TEACHER NEEDS HELP EXPLAINING THE NSA "SPYING" STORY

1-1-06 | freedom4me

[freedom4me]

I head back to the classroom tomorrow and am looking for a news article that lays out the NSA "spying" story in a clear, easy-to-understand manner. I want to be sure that the article addresses the historical precedent of Presidents using executive orders to initiate wiretaps.

I want to get my kids (junior high and high school) caught up on the news.

Any suggestions?

[CHICAGOFARMER]

Why President Bush is fighting the war on terror with every tool available

See list of terrorist attacks at the bottom.


http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/default.htm#attacks

[bad company]

Is this how you teach you students to do research? Seesh, no wonder teachers are held in such contempt

You're right. freedom4me should just pass on what they put in the MSM

[Dave S]

Ever hear of Google or any other search engines? Any reason you are too lazy to do your own class prep? No wonder Clinton had to get volunteers to go into the classroom to teach our kids to read.

Try this weeks Newsweek. They have a surprisingly unbiased piece.

[Pukin Dog]

This thread is just one more example why students in nearly every industrialized nation in the world are ahead of our stendent.

No, but this thread is just one more example of why some FReepers are considered to be a-hole kooks.

You are entitled to your opinion, but you could have used words that would not classify you as a jerk.

Jerk!

[Zeroisanumber]

There's a lot of ambiguity in this issue that could make for a number of interesting class discussions. The powers of a president in wartime, data mining, Constitutional rights, the WoT itself, etc.

My suggestion is to simply present as much of the raw information as you can and then moderate the discussion that follows. Wikipedia has a good article here, though, as always with Wikipedia, take it with a grain of salt.

[Balding_Eagle]

It starts by reading the Constitution of the United States of America.

LOL! Surely you're not serious.

PLease, you must read it for him/her and freepmail a concise summary to them at once. They're very busy you know! And their time is SO important.

Mustn't expect too much from them, after all how else will they keep our kids in last place around the world? They're busy lobbying for more money to solve that problem.

[LowNslow]

Captain's Quarters Blog

All this speculation about whistle blowers and such....and the exempt media continues to portray these leaks about NSA somehow as Bush's fault., or that the whistle blowers were acting under the highest most genuine of principles and concerns for the Constitution...all of it simply mind boggling.

Well, rather than sit back home out in the great middle of America, I decided to go to the source...headed for DC after Christmas...been an informative trip. Anyway, how is this for an informed bit of insight?

The leaks came from within NSA..

The leaks were leaked by active duty military personnel within NSA..

And the rationale for the leaks had NOTHING to do with patriotism, nor even protest against the War in Iraq, or the WOT.

Picture if you will a couple active duty military officers, let's say, Air Force officers, who were angry at the Bush Administration....angry...why?

How about an Air Force officer being found guilty of vandalism in Denver...remember that LTC who spray painted a bunch of cars that had Bush stickers on them? To pay back for having their friend, one of their own, found guilty in civilian court and facing Courts Martial for various UCMJ violations connected with this juvenile act of vandalism ...deciding to embarrass Bush by releasing specially compartmented intelligence information from a special category program at NSA..and making sure that the reporter they leaked to was inculcated with the notion that the NSA intercept and monitoring (no, not wiretapping...can we stop using wiretapping in this context...please) was in violation of standing NSA regulations, (it is not) and in violation of federal law (it is not) and that the President authorized this program without consultation with the community (which is not true).....all because one of their friends, one of their own, was punished severely for acting like a child...and they themselves, acting like spoiled petulant little kids...leaked SCI intelligence to the NYT.

The investigation is ongoing. The bigot list for this SCI program is very short...and all indications are that the leakers were active duty officers on assignment or attached to NSA at Fort Meade....and if DOJ has its way, they'll face federal charges...and THEN..be turned over to the military for UCMJ related charges....and under the UCMJ these leakers can face the same sort of sentence that the Rosenberg's enjoyed...

