Tag: fisa
Toe Knee Flip-Flops on the FISA Issue
I've talked a bunch about the FISA amendments these past few months and my words haven't been complimentary, I've said that it's a huge blow for civil liberties and it compromises the rule of law. I've shouted from the rooftop of my blog that it is bad bad bad bad bad. An evil tool created by and for an evil administration that has spikes and barbs and stuff and will inevitably be inserted up whichever orifice the American people would still like to save for that special someone.
So today I stand not on the roof, but in more of a back-room office of my blog to mumble away that I might have been a bit overzealous in my condemnation of the FISA amendments…
I know what you're thinking, but the world is not ending. The final prophecy of Nostradamus has not come to pass and dogs and cats are not sleeping together. Don't panic yet. I will explain the reasons for my change of heart.
Late in the evening two nights ago I came across a FISA post by a very bright Voxer who calls himself Brons. He did an admirable job of interpreting the bill and what it means and is supposed to do. He also did it from a staunchly Libertarian standpoint, which is the only stance at all that I would have accepted as valid on this issue. He like me was opposed to the bill on the principle that it violated American liberties, however unlike me he had the ability to interpret the text of the bill and construct a far-more informed opinion based upon the facts he uncovered.
It's a long read and it's a very very complicated issue that attempting to summarize honestly sounds like feeble minded bullshit spouted from the mouths of one of America's chief propaganda artists, but I will do my very best.
What the bill attempts to do is bring the surveillance laws up to the technology level that we now live in.
Yes, again I know what you're thinking… that's pretty much what Bush said, and we all know Bush is a big fat liar so why am I quoting him? Well… enough monkeys on enough typewriters… let's just say that Bush says a lot of things and chaos theory dictates that at some point, something he says might be correct when interpreted in a certain way. If it makes you feel any better I think he might have meant to say something else.
But back to FISA. FISA is essentially a bill that creates a group of judges who sign warrants to spy. Now Americans are protected from unlawful spying by their constitution, warrants are issued to make that spying lawful, just like a cop has to obtain a warrant before he can search your home. This is no different.
Non-americans aren't protected by the American constitution, and therefore they can be spied on without the same legal issues and are only limited by the policies their boss sets down, certain international laws and treaties and what sort of a budget the accountants allot. Thus spying on non-American citizens outside the USA doesn't need a warrant unless it violates some sort of treaty.
Where it gets fuzzy is when you're talking about non-Americans on US soil, or a non-American talking to an American etc…
Here's the technological bit. Digital communication isn't just one bunch of data sliding along a wire until it reaches it's destination, it travels through a multitude of servers, and routers to get where it's going. Sometimes data between two foreign persons communicating in a foreign country will make pitt stops in routers and servers on United States soil. This previously meant that even though the data was clearly outside of the jurisdiction of Constitutional protection, because it was being obtained from a server owned by a company that was US based that a FISA warrant still had to be obtained. That as you can imagine likely bogged down the process some.
What the new amendments are meant to do are to consider the sources that information is originating from to determine the need for a FISA warrant, rather than the source it is obtained from to determine whether or not a warrant is needed. If a US citizen is involved, then constitution protects them and warrant is needed, if one of the points where the communication originated from is on US soil, then get a warrant… however if two people are talking on their cell-phones in Afghanistan and their cell phone conversation is routed through servers belonging to AT&T in Seattle, then if those people are for whatever reason persons that the US needs to spy upon, then the data can be grabbed from the Seattle server with the same legal ease that a field agent would have had in installing a wire-tap between their point-to-point communications back in the 60's.
That's the jist of it. Now, the bill does specifically state that when issuing warrants to surveil US citizens that the 4th Amendment rights must be obeyed, and that the information gained must have certain safeguards to protect American's rights… however these statements have yet to be tested in the courts.
THAT boys and girls, means that our interpretations are just interpretations and will only be proven wrong or right once the courts start making legal rulings and setting precedents based on what the judges' interpretation of this law are. It is then we will see how much weight these protections have.
So after that attempt at explaining things better, what really matters most of course is my opinion. What FISA looks like to me is just a tool, a hammer with a new nob on it that will hopefully work a bit better in some situations. That hammer is not necessarily evil, and parts of the constitution have not been melted down to be used in it's construction. However the way that hammer will be used still remains to be seen. If the administration is corrupt – and for the last while it has been – then we can expect this tool to be used in many unsavory ways. However it doesn't necessarily compromise the rule of law by it's very existence.
Which Parts of the Constitution Should Be Tossed?
Here's what I don't get… whenever someone steps in front of a camera and says that maybe guns are weapons and gun owners should be held accountable for that, every GOP member and their dog hops onto their soap-box and starts screaming about their Constitutional Rights… but whenever other aspects of the constitution are outright used as toilet paper then flushed… crickets. Kinda makes me wonder about the validity of their arguments…
Let's take a look at a few parts of the constitution and examine how they apply to some of the more recent events.
The Second Amendment
Declares "a well regulated militia" as "necessary to the security of a free State", and as explanation for prohibiting infringement of "the right of the people to keep and bear arms."
This is the GOP's favorite part of the Constitution, and the Democrat's least favorite, it's been the battle ground for many drawn-out fights, one of the more recent ones being in the Washington Supreme Court. It was a move to control firearms in the state and it was overturned and the Republicans trumpeted it a victory for 2nd Amendment rights. The constitution was upheld and America's rights and freedoms still stand strong.
The Fourth Amendment
Guards against searches, arrests and seizures of property without a specific warrant or a "probable cause" to believe a crime has been committed.
