Government Intrudes on Troops' Privacy
Absolutely disgusting. According to a new report from ABC, thanks to the Patriot Act, the government has been listening into phone calls from troops in the middle east, and passing clips of them around the office. Not just that, but the clips are of private moments between troops and their wives and girlfriends.
Faulk says he and others in his section of the NSA facility at Fort Gordon routinely shared salacious or tantalizing phone calls that had been intercepted, alerting office mates to certain time codes of "cuts" that were available on each operator's computer.
"Hey, check this out," Faulk says he would be told, "there's good phone sex or there's some pillow talk, pull up this call, it's really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, 'Wow, this was crazy'," Faulk told ABC News.Faulk said he joined in to listen, and talk about it during breaks in Back Hall's "smoke pit," but ended up feeling badly about his actions.
Oh, he felt badly? How about I start listening into the phone calls of NSA staff, and posting the best stuff on blogs, so we can all have a laugh.
Asked for comment about the ABC News report and accounts of intimate and private phone calls of military officers being passed around, a US intelligence official said "all employees of the US government" should expect that their telephone conversations could be monitored as part of an effort to safeguard security and "information assurance."
"They certainly didn't consent to having interceptions of their telephone sex conversations being passed around like some type of fraternity game," said Jonathon Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University who has testified before Congress on the country's warrantless surveillance program.
Turley is right, and frankly, the response to ABC from the intelligence official is a disgrace.
Let me tell you something about being in a warzone. It's grueling, it's mentally taxing, it's hot, you see men blown up and losing limbs. For many, the one bit of calm they have is a brief moment when they thought of their wives or girlfriends back home, who they haven't seen for months.
But it was also agonizing. They could see them in their heads, but they couldn't touch them or smell them.
The best troops have is a brief telephone call sometimes. And, yes, it was as close to intimate as they can get. A tiny bit of good amidst the hell of war.
For the government to think that it was acceptable to listen in and pass around troops' most intimate moments, like some high-tech peeping toms, some satellite-powered voyeurs, is one of the greatest insults I can think of to those men and women in uniform sacrificing everything they have for their nation.
It's good that Senator Jay Rockefeller has started an investigation into this. I sincerely hope that he does not stop until everyone who let this happen is accounted for, and their heads roll. And I hope Republicans, who used to be all about limited government, and who swore to uphold our Constitution and Constitutional rights wake up and realize what's happening.
Our troops deserve a lot better from the government they're fighting for.
Crossposted at www.vetvoice.com
Follow Jon Soltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jonsoltz
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
A vote for Obama is a vote for a better
Supreme Court
NOT MUCH ELSE
Voted FOR bailout
Voted FOR FISA
Voted AGAINST constitutional freedom
I agree, let's let the Republicans keep their power for another 8 years, the past 8 years just wasn't fun enough. I recall their wasn't much difference between Bush & Gore, either.
Jon, as a former Officer, you knew and taught those entrusted to your care that their mail, their phone calls and computer communication (any and all communication) could and possibly would be monitored for Operations Security (OPSEC). As a Marine Staff NCO, I certainly did!
Our people deserve to know that their communications will not be used for any but official use! That said, pretending outrage at the practice of OPSEC is patently silly, and you should be ashamed of yourself! You, and many of the readers/commentors here, expressed terrific outrage at Sarah Palin for touting her son's deployment, of which she is rightly proud. Please don't pretend now that OPSEC such as this, which has been practiced for at least a hundred years by my count, is a violation of rights!
Semper fi
You've got a strange way of pretending to yourself what these agency boys were doing, passing around the juicy tapes they'd made for a good laugh, was ANY kind of OPSEC or COMSEC 'necessity'. The opportunities for this type abuse suggest these are hardly isolated incidents. Where's the 'respect' the preznutz promised for this overseas eavesdropping operation a short time ago?
There's doing your job and then there's just spitting on people for entertainment.
You didn't read my comments, did you? I do not condone using the intercepts as human interest reading!
