Did NSA Illegally Wiretap A Scholar? Congressional Panel Wants To Know

New York Times:

WASHINGTON -- A Congressional oversight panel plans to ask the National Security Agency to start an investigation into new evidence that the agency illegally wiretapped a Muslim scholar in Northern Virginia and concealed the eavesdropping during a 2005 trial in which the scholar was convicted on terrorism charges.

Representative Rush Holt, a New Jersey Democrat and chairman of the Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, said in an interview that he planned to ask the inspector general of the N.S.A. to open what would be the first formal investigation by the agency into whether its eavesdropping program had improperly interfered with an American's right to a fair trial.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[marleysghost]

We used to complain about the Soviet Union's tactics of sweeping people up in the middle of the night, holding them in prison without charges and no access to the outside world, sent off to gulag concentration camps on suspicion of being disloyal, and holding kangaroo show trials where the accused was publicly denounced and then sentenced. We, the United States of America, under the Bush administration do this, and more besides: we torture our enemies with mideval tactics and procedures, like waterboarding which we claimed was torture when Pol Pot did it in Cambodia in 1975.

The CIA and military interrogators can protest all they want, but we have become the enemy we once denounced. Is this the kind of country we want? Orwell's 1984? Stalin's Soviet Union of 1935, or East Germany's STASI of 1950?

This is not liberal whining, it is a recognition that we either want an Authoritarian government with unlimited powers to protect itself, or we can have a democratic government that we the people control and hold accountable.

Remember that nobody is safe from a police state with unlimited powers no matter how "safe" you think you are. Read "Darkness At Noon" by Arthur Koestler, or Sholnyestin's (spelling error here) "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denosovich", or "The Gulag Archipelago" for a taste of Bush's plans for a dictatorship o fthe republican Party he and Rove cooked up in their madness of their "torture regime" as Glen Greenwald calls it.

[AnalyzeIT]

Thank you - 'marleysghost' for years I've had discussions with different acquaintances, referencing the "thing" our government did in secret. They, say things such as "oh no our government wouldn't do that."

Yeah right!!!

The administration has fought like 'crazy' to keep American "dumbed down"....just the way they like it.

This is a new age and not just becasue of Barack. It is the dawning of a NEW Light.

[kareemachan]

Nicely put. As Pogo said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

[geobushono]

sixth amendment read it and weep.
There will be no change.
We'll be lucky to get even ONE show trial to bring gov't traitors to justice.

To paraphrase PE Obama in statements made during the Campaign, ............the citizens/people/voters need to keep up the pressure *after* the Election..........That is how we'll have the "Change We Can Believe In".
He needs to be pushed from the grass roots............not to imply dissatisfaction with his Leadership, but to counterbalance the poisonous elements within our gov't and the influential, so accustomed to shaping Legislation.
THIS is what he directed us to do. STAY involved.

[1differentdrummer]

Yeah, but what was he thinking? Oh, you mean thinking isn't illegal? Never mind.

[lungfish]

I think that the issue here is that evidence and discovery were thwarted by government when they were lawfully expected to present all materials consistent with the rules of discovery.
So they had more information and sources that may resolve the case in the defendents favor and with-held them to gain a conviction.
So here is how the wiretapping can be abused and our liberties may suffer along with it. Interesting how they assured us that such abuses of power wouldn't happen and that this is all for our own good...

[PhilipTaylor]

This is just more of the same BUSH-CHENEY ideas that brought us the Patriot Act.

Are we a free country or aren’t we! If we are FREE then someone needs to show it in COURT!

[kareemachan]

One of the scariest - and indicative - things to me was when Shrub started using in the term "homeland".

[solid]

The Bush cr*me family and N@zis go way back. Just ask Prescott.

[FreedomAgain]

Someone should go to jail for the wiretapping. Also, I wonder how many insider trading deals were inspired with wiretaps and internet communication surveillance. Think aobut the power you would gain by listening to executives discussing business moves as well.

[OneTop]

What a surprise !

[SinisterK9]

You mean the surprise that the person being tapped was a terrorist?

[Ramirez]

WaPo, June 20, 2008
*****

Obama Supports FISA Legislation, Angering Left
By Paul Kane

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) today announced his support for a sweeping intelligence surveillance law that has been heavily denounced by the liberal activists who have fueled the financial engines of his presidential campaign.

In his most substantive break with the Democratic Party's base since becoming the presumptive nominee, Obama declared he will support the bill when it comes to a Senate vote, likely next week, despite misgivings about legal provisions for telecommunications corporations that cooperated with the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program of suspected terrorists.

In so doing, Obama sought to walk the fine political line between GOP accusations that he is weak on foreign policy -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called passing the legislation a "vital national security matter" -- and alienating his base.

"Given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as president, I will carefully monitor the program," Obama said in a statement hours after the House approved the legislation 293-129. ...

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/20/obama_supports_fisa_legislatio.html

[lungfish]

I don't see how relevent this is given that it was your Pres and your Administration that committed what appears to be an abuse of power to gain a wrongful conviction.... nobody argues that phone taps aren't a useful tool, not even Obama. Clearly, President Elect Obama can see that this is a potential hazard of using wire taps and I doubt very much that he is as motivated as your President to scrap the Constitution in order to gain a wrongful conviction - Jose Padilla ring any bells, Ramirez? Remember how your President described the US Constitution as "just a g.... d.... mned piece of paper"?

I can bet even money that Obama won't ever be heard saying or doing such things..... but it was your President that set the bar so low, Ramirez.... and its up to Obama to raise it and it does appear to be exactly what he is doing. Setting a standard far higher than your party and your President are willing to live up to....or even capable of living up to.

