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The Obama administration invoked the controversial "state secrets" privilege again on Friday, arguing that if U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker were to permit a legal case against the government to proceed, he would be putting national security at risk. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement about the case, Shubert et. al v. Obama, that "there is no way for this case to move forward without jeopardizing ongoing intelligence activities that we rely upon to protect the safety of the American people."The case is a class action suit brought by four Brooklynites alleging that the Bush administration engaged in...

Homeland Security: Provisions of the law that spared New York another 9/11 are set to expire Dec. 31. So why do Democrats want to gut this law and remove the immunity telecom companies have for helping protect America? To borrow a British expression from World War II, it was a very near thing. The capture, arrest and indictment of 24-year-old Afghan immigrant Najubullah Zazi before he could set off bombs made from store-bought chemicals prevented a tragedy of potentially devastating proportions. It wouldn't have happened if the critics of Patriot Act had their way. The capture of Zazi was made...

The White House invited an ACLU attorney, who has built a career over the past six years of litigating against the United States in support of terrorists, to an official White House dinner last night to celebrate Ramadan with President Obama. Jameel Jaffer, who runs the ACLU's "national security project," has filed lawsuits challenging the FBI's "national security letter" authority, the constitutionality of warrantless wiretaps, and has been a leader in pushing for the shut down of Guantánamo Bay, and providing legal rights to terrorists held by the United States overseas in such countries as Iraq and Afghanistan. His efforts...

A federal judge on Wednesday threw out more than three dozen lawsuits claiming that the nation’s major telecommunications companies had illegally assisted in the wiretapping without warrants program approved by President George W. Bush after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker of Federal District Court in Northern California said that although consumer and privacy groups raised important constitutional issues in their claims, Congress had left no doubt about its “unequivocal intention” when it passed a measure last summer giving immunity to phone carriers in the wiretapping program. The ruling represents a major victory not only for AT&T...

Pvt. William Long was assassinated by a Muslim wannabe jihadist just over 24 hours ago. His fellow soldier, Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula was luckier... and is recouperating in a local hospital. Two of America's finest were ambushed - not while engaged in a firefight in one of Janet Napolitano's "overseas contingency operations", but in a parking lot in Little Rock, AR. In fact, neither Pvt. Long, nor Pvt. Ezeagwula, had yet been deployed to any theatre or battlefield. The two young recruits were fresh out of basic training, and not regular recruiters. Instead they were pulling some of their first duties...

Pelosi Knew About Harman Wiretap By Tory Newmyer Roll Call Staff April 22, 2009, 1:50 p.m. Pelosi Knew About Harman Wiretap Report on Detainees Raises New Questions for Obama Hoyer Voices Concern Over Wiretapping of Members Democratic Senate Women to Headline Event for Gillibrand NAFCU Board Votes to Publicly Oppose Cram-Down The National Security Agency briefed Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “a few years ago” that they had wiretapped Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), Pelosi revealed Wednesday. But Pelosi said she was not told what federal eavesdroppers picked up on the call — and never alerted Harman to it. “It was not...

Rep. Jane Harman, who has come under criticism for what she said in apparently wiretapped conversations with two pro-Israel lobbyists under investigation for espionage, went on CNN today to defend herself, calling the government wiretaps an "abuse of power." "And let's see who else was wiretapped. I mean lots of members of Congress talk to advocacy organizations. My phone is ringing off the hook in my office from worried members who are asking whether I think it could have happened to them. I think this is an abuse of power," she told Wolf Blitzer in an CNN interview. The story...

California Democrat Jane Harmon tried to sell her influence to end an espionage case against to spies in return for help becoming House Intelligence Committee chairwoman. In a newly released NSA wiretap report, Harmon has been exposed negotiating a quid pro quo deal with an official of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The agreement apparently called for Harmon to sell the influence of her Congressional office by lobbying the Justice Department to reduce espionage charges against two AIPC operatives. In return AIPAC would lobby then minority leader Democrat Nancy Pelosi to name Harmon as the Chair of the...

Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington. Harman was recorded saying she would "waddle into" the AIPAC case "if you think it'll make a difference," according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript. In exchange for Harman's help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy...

