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NAPOLITANO: Finding a crime for every man (on NSA spying)
The Washington Times ^ | October 2, 2013 | Andrew P. Napolitano

Posted on 10/02/2013 4:33:18 PM PDT by jazusamo

While the nation’s political class has been fixated on the government shutdown in Washington this week, the National Security Agency (NSA) has continued to spy on all Americans and, by its ambiguity and shrewd silence, seems to be acknowledging slowly that the scope of its spying is truly breathtaking.

The Obama administration is of the view that the NSA can spy on anyone, anywhere. The president thinks that federal statutes enable the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court to authorize the NSA to capture any information it desires about any persons without identifying the persons and without a showing of probable cause of criminal behavior on the part of the persons to be spied upon. This is the same mindset that the British government had with respect to the colonists. It, too, thought that British law permitted a judge in secret in Britain to issue general warrants to be executed in the Colonies at the whim of British agents.

General warrants do not state the name of the place to be searched or the person or thing to be seized, and they do not have the necessity of individualized probable cause as their linchpin. They simply authorize the bearer to search wherever he wishes for whatever he wants. General warrants were universally condemned by colonial leaders across the ideological spectrum — from those as radical as Sam Adams to those as establishment as George Washington, and from those as individualistic as Thomas Jefferson to those as big-government as Alexander Hamilton. We know from the literature of the times that the whole purpose of the Fourth Amendment — with its requirements of individualized probable cause and specifically identifying the target — is to prohibit general warrants.

Yet the FISA court has been issuing general warrants, and the NSA executing them...

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS: backoffnsa; benghazi; bhofascism; communism; datamining; democratscandals; dncbrownshirts; doublestandard; fastandfurious; fisa; fourthamendment; govtabuse; howtostealanelection; hypocrite; impeachnow; irs; nosuchagency; nsa; obama; obamabhofascism; orwelliannightmare; policestate; scandals; secretpolice; spying; stalinisttactics; tyranny; wiretapping
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1 posted on 10/02/2013 4:33:18 PM PDT by jazusamo
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To: jazusamo

Guilty!


2 posted on 10/02/2013 4:34:23 PM PDT by moovova ( "...uh, uhm...stop calling it Obamacare. Uh, George Bush did it...that's it! Call it BushCare.")
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To: jazusamo


3 posted on 10/02/2013 4:35:51 PM PDT by Diogenesis
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To: jazusamo

Isn’t it ironic that our first _resident from a so-called “oppressed” group turns out to be the most tyrannical, dictatorial “first amongst equals” “public servant” this country has ever seen? FDR set the precedent, in changing term limits for the Presidency and trying to expand and pack the Supreme Court. It’s always the left which, while shouting about tolerance and freedom, takes real freedom away from us. They exchange real freedom for libertinism and the majority is too stupid to see the difference.


4 posted on 10/02/2013 4:51:01 PM PDT by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: mrsmel
It’s always the left which, while shouting about tolerance and freedom, takes real freedom away from us.

You're precisely right and 0bummer has surpassed FDR regarding that in my view.

5 posted on 10/02/2013 4:57:09 PM PDT by jazusamo ([Obama] A Truly Great Phony -- Thomas Sowell http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3058949/posts)
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To: Diogenesis

Truman was Army Artillery Corps.

He wore his blue dress uniform home and his mother told him to never wear that Yankee uniform in her house again.


6 posted on 10/02/2013 5:03:53 PM PDT by donmeaker (Youth is wasted on the young.)
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To: jazusamo

He comes from a long line of experts.

“Show me the man and I’ll show you his crime” is an old KGB slogan attributed to Soviet spymaster Lavrenti Beria, head of KGB under Stalin, IIRC.


7 posted on 10/02/2013 5:04:25 PM PDT by Dr. Pritchett
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Please bump the Freepathon or click above and donate or become a monthly donor!

8 posted on 10/02/2013 5:07:34 PM PDT by jazusamo ([Obama] A Truly Great Phony -- Thomas Sowell http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3058949/posts)
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To: jazusamo

I agree. The scary thing is, he’s got three more years, and it’s going to be a slogging fight every step of the way. We’re going to need every ounce of stamina we can muster just to endure the onslaught, much less oppose and fight it. They start a million fires at once so that while we’re putting out some of them, they can throw more fuel on the others, until eventually they burn down the entire house of America.