Semper fi
Why am I not surprised?
Senator Obama you have my vote because the alternative is unacceptable, but how do you feel about that FISA vote now?Do you really think no one was abusing their authority?
Shameful.
I want my country back!
Hey America how do you like your patriot act now?
PATRIOT act......... that is SO doublespeak
that saying it makes me ill.
how 1984 do we need to get before
you understand???
IF YOU ARE FOR SUPPORTING THE TROOPS
BRING THEM HOME - TO THEIR FAMILIES !!!
trust me, your not the only one who thinks that...I wrote a paper for a class about 6 years ago comparing the bush administration to 1984...some of the examples I used included the "clear skies act", which allowed companies to start polluting more, the "no child left behind act" that's leaving children behind, fighting a never ending war i.e. terrorism, and only they being able to decide who's a terrorist and who's not. How do you fight an ideal?
and it has since expanded to domestic spying, history re-writing, a right-wing propaganda machine...
us as a citizenry sure aren't helping matters..just take a look at some of the rally's recently
to all of the T R O L L s out there, Show me an example of a Liberal Bias in the media not named (prime time) MSNBC. The media these days is not controlled by the "liberals" as rush is so obsessed with saying. In fact, rush's show is the most listened to talk show in the country, and has a ridiculous conservative bias (actually, i think it's a corporate bias, because rush is just a noisy puppet). That, and Fixed News, and the media's obsession with being "fair" to both parties, even when the repubs do something totally irrational and stupid
Remember...EVERYTHING that this administration have forced on us have an opposite name from what they actually do.
Patriot Act
Credit Protection Act
Clean Air Act
Economic Rescue Bill
ect
ect
It's surprising, Jon, that comments and discussion don't seem to touch much on what the 'spies r us' might also be doing to eavesdrop on civilians inside OUR country. Could they perhaps be taping and even blackmailing political enemies? Could they be stockpiling and archiving databases of every minor infraction ever committed by anyone, to be used later if so needed? In this case, one's imagination might even have trouble grasping the actual magnitude of that reality.
Whether it's the Constitution or the UCMJ that governs OUR behavior, Jon, this preznutz and administration have ignored anything in their way with signing statements or executive orders. It's a hypocritical and criminal Executive that believes the 'Rule of Law' doesn't also apply EQUALLY to them and it's a complicit and lobby-bought Legislative that selectively allows that Rule of Law to be so abused.
That would explain why Pelosi took impeachment off the table before any investigations began.....
Jay Rockefeller is the biggest hypocrite. He is one of the people who authorized this spying.
Can't wait for the moment when somebody confesses to have been listening to CEOs from big companies, talking business on the phone, and somebody from the Government profiting from the information.
When Alberto Gonzalez was asked on TV "is the Government listening Americans talking to Americans", his answer wasn't "no" or "of course not"... his answer was "no American is being harm with this information being collected"... that doesn't mean NO. He knows something is nobody is questioning him.
I have written before that I will support the Democrats for Office... However, Obama Voted FOR the FISA Amendment for Domestic Spying on WE the People, that the Bush Administration wanted... I did NOT like that then, nor do I agree with his Vote now... I will support the Democrats (Including Obama/ Biden) for Office... McCain, the disgusting, IMO, coward, did not even show up to Vote...
Wait a minute. I'm a federal employee, and I'm supoosed to be ok with this:
"a US intelligence official said "all employees of the US government" should expect that their telephone conversations could be monitored as part of an effort to safeguard security and "information assurance."
WTF?
It perhaps could have been stated better. All communications, OVER GOVERNMENT CIRCUITS, are subject to monitoring at all times.
Your office phone!
Your residence phone on Military Installations Over Seas.
Your GOVERNMENT Cell Phone (BlackBerry, PDA, etc.)!
Your GOVERNMENT computer and the GOVERNMENT Networks that you connect to!
If you are OverSeas, they might even monitor your TV viewing if it is carried through Government Cable systems.
Yup! You betcha'!