Rep. Jane Harman is denying that she tried to interfere with a Justice Department prosecution of alleged spying for Israel and is questioning whether a federal agency was improperly spying on a member of Congress. Harman (D-Calif.) responded angrily Monday to a story in CQ Politics reporting that the National Security Agency monitored a conversation in which she told a suspected Israeli agent that she would press prosecutors to reduce charges against two former officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee. "If there is anything about this story that should arouse concern, it is that the Bush administration may...

I have been reading the many different articles today on the NSA's eavesdropping activity. It's appalling, to me, that the occupier of the White House would allow such a practice to continue, especially after campaigning on the promise of: No warrantless wiretaps if you elect me!" Now, since being elected, by hiding his Birth Certificate and lying in nearly everything he promised, he proves himself the Socialist and liar that he truly is. 0bama has steadfastly defended President Bush's wiretapping program, and, in fact, 0bama has increased the wiretaps! All the while staking claim to his own brand new...

Turley on MSNBC says Obama is trampling on US Civil Liberties by going further than Bush on wiretapping.

Fitch Ratings on Monday cut its ratings on MGM Mirage (MGM.N) to one step above default and warned a distressed debt exchange of the casino operator's bonds "appears imminent or inevitable." Fitch cut MGM's debt rating three notches to 'C', an extremely speculative grade, from "CCC", and said it was unable to give an outlook because of the debt's high level of risk. MGM last week reported a fourth-quarter loss of $1.15 billion and said its banks had agreed to waive debt covenants through May 15. Earlier in March, it warned that auditors had substantial doubt about the company's ability...

Ever since the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretapping program was exposed in 2005, critics have denounced it as illegal and unconstitutional. Those allegations rested solely on the fact that the Administration did not first get permission from the special court created by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Well, as it happens, the same FISA court would beg to differ. In a major August 2008 decision released yesterday in redacted form, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, the FISA appellate panel, affirmed the government's Constitutional authority to collect national-security intelligence without judicial approval. -excerpt- For all the political hysteria and...

'WIRE' LAW FAILED LOST GI 10-HOUR DELAY AS FEDS SOUGHT TAP TO TRACK JIMENEZ CAPTORS IN IRAQ By CHARLES HURT, Bureau Chief October 15, 2007 WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence officials got mired for nearly 10 hours seeking approval to use wiretaps against al Qaeda terrorists suspected of kidnapping Queens soldier Alex Jimenez in Iraq earlier this year, The Post has learned. This week, Congress plans to vote on a bill that leaves in place the legal hurdles in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act - problems that were highlighted during the May search for a group of kidnapped U.S. soldiers. A...

WASHINGTON — More than two and a half years after the disclosure of President’s Bush’s domestic eavesdropping program set off a furious national debate, the Senate gave final approval on Wednesday afternoon to broadening the government’s spy powers and providing legal immunity for the phone companies that took part in the wiretapping program. The plan, approved by a vote of 69 to 28, marked one of Mr. Bush’s most hard-won legislative victories in a Democratic-led Congress where he has had little success of late. And it represented a stinging defeat for opponents on the left who had urged Democratic leaders...

Back in 2004 the blundering government accidentally sent Al-Haramain, a charity designated having provided financial and material support to al Qaida and other terrorist organizations, a classified document supposedly indicating that the organization and two of its lawyers had been wiretapped. Excuse me, but when an organization has most likely provided funds to our enemy I would hope the government does keep an eye on them. Anyway, the charity returned the classified document to the government, but later they filed suit against our government with the cheering of the ACLU. They decided to rely on their memory of the document...

Boy, the spine sure has melted out of those Democrats! Was it really only just last week Presidential candidate Barack Obama promised to fight the telecom amnesty element of the new FISA legislation that gave Bush everything he wanted and more to protect America from terrorist attack? When promoting how the House Dems caved on the FISA legislation, Obama made a promise I knew then was as fake as all his positions on key issues of the day: “Under this compromise legislation, an important tool in the fight against terrorism will continue, but the President’s illegal program of warrantless surveillance...

LOS ANGELES - A federal judge granted a prosecution request Thursday to dismiss 28 charges against private investigator Anthony Pellicano and a co-defendant. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Saunders said the government made the request because some of the alleged victims weren't available to testify and other counts were redundant. More than 35 charges remain against Pellicano and former Los Angeles police Sgt. Mark Arneson. The dropped counts mostly involved wire fraud that authorities had alleged involved Arneson searching law enforcement databases for Pellicano. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer came as prosecutors prepared to end their portion of...