Specifically we'll look at this particular snippet of text:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
The recent FISA amendments have shredded that particular part of the constitution. It's not needed anymore, times are different, the fourth amendment is "soft on Terror" and therefore every GOP in the Senate voted to scrap it ensuring that any phone call or e-mail or piece of electronic data leaving the country will be monitored and turned over to the government without any need of a warrant or probable cause. Sure it's a small infringement on American's rights and freedoms, but to stop terror… well worth the price.
The Fifth Amendment
Forbids trial for a major crime except after indictment by a grand jury; forbids punishment without due process of law; and provides that an accused person may not be compelled to testify against himself (this is also known as "Pleading the Fifth").
This Amendment has also been sacrificed on the alter of the War On Terror. Recently Guantanamo Bay detainees were told that they got a right to a fair trial, so begrudgingly the Constitution is upheld, however the evidence they gave, possibly under torture, is being used against them. So the fifth amendment really isn't needed anymore either.
So my point here is that in the GOP's mind the War on Terror justifies the compromise of the Fourth and the Fifth Amendments, as well as taking a few stabs at the Fourteenth Amendment, and completely ignores the 8th Amendment's stance on "Cruel and Unusual Punishment".
But this is the War on Terror, sacrifices must be made to ensure the safety of American citizens after all.
So here's what I don't get:
This guy, Jim D. Adkisson just shot two people because of their political views. He targeted them because the church they went to was according to him, "too liberal". This is textbook terrorism right from the elephants mouth, if he were Arabic or had any shade of skin but pasty white he would already be on his way to Guantanamo.
Herein lies my confusion, the War on Terror is a god that demands sacrifice, and sacrifice it has gotten in plenty. The constitution is but a virgin vestibule to be penetrated by it's frothy member. But the Second Amendment is still somehow sacred, despite the fact that guns are infinitely more accessible than explosives, that they're more cost effective, and that we all know that terrorists DO use guns, it is the one part of the Bill of Rights that cannot be touched.
Why?
Words
The War on Terror. Read those words; The. War. On. Terror. Each word has a blunt finality about it, this is not A War on Terror, it is not The Struggle Against Terror, and it is not The War on Extremists or weapon wielding maniacs, or the policy to protect people. It is simply The War on Terror and it is propaganda.
Muslim, Jihad, Taliban, Al-Queda, we say these words and we listen to them, but we do not know what they mean and those that do have no interest in telling us. They are words in another language that most of us don't speak, references to a culture not our own, and when we hear them, we think of what we've been carefully guided to think of for the past 7 years. They too are propaganda.
Before September, 7 years ago, there was a different war. Perhaps some of you remember it; The War on Drugs. We don't hear about the War on Drugs anymore, but not because it's been won. There are still plenty of drug users everywhere, their dealers are still making hoards of money, and Law Officials are still struggling to shut down massive narcotic operations. Still there is no more War on Drugs. Why is this? Because the War on Drugs is just words, and those words were once propaganda but are no longer.
The War in Iraq, we hear these words and they sound tired. Some of us remember that there was a War in Iraq once before, but it isn't considered. This is not another War in Iraq, because that other one was so short we hardly even managed to catch the exciting parts on the nightly news. This War, the War in Iraq is not just words, it is not propaganda, it stopped being so when thousands of soldiers didn't come home, or came home crippled. It stopped being just words when the last glimmers of the former prosperity of the 90's was submerged by market insecurity and rising fuel costs. They stopped being just words when the Weapons of Mass Destruction, were not there… their leader was dead… but still no one came home, soldiers were still fighting and dying, but all the propaganda associated with it was gone.
Osama Bin Laden, is a man. He is responsible for the deaths of many American citizens, and he is in hiding. He is not just words, but he is propaganda as well. America's people are united in their hatred of Osama Bin Laden, his continued existence justifies enormous public expenditure towards The War on Terror. His continued existence justifies the suspension of habeas corpus, it justifies torture, it justifies the annihilation of the Fourth Amendment Constitutional Rights, and it justifies a national suspicion and borderline hatred of the largest and fastest growing religion in the world. Now what would happen if he were caught?
In a Democratic nation, propaganda is necessary. It creates a unified cultural identity and gives the nation a cause. If there is no cause than a nation will tear it's self apart squabbling over taxes and the cost of pies. Propaganda creates the illusion of a mutual enemy which unites the people and keeps the nation functioning. Democracy empowers any individual with a strong enough passion to change the course of his nation, but that's the problem. A ship can only go one direction, and if there are multiple rudders all guiding it in different directions the ship won't go anywhere and something could break. So steps must be taken to ensure that those multiple rudders are at the very least not all working against each other.
Democracy is a form of government, it is an ideal fostered thousands of years ago by men with a dream. "[It] is the worst form of Government, except [for] all the others" – and it is widely considered to be the best reason to be an American, or Canadian, British, French, Australian, or a number of other great nationalities. America can be proud that it was the nation that inspired the rest of the world to begin adopting this beneficent form of government. America lead by example and the world is a much better place for it today.
George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Carl Rove, are people, and they may yet be propaganda in the future. They are responsible for the deaths of many American citizens, and they are not in hiding. They were the creators of The War on Terror, they ordered the War in Iraq, and they have not captured Osama Bin Laden. However, they have used these things to erode, undermine and shame America's greatest legacy. The people who have been killed because of their actions are numerous, but worse is the compromise of the integrity of the nation which they have lead. They have successfully attacked America's ideals and destroyed elements of what make America great, they have violated it's laws, and tarnished it's reputation. And still they continue to do so every day, they tell us it is for our own good and we choose to believe them even though we know they are liars.
People say that America is being attacked, they say that