[zizyphus]

If we had any idea what was really going, I think we would be even more pissed. All I know is, the situation as regards our constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties, is dire. This is not the America we want. I don't feel safe with them spying on everything, and Congress needs to start pulling the plugs on these goons soon. I am sick of government agencies that are seemingly run by organized crime.

[Kayttt2000]

I know what's going on and I'm very pzzzed...
There's a lawsuit on the net filed against the NSA in 1992 under
Domestic Surveillance & Mind Control Technology.
The Hayden,Bush and AT&T have been very busy trying to enslave this Nation.
A crime beyond the Illegal war,torture and everything else that has been exposed..

As the US Secret Service has different divisions of operation beyond protection of
our leaders,,,along with TOP SECURITY CLEARANCE,,,
I HIGHLY recommend they IMMEDIATLY investigate the NSA and AT&T,under the heading of
Protecting America,Americans against ABUSES being purpatrated by the NSA..

Oh Secret Service, you are the Top law dogs and are granted ALL AUTHORITY under said conditions by WE THE PEOPLE...
Those said conditions have been met and then some...
You have power over every agency of the US government including the Whitehouse...
You have power over the FBI,DOJ,Congress and Senate,,everybody..
There are corruptions/crimes being operated out of the NSA,,,ordered by Bush..,,under the heading of National Security...
You are very aware of this,,,it is time to move for the SAFETY of AMERICA!
Your agency is protection and LAW,,,when BIG laws are broken it is your duty to use the power WE THE PEOPLE have granted you...

NEVER IN US HISTORY HAS AMERICA NEEDED THE SECRET SERVICE TO ACT ON BEHALF OF AMERICA AS NOW..!

[mec57]

And this surprises anyone how?

[Ramirez]

Hopefully the Obama Justice Department will free this scholar and permit him to return to his pastimes. If the NSA is permitted to listen in on conversations between Saudi fundamentalists and American Muslim scholars then no one in America is safe to follow his dreams.

[lungfish]

As usual you have missed the entire point of the article.... it wasn't about whether or not they should have spied on him. I think that the issue here is that evidence and discovery were thwarted by government when they were lawfully expected to present all materials consistent with the rules of discovery.
So they had more information and sources that may resolve the case in the defendents favor and with-held them to gain a conviction.
Nice guys you are supporting, Ramirez...
So here is how the wiretapping can be abused and our liberties may suffer along with it. Interesting how they assured us that such abuses of power wouldn't happen and that this is all for our own good...

[loki]

Does it really matter? I mean, we have already learned that no one will ever attempt to prosecute Bush or anyone else from his administration. Sure, a few token sheep have been put out there for slaughter, but nothing really happened to them. In fact, they are doing quite well in life and career. With Pelosi and Reid , the 2 headed dog guarding the gates to Satans empire, oops, I mean the Bush white house, we now know without any doubt that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeild , and the rest of their of evil dominion will continue to roam the earth destroying lives and robbing from good humans everywhere. Greed and Evil is worshiped in DC.
Basically, nothing will happen to punish those who committed crimes and broke laws thanks to people like Pelosi and Reid.

[Ghost803]

Anti-castro Cubans in the CIA and someone else killed JFK, just by taking advantage of the secrecy and lack of congressional oversight over it. Imagine what they will do with the ability to legally bug anything and everyone they want.

[Mildmannered]

this is VERY upsetting.

[SinisterK9]

It should only be upsetting if it turns out to be true. Innocent until proven guilty.
Either way, as stated in the article, the person being tapped was a terrorist.

[kareemachan]

The person was convicted of inciting people to acts of violence based on the government's cut-and-paste use of illegal wiretapping. Your circular reasoning says this: Shrub & Co. used illegal wiretapping. Said illegal wiretapping caused person to be convicted. So it's okay to use illegal because the person is a terrorist, q.e.d.

[LightSword]

Stop the censoring!!!
Wiretapping is necessary in this age. As far as I am concerned the NSA should listen to everyones conversation.
Prevention is better than cure.

[dotmafia]

Yeah? Well how about watching and listening to you 24/7 then if you feel so good about it? I mean, you wouldn't mind them watching you go to the bathroom right? Or being with your wife in bed? I'm quite sure you wouldn't mind them watching you in the shower, right?

[LightSword]

No. Only allowed to listen to telephone conversations... And more so, only when calling foreign.

[Toonadude]

I'm putting together a bus tour in the Middle Atlantic States where I live. I'm calling it the "Patriot Tour." All the Samuel Adams you can drink and a stop at all known grave sites of the veterans of the Revolutionary War where we will unboard the bus and collectively p**s all over their graves.

I assume I can put you down for a ticket.

[LightSword]

Don'tcha think Bush is too weak? Why hasn't he bombed Iran?

[Wuud52]

We already have or have had leaders that listen to everything for the protection of their country. Don't you just dream of being as safe and happy as their people are? I listed some of their names below for you.

Castro, Mugabe, Stalin, Hitler, Amin, Saddam, Kim Jong Il, Ahmedinejad.

BTW, they would also see this message and send me off to the clink for 10 years to protect the rest of society.

[vedder110]

I think that wiretapping and video surveillance of all government officials should be required while they are serving this country. They serve at our pleasure, not the other way around.

[dotmafia]

Wiretapping Cheney and Bush? Hahahaha... that's so funny.

[LightSword]

3 million potential terrorists gathered at one place... yet we did not bomb there... Bush could be a bit stronger... Don'tcha think?

[Ramirez]

How do you know it doesn't happen now?

[rabiddog6708]

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Benjamin Frankin

[Ramirez]

That quote always makes sense, assuming the liberty is essential and the safety is temporary.