WASHINGTON, (AFP) - The White House and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Tuesday said the House of Representatives was drawing up a new wiretap law that would hamper their job of protecting the people. The bill is a new attempt at reviving a post-September 11 law that expired last month allowing government spying on foreign telephone calls and electronic correspondence without first seeking a warrant. The White House and the Democrat-led Congress are at loggerheads over the issue of liability for telecommunications companies participating in the wiretap program. The House let the law expire on February...

NEW YORK (AP) - A law enforcement official has told The Associated Press that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's involvement in a prostitution ring was caught on a federal wiretap. The official says Spitzer is identified in court papers as "Client 9," and the wiretap was part of an investigation that opened in the last few months. The official says the New York governor met last month with at least one woman in a Washington hotel. The law enforcement official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for...

NEW YORK - The New York Times is reporting that Gov. Eliot Spitzer has told senior advisers that he had been involved in a prostitution ring. On its Web site, the newspaper cites an anonymous administration official as the source and says Spitzer was meeting with his top aides. Spitzer officials wouldn't immediately comment on the story to The Associated Press. An announcement was scheduled for 2:15 p.m. at his Manhattan office.

House Democrats have decided that their greatest duty is to the enemies of this country. They have performed magnificently in this role by refusing to grant immunity to telecommunications companies that provide information to government agencies tasked with preventing terrorist acts. By withholding their votes from the legislation that would have renewed the Protect America Act, House Democrats have discouraged these companies from cooperation by leaving them open to law suits by the very terrorists who plot the murders of innocent Americans. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke for the Democrats when she denied that national security was the issue, and...

ACLU denied, you know it's a good thing.

Senate OKs immunity for telecoms By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer 11 minutes ago The Senate voted Tuesday to shield from lawsuits telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on their customers without court permission after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. After nearly two months of stops and starts, the Senate rejected by a vote of 31 to 67 an amendment that would have stripped a grant of retroactive immunity to the companies. President Bush has promised to veto any new surveillance bill that does not protect the companies that helped the government in its warrantless wiretapping program. About 40...

Attorney Simon Glik, 31, was a defendant in Boston Municipal Court today as his lawyer, June E. Jensen of Wayland, asked a judge to dismiss wiretapping, disturbing-the-peace and aiding-a-prisoner-escape complaints, which were issued against him last fall. Jensen told Judge Mark H. Summerville that Glik was arrested in Boston on Oct. 1 for allegedly using his cell phone to record the arrest of a 16-year-old juvenile in a drug case. She said the Moscow-born lawyer was walking through the Boston Common at 5:30 p.m. when he used his phone’s camera to videotape three police officers investigating the teen. “If you...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ending months of resistance, the White House has agreed to give House members access to secret documents about its warrantless wiretapping program, a congressional official said Thursday. The Bush administration is trying to convince the House to protect from civil lawsuits the telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on Americans without the approval of a court. Congress created the court 30 years ago to oversee such activities. House Intelligence and Judiciary committee members and staff will begin reading the documents at the White House Thursday, said an aide to Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's demand for immunity for telephone companies that participated in his warrantless domestic spying program won an initial victory on Monday in the U.S. Senate. On a vote of 76-10, far more than the 60 needed, the Democratic-led Senate cleared a procedural hurdle and began considering a bill to increase congressional and judicial oversight of electronic surveillance of suspected terrorists. It includes a provision to grant retroactive immunity to any telecommunications company that took part in Bush's spying program -- surveillance without court warrants of e-mails and telephone calls of people in the United...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's spy court said Tuesday that it will not make public its documents regarding the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, in a rare public opinion, said the public has no right to view the documents because they deal with the clandestine workings of national security agencies. The American Civil Liberties Union asked the court to release the records in August. Specifically, the organization asked for the government's legal briefs and the court's opinions on the wiretapping program. Writing for the court, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates refused. Releasing the documents...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department is worried that a recent appeals court ruling could make it impossible to use wiretaps to investigate members of Congress in corruption cases. If so, that could extend to the ongoing investigation of Sen. Ted Steven, R-Alaska. The Associated Press recently reported that the FBI used an Alaskan oil contractor to tape phone conversations with the powerful senator as part of a corruption sting. In court documents filed last week, government attorneys asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to reconsider last month's decision regarding the FBI raid...