Had a wonderful week hanging out in DC...got to spend time with a number of former colleagues and a number of friends across the spectrum from military to Executive office...and this backgrounder on the NSA leaks came from a reliable source with access whose previous reporting has been consistently deemed highly plausible or has been borne out by facts.

On the road, heading back home before the year is out....just wanted to pass this along. Should be breaking in the press within days.

Posted by: coldwarrior415 at December 31, 2005 08:07 PM

[Blood of Tyrants]

Easy. They were not listening in on the gossip beteen Ashley and Brittany about McKenzie and Morgan. The people who were listened in on were calling KNOWN TERRORISTS or numbers that were found on DEAD TERRORIST computers. In all the calls, one half of the parties were outside the United States. When we are at war, the president has the authority to do it and the Democrats (who most likely leaked TOP SECRET information for political purposes) have the obligation to STFU or be prosecuted under the law.

[SouthTexas]

Without going into the Constitutional issues or the legalese, you may start with the fact that our rights apply only to us, not those of other countries.

[old republic]

That is not entirely accurate. Project Echelon does not only spy on terrorists, it also spies on non-terrorist communications. This includes officials in our own government and normal civilians. The system intercepts electronic communications and looks through looks for keywords in the conversation or text of a message. If a message sets off a flag then the message is put under more scrutiny to determine if the message is of value. Terrorism is only a more recent application. It was used during the Cold War against the Russians and many others.
President Carter issued Executive Order 12139 to authorize electronic surveillance in accordance with the Foreign Intelligence Act of 1978.
If there are laws that prohibit Americans from spying domestically, we usually just have our allies spy on us and we spy on them. Then they swap information without technically having spied on their own people. The UK and US did this for years. Congress is not completely ignorant of the wire tapping and many presidents have done this over and over. Whether this is a violation of the fourth amendment is being debated.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

[Cboldt]

I want to be sure that the article addresses the historical precedent of Presidents using executive orders to initiate wiretaps.

I don't know of any articles that do that, but a good summary of the history of warrantless surveillance is contained in the 1975 Senate hearings and related reports. This is not a "new" issue in our history, that is, similar events have happened (that is, "been caught") and been dealt with in the past.

Excerpts from 1975 Senate Hearings re: NSA Activity
House Report 106-130 - Part I <- Jump to "ADDITIONAL VIEWS OF CHAIRMAN PORTER J. GOSS"

[ASA Vet]

the use of wiretaps by the FBI to break up the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Panthers.

Equating domestic law enforcement court approved wire taps to military actions against an enemy plays into the CommieRAT/MSM game plan.

[old republic]

Technically before you can say we are at war, there must be a Declaration of War.

[old republic]

Technically before you can say we are at war, there must be a Declaration of War.

[bad company]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200512240002

Here's a good resource for you.

[Balding_Eagle]

You're right. freedom4me should just pass on what they put in the MSM

What kind of answer is that?

That's a typical liberal arguing method. If it's not perfect, then I'll do a 'shove it in you face, stomp on the floor' nonsense response.

[RightWhale]

a news article that lays out the NSA "spying" story in a clear, easy-to-understand manner

Can't be done. The topic is murky by nature, and so it shall remain. Anything you find out about NSA is disinformation, so don't teach it.

[vbmoneyspender]

Kind of reminds me of some of the computer newsgroups where someone will ask a question the answer to which may be obvious to others and then 20 people will respond by telling the person what an idiot he or she is for asking the question. As to the details of the NSA spying story, I think today is the first day where we actually got hard facts (from the President in this case) which actually show what was going on with the program. As such, I'm inclined to cut someone a little slack if they weren't able to pick up that info from Google.

[Blood of Tyrants]

BAAAH! Who cares anything about legalities and technicalities? BTW. I do believe that the War Powers Act that was given to Roosevelt in WWII had no sunset and was never repealed.

[Cboldt]

It was used during the Cold War against the Russians and many others.

It's [Eschelon / review of international communications] been used to prosecute the war on drugs too.