The right of the people to be secure of their persons, houses, papers, and effects, towards unreasonable searches and F168 seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall subject, however upon possible trigger, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the individuals or things to be seized. Retroactive immunity for telecom companies who engaged in unlawful spying at the behest of the NSA is at the heart of a invoice presently being considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The invoice, even before having been officially introduced, is being hotly debated by bloggers, electronic privacy groups, and civil libertarians, as well as presidential contenders (CT Senator Chris Dodd has actually posted a petition at his election web site, encouraging readers to assist his threatened “hold” on the bill). We should always examine the issues involved here with the retroactive immunity offered CIA interrogators in the September, 2006 Military Commissions Act, who may otherwise have been accused of war crimes.
Below, we direct readers to an important series of programs from PBS’ Frontline to help readers investigate the background of this problem, and a deeper consideration of a few of what’s at stake in continually ceding power to a rogue Executive bent on dissolving the few civil liberties which currently stay untouched. “The National Security Agency and different authorities companies retaliated towards Qwest as a result of the Denver telco refused to go together with a telephone spying program, paperwork launched Wednesday suggest. The paperwork indicate that doubtless would have been at the heart of former CEO Joe Nacchio’s so-referred to as “classified information” defense at his insider trading trial, had he been allowed to current it. Nacchio was convicted last spring on 19 counts of insider trading for $52 million of stock sales in April and will 2001, and sentenced to six years in prison. He’s free pending attraction. The partially redacted documents had been filed beneath seal before, throughout and after Nacchio’s trial. They were released Wednesday.
Nacchio planned to show at trial that he had a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, at NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Md., to debate a $100 million venture. In accordance with the documents, another topic also was mentioned at that assembly, one with which Nacchio refused to comply. The topic itself is redacted every time it appears in the lots of of pages of paperwork, but there is mention of Nacchio believing the request was both inappropriate and unlawful, and repeatedly refusing to go together with it. The NSA contract was awarded in July 2001 to firms apart from Qwest. USA Today reported in May 2006 that Qwest, unlike AT&T and Verizon, balked at helping the NSA observe telephone calling patterns that may have indicated terrorist organizational actions. Nacchio’s legal professional, Herbert Stern, confirmed that Nacchio refused to turn over customer telephone data because he didn’t think the NSA program had authorized standing.
Yet another example answering the oft-requested skeptic’s query re. 9/11 fact, “If there was authorities collusion in or cowl-up of involvement in 9/11 events, why don’t whistleblowers come forward? In the months since creation of this Frontline sequence, a number of vital initiatives and information objects have surfaced. Throughout the months of May and June 2007, PBS Frontline offered five applications as a part of an investigative sequence known as Spying on the home Front. The intensive collection web site presents all 5 programs to observe online, interviews, associated readings and hyperlinks, dialogue forum, and several other different wonderful instruments. In a everlasting struggle against a hidden enemy, how far has the federal government gone in hunting terrorists by watching us? 9/eleven has indelibly altered America in ways that individuals are now starting to earnestly query: not solely perpetual orange alerts, barricades and physique frisks at the airport, but larger government scrutiny of people’s information and electronic surveillance of their communications. The watershed, officials tell FRONTLINE, was the government’s shift after 9/11 to a strategy of pre-emption at dwelling – not simply prosecuting terrorists for breaking the legislation, but trying to find and stop them before they strike.
President Bush described his anti-terrorist measures as narrow and targeted, but a FRONTLINE investigation has found that the National Security Agency (NSA) has engaged in wiretapping and sifting Internet communications of tens of millions of Americans; the FBI conducted a knowledge sweep on 250,000 Las Vegas vacationers, and together with greater than 50 different businesses, they’re mining industrial-sector knowledge banks to an unprecedented degree. Even government officials with expertise since 9/eleven are nagged by anxiety in regards to the jeopardy that a struggle without end in opposition to unseen terrorists poses to our way of life, our private freedoms. “I always said, when I used to be in my place running counterterrorism operations for the FBI, ‘How much security do you want, and how many rights do you need to quit? ” Larry Mefford, former assistant FBI director, tells Smith. “I can give you extra security, but I’ve got to take away some rights. Although the president advised the nation that his NSA eavesdropping program was limited to recognized Al Qaeda brokers or supporters abroad making calls into the U.S., comments of other administration officials and intelligence veterans indicate that the NSA forged its web much more broadly.