The controversy over President Bush's warrantless surveillance program took another surprise turn last week when a team of FBI agents, armed with a classified search warrant, raided the suburban Washington home of a former Justice Department lawyer. The lawyer, Thomas M. Tamm, previously worked in Justice's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR)—the supersecret unit that oversees surveillance of terrorist and espionage targets. The agents seized Tamm's desktop computer, two of his children's laptops and a cache of personal files. Tamm and his lawyer, Paul Kemp, declined any comment. So did the FBI. But two legal sources who asked not...

WASHINGTON - The House handed President Bush a victory Saturday, voting to expand the government's abilities to eavesdrop without warrants on foreign suspects whose communications pass through the United States. The 227-183 vote, which followed the Senate's approval Friday, sends the bill to Bush for his signature.

WASHINGTON - The House handed President Bush a victory Saturday, voting to expand the government's abilities to eavesdrop without warrants on foreign suspects whose communications pass through the United States. The 227-183 vote, which followed the Senate's approval Friday, sends the bill to Bush for his signature. He had urged Congress to approve it, saying Saturday, "Protecting America is our most solemn obligation." The administration said the measure is needed to speed the National Security Agency's ability to intercept phone calls, e-mails and other communications involving foreign nationals "reasonably believed to be outside the United States." Civil liberties groups and...

Privacy rules don't apply to Internet messages, court says Federal agents do not need a search warrant to monitor a suspect's computer use and determine the e-mail addresses and Web pages the suspect is contacting, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. In a drug case from San Diego County, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco likened computer surveillance to the "pen register" devices that officers use to pinpoint the phone numbers a suspect dials, without listening to the phone calls themselves. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of pen registers in 1979, saying callers have...

With the help of the U.S. Government and a U.S.-based technology company, the Government of Mexico plans to install a communications interception system that would enable its federal investigations agency to monitor and record any landline, cellular or voice over IP telephone call made anywhere in Mexico, in an effort to thwart narcotics trafficking and terrorism. On February 23, the U.S. State Department awarded a contract worth nearly $3 million to Verint Technology, Inc., of Melville, NY, to install the multi-faceted interception system for Mexico’s Agencia Federal de Investigacions, or AFI, which will include a monitoring center located at AFI’s...

Defense lawyers who had hoped that the public disclosure a year ago of the National Security Agency's wiretapping program would yield information favorable to their clients are being rebuffed by the federal judiciary, which in a series of unusually consistent rulings has rejected efforts by terrorism suspects to access the records. In at least 17 criminal cases, federal district judges nominated to the federal bench by presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush have ruled against requests to force the government to tell defendants, most accused of terrorism-related crimes, whether the NSA eavesdropped on them without a...

Rep. Jane Harman, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, told a gathering of the American Bar Association on Friday that the Bush administration's secret wiretapping program for suspected terrorists is illegal. Harman, D-Venice (Los Angeles County), who has become increasingly critical of President Bush's policies in recent months after her initial support for the Iraq war and her defense of the Patriot Act, also blasted the administration for refusing to provide legal opinions and authorizations for its wiretap program, interrogations policy and detentions of accused terrorists. "The administration has too often operated under vague legal guidelines, pursuant to...

Representative Nancy Pelosi, the incoming House speaker, sent a strong new signal on Friday that Democrats intend to confront the White House by naming a Texas congressman who opposed the war in Iraq as the next chairman of the House intelligence committee. Mrs. Pelosi chose him over Ms. Harman in part because he has repeatedly taken a more combative stance toward Bush administration policies like the invasion of Iraq, military tribunals for terrorist suspects, and the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program. Mr. Reyes voted against authorizing President Bush to go to war with Iraq, and in June he said...

Republicans who limped back to Washington for a lame duck congressional session last week found a host of marching orders from President Bush, but perhaps none more urgent than this: Before Democrats take control of Congress in January, they must pass legislation authorizing the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program. His plea for a legislative stamp of approval on the controversial spy effort is an "important priority in the war on terror," Bush said. The response: deafening silence. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist quickly dispatched aides to put out the word on Bush's request: Not gonna happen. Outgoing Senate Judiciary...

