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to authorize eavesdropping on suspected terrorists.

"I didn't hear him specify any legal right, except his right as president, which in a democracy doesn't make much sense," Bamford said in an interview. "Today, what Bush said is he went around the law, which is a violation of the law — which is illegal..."

Baltimore peacenik Quakers -- most dangerous of all!

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/National_Security_Agency_spied_on_Baltimore_0110.html

An entry made at 1300 hours on July 4. reads, "The Soc. was advised the protestors were proceeding to the airplane memorial with three helium balloons attached to a banner that stated, 'Those Who Exchange Freedom for Security Deserve Neither, Will Ultimately Lose Both.'"...

"The NSA Weapons of Mass Destruction Rapid Response Team will have a limited staffing on hand to support the event," Talbert's memo reads. "...Anne Arundel County Police will be requested to provide aerial observations."