Tinuviel...
What's the big surprise??? What do you think the last FISA Amendment was all about??? Doesn't really matter if you are a Federal Employee... Your Constitution Right was taken away with the FISA Amendment and a lot of us were angry and wrote our Congress People about that... MY Senators Voted against it....
Give them to the troops for justice.
Rights? What are those? I remember when we used to have a Constitution. I wonder what those guys are fighting over there for. Freedom for Iraqis, perhaps, but not for themselves or us.
Sorry, but troops have never had any privacy rights. All correspondance is subject to being read or listened to. The only problem with what has happened were some a-hole employees of the NSA passing the stuff around. They should be fired immediately.
Yes, they should be fired - cashiered - immediately.
And yes, the correspondence by a G.I. or Marine on the frontlines has always been subject to censorship in order to prevent inadvertent or deliberate disclosure of troop movements that could compromise security. But this goes beyond that. Regardless of the nastiness of passing around the transcriptions, copies of correspondence were not made in previous conflicts. In Vietnam, Korea, WWII, it was one G.I. or Marine who read a letter, blacked out portions and then sent it on. From now until God is beyond old, those transcripts will be in the possession of the same jerks who transcribed them in the first place.
That is absolutely true. People who are in the service don't have many rights to speak of. The saying was you are now property of the Department of defense. A sunburn or new tattoo could technically get you in trouble for "Destruction of Government property"(Personal experience) Everybody is aware of, or has been told that all of your conversations, e-mails and letters are checked. It's something they call operational security. We don't want to let the enemies know troop movements etc...That being said, the line does need to be drawn somewhere. And having a bunch of morons from the NSA laugh at the closest thing you can get to intimate with your loved ones is beyond reprehensible. I am going to take a shot in the dark and say that none of these yahoos have been deployed. If they had been they'd have a little bit more discretion.
You're forgetting that the spouses etc on the other end of the line are in the US, are not DOD property and supposedly have ''rights.'' Blacking out passages in letters from troops is one thing, invading the privacy of private citizens located within the US is entirely another. The NSA geniuses could set this up so only the foreign side of a conversation is tapped. But that would take out all the fun, not to mention blackmail material.
They need to poll honorably discharged Iraq vets and ask them this question...
"Reports indicate that some private phone calls from troops in Iraq may have been overheard by a blanket wiretapping effort in the region, violating their privacy rights. Reports also indicate that the wiretapping effort was successful in obtaining actionable intelligence that led to disarmament of IEDs, the arrest of insurgents intending to do harm to American troops, and identifying foreign terrorists invading the area. If you found out that you were one of those overheard in this program, would you sue the government for invasion of your privacy rights, and attempt to get the program abolished?"
Why am I NOT surprised that someone from the "GO WAR!" crowd would think that somebody listening in to private conversations and then passing them around for an "in house" laugh, is OK?
Your premise is irrelevant to the event that is being described, but you don't even get that, do you?
I'll include you with the personality type I've cited above.
You beg the question.
The first question is, "Was actionable intelligence obtained?" in reality.
My guess is that maybe someone said, "We're going to X tomorrow to do Y." And it was said without intention of compromising the mission.
I have enough faith in our military to believe that 99.1% of all such disclosures (as few as they may have been) were inadvertent and inconsequential.
It's bad enough we've sent them into combat for bullshit reasons. Now we rob them of the few precious moments they have with loved ones? Low class. America is better than this.
RHM
Wow, I know that my brother had a computer in his room on the Iraqi base where he was an advisor for the last year. I know that he would talk to his wife and daughter via Skype. I have no idea if there were any "adult" skype moments, but I wonder if those video calls were recorded as well. That would probably be very popular with the guys at NSA.
Wait a minute. This is the ultimate betrayal by ones own government. Truly, it is. If a REAL PRESIDENT got wind of this, he or she would deal with it immediately, and heads would roll.
I can't wrap my brain around the zillion different ways this is REPREHENSIBLE.
Reptiles have no morality.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