Hope the morons, the idiots, the moochers, my “fellow” Americans, are happy when with themselves. Hope they enjoy all the “free stuff” they wanted above their own freedom, when no one has the freedom or the motivation to produce anymore, because they can’t keep the fruit of their own labor anyway. All of America can be Detroit then-if we can’t all be rich, they think, then they’ll make us all poor. I just can’t the “politics” of spread the misery, communism, a small elite ruling over a vast peasantry. I can’t understand people who because of their own laziness or stupidity, don’t have what they want yet envy and destroy those who did have the intelligence or work ethic to acquire it. They won’t be able to take what we can or will no longer produce.


9 posted on 10/02/2013 5:13:36 PM PDT by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: jazusamo
......."Yet the FISA court has been issuing general warrants, and the NSA executing them since at least 2004.".......

Time to shut these unconstitutional searches down. Good article, jaz.
10 posted on 10/02/2013 5:50:02 PM PDT by Girlene (Hey, NSA!)
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To: Girlene

Hiya Girl, couldn’t agree more. The judge has his head on right.


11 posted on 10/02/2013 6:06:29 PM PDT by jazusamo ([Obama] A Truly Great Phony -- Thomas Sowell http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3058949/posts)
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To: jazusamo; All
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12 posted on 10/02/2013 6:12:37 PM PDT by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
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To: musicman

B-)UMP


13 posted on 10/02/2013 6:19:33 PM PDT by jazusamo ([Obama] A Truly Great Phony -- Thomas Sowell http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3058949/posts)
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To: mrsmel

Republicans in red states should simply refuse to certify any democrat votes. We know there is massive voter fraud so cite that as the reason and move on.


14 posted on 10/02/2013 6:35:03 PM PDT by VerySadAmerican (".....Barrack, and the horse Mohammed rode in on.")
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To: Diogenesis

15 posted on 10/02/2013 7:29:50 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: jazusamo

Good article.


16 posted on 10/02/2013 7:32:48 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
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If our representatives were concerned about this, policy and funds for the NSA could be suspended, but that concern seems non-existent.

The NSA in my opinion is a machine that like a gun can be used for a variety purposes and in a variety of ways. It’s a mistake to hold the NSA as the bogeyman when it’s Congress that’s essentially providing the marching orders and dollars to operate.


17 posted on 10/02/2013 7:38:42 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Gene Eric
Unfortunately, there are also plenty of bad apples on the GOP side who need cleaning out of the barrel:
Supporters of U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers’ annual Western-themed, upscale fundraiser saw a splash of yellow Friday evening when “tea party” affiliates showed up to stage a protest....

Group members said they consider Rogers, a Republican and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, to be a Republican in Name Only, or RINO, because he votes mostly Democratically.

Mary MacMaster, also of the Lake Orion area, claimed Rogers violates citizens’ constitutional rights by supporting surveillance by the National Security Agency and the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act.

(emphasis added)
18 posted on 10/02/2013 8:46:57 PM PDT by shego
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To: Gene Eric
The NSA in my opinion is a machine that like a gun can be used for a variety purposes and in a variety of ways. It’s a mistake to hold the NSA as the bogeyman when it’s Congress that’s essentially providing the marching orders and dollars to operate.

I'm going to disagree, slightly:
It's simply a mistake to allow the government, or any of its branches the sort of "general warrant" powers that the article cites. Yes, congress is providing funding (I'm not sure about the marching orders); but the blame problem is illustrated very well by the Federal Reserve: congress delegates its authority over the monetary policy, and disavows any responsibility for what the Federal Reserve does (while protecting, them)… it is the same with many enforcement & regulatory agencies, where the Congress commissions and funds them but when the policies are unpopular claim it's the Executive-branch's fault.

In the end, much of our current problems wouldn't exist if we actually followed the Constitution, for much of our Federal Government wouldn't exist if we did.

19 posted on 10/02/2013 11:53:14 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: OneWingedShark

Thanks. BTW, “Congress” includes the Senate in my remarks.


20 posted on 10/03/2013 2:16:45 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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