Citizens United, a prominent Washington-based conservative grassroots advocacy organization and its affiliated Political Victory Fund are unveiling a major campaign advertisement targeting Democrats for their staunch opposition to the NSA Wiretap program which authorizes the interception of international communications of people with known links to terrorist groups. The ad, which was produced by political strategist Dick Morris and Citizens United president David Bossie, premiered on FOX News Channel’s Hannity & Colmes and will be seen nationwide on FOX News Channel in the days before the November 7 th mid-term elections. “A Democratic Congress would jeopardize our national security and reverse...

The Bush administration can continue its warrantless domestic spying program while it appeals a judge's ruling that the program is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court said. Here is the link: http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/warrantless-wiretaps-can-continue-court/20061004155009990022?_ccc=4&cid=842

WASHINGTON - The House approved a bill Thursday that would grant legal status to President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program with new restrictions. Republicans called it a test before the election of whether Democrats want to fight or coddle terrorists. "The Democrats' irrational opposition to strong national security policies that help keep our nation secure should be of great concern to the American people," Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement after the bill passed 232-191.

Should Congress allow wiretapping without warrants on Americans when the President believes a terrorist attack is imminent? Yes 38% No 62% Total Votes: 498

Bill Would Remove Grounds for Impeachment, Bush Critics Suggest By Susan Jones CNSNews.com Senior Editor September 19, 2006 (CNSNews.com) - A bill now pending in the Senate would make the Bush administration's enemy wiretapping program more practical and flexible, removing all doubt about its legality. But that worries some of Bush's fiercest critics. According to one anti-Bush group, the bill "would pardon President Bush for breaking the law by illegally wiretapping innocent Americans without warrants." MoveOn.org's political action committee has accused Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) of caving in to pressure when he introduced a bill that "justifies everything the president...

In a nutshell, Judge Taylor claimed that under our Constitution, Hitchens’ right to never have his overseas telephone calls intercepted without a warrant trumps the right of Americans not to be blown to smithereens. The Constitution, however, says no such thing. The truth is, Democratic Presidents long before Bush conducted warrantless electronic surveillance for national security reasons—and every time the issue was reviewed by a federal appellate court, the court ruled for the President. In 2002, the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review said: “The Truong court, as did all other courts to have decided the issue, held that...

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - Presidential adviser Karl Rove criticized a federal judge's order for an immediate end to the government's warrantless surveillance program, saying Wednesday such a program might have prevented the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Rove said the government should be free to listen if al-Qaida is calling someone within the U.S. ``Imagine if we could have done that before 9/11. It might have been a different outcome,'' he said.

U.S. Patriot Act OKs Business Wiretaps JULY 19, 2006 03:01 by Jung-Hun Kim Jung-Eun Lee (jnghn@donga.com lightee@donga.com) It has been found that when amending the Patriot Act this past March, the U.S. government added a clause permitting wiretaps and bugs for investigation of suspected antitrust law violations, such as price fixing. The revised law may cause significant damage to major Korean companies, the bulk of whose exports go to the U.S., as they could come under investigation on breaking antitrust laws by just making contact with competing firms. The Dong-A Ilbo confirmed the legislation data disclosed by the U.S. administration...

DETROIT (Reuters) - The Bush administration on Monday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, arguing that defending the four-year-old wiretapping program in open court would risk national security. In arguments before U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit, the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday renewed its call for a court order that would force the government to suspend its program of intercepting without a court order the international phone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens. But the U.S. Justice Department has asked federal judges in Detroit and New...

Has the federal government infringed upon U.S. citizens' privacy rights since 9/11? yes no

Article published Jun 29, 2006 Man charged after videotaping police By Andrew Wolfe Telegraph Staff NASHUA – A city man is charged with violating state wiretap laws by recording a detective on his home security camera, while the detective was investigating the man’s sons. Michael Gannon, 49, of 26 Morgan St., was arrested Tuesday night, after he brought a video to the police station to try to file a complaint against Detective Andrew Karlis, according to Gannon’s wife, Janet Gannon, and police reports filed in Nashua District Court. Police instead arrested Gannon, charging him with two felony counts of violating...