MKM
Posted on 10/12/2001 8:48:32 PM PDT by tomball
Edited on 04/22/2004 12:31:24 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
WASHINGTON — Every two weeks, in a secure, soundproof room at an undisclosed location in Washington, D.C., seven judges meet to decide the fate of dozens of federal wiretap and search warrant requests.
The targets of these warrants may not even know what's happening to them, much less be able to defend themselves. The feds don't even have to show probable cause. Everything is classified.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Mr. Ashcroft is a disappointment.
There's no friggin' way I will stand for that, and I believe there are millions of patriotic Americans who will agree. A Police state will not be tolerated.
You should've heard the crap that Senator Toricelli was spouting on Geraldo tonight! Mr. Toricelli basically said that we should be willing to accept federal police who demand "Your papers, please"; Geraldo echoed his sentiments, saying "I think that's where we're headed."
Law abiding American citizens aren't the problem here, folks, and to hysterically create a fascist America would mean that the terrorists have achieved their goal of destroying our way of life.
I will simply not tolerate such an America.
What doesn't?
MKM
We declared war against the state - the country as named. We are bombing the Taliban. We are therefore at war with the Taliban. The Taliban are the current government of Afghanistan, elected or not, emperor or fuhrer or not, they are the government. So why haven't we passed a declaration of war? That would solve the problem of wiretaps immediately wouldn't it? As well as other areas of National Security.
If we're gonna have virtual permanent martial law, might as well do it right...
>>getting off of soapbox now<<
ahhh what a messed up situation no matter how you look at it.
I have watched this happening and it has been depressing, very depressing to think we have so many ignorant citizens in this country.
National ID Cards aren't far behind, within two years. The American farmer is disappearing FAST and unless we get the people up off their ass, our Constitution and Bill of Rights are going to be used for toilet paper at the UN.
Mr. Ashcroft is a disappointment.
Well said, in a perfect understatement. His motives might be less suspect if he had gone harder after some real criminals like the Klinton administration and FBI prior to the attack.
A very large disappointment. My family and I were so pleased when Bush finally won the election and appointed Ashcroft as AG. Little did we know what lay in store, even before 9/11, I think.
Carolyn
This is one of those laws that "could" be properly and honorably executed by an honorable man.....yet one of dishonor would surely abuse.
For this reason alone, we must err on the side of freedom......as our forefathers insisted.
Since its debut in 1978, the FISA court has denied only one of the roughly 10,000 warrant applications sought by the feds.
Then there's this:
U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth, chief of the seven-member FISA court, would not agree to be interviewed, but has bristled at accusations that the court rubber-stamps federal warrants.
And Lamberth has often been critical of the government from his bench. He is said to have censured an FBI lawyer in March for one FISA warrant request, according to The Washington Post, a censure that set off a department-wide investigation into the way the FBI was requesting the warrants.
Either the writer or this judge takes us for complete idiots. 
If the writer did the proper research, it would have to be. Only one in 10,000 denied in 22 years, and the judge uses that one to "bristle" over rubberstamp accusations?
It implied to me that the judge knows this is wrong and thereby becomes a perpetrator of an evil.
They would get bored to death listening in on me, besides it
will take up a lot of time. Ain't goin to happen.
I agree, but remember he works for and at the pleasure of
the President, who wants to move on.
It's Britian's Official Secrets Act of 1911
In the months leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor, a young code officer (his job) working in the U.S. Embassy in London had collected several hundred documents, some exchanced between President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill (as head of the British Navy.
The U.S. Ambassador in those days was Joseph Kennedy (father to future President John Kennedy). The code officer, Tyler Gatewood Kent, worked for Kennedy. And to be sure, Kennedy had been appointed to his Ambassadorship by Franklin Roosevelt.
Kent, from his reading of the secret documents, believed that Roosevelt and Churchill were secretly working to bring the United States into the war waging in Europe. As it's reported, Kent took the classified papers with the notion of going to the American public to expose this sub rosa activity.
Kent was found out and arrested in London by Scotland Yard Detectives. The date was 20 May 1940. Roosevelt was running for his thrid term as President. In the next three days the UK made plans to deport Kent.
News that Roosevelt was working to bring the U.S. into an unpopular war would have been very damaging to Roosevelt's run for President. Joe Kennedy, unsolicited and unilaterally, waived Kent's diplomatic immunity as an American citizen.
With the full sanction of his own U.S. government, Kent became a political prisoner with no American rights. A man without a country.
Kent was tried in secret under the Official Secrets Act, convicted, and sentenced to a 7-year prison term.
Kent served just over 5 years of that term, and returned to the U.S. about the time investigations into Pearl Harbor were in session.
Putting aside for the moment the question of right or wrong regarding the withholding of documents, Kent should have been returned home for a public trial.
Source: Toland, J. (1983). Infamy; Pearl Harbor and it's aftermath.
From the folks at CAMI.
I agree, but remember he works for and at the pleasure of the President, who wants to move on.
move on to what? unchallenged police state powers, and I was told that my vote for Harry Browne was a vote for gore! horse hockey, a vote for bush was a vote for gore, 9/11 is just the mechanism to push it faster then bush originally planned. the lessor of two evils my foot.
And it will be too late.
Carolyn
Absolutely no argument from me on that issue.
Exactly which of the powers available to the government under the new laws would have prevented the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center?
It probably already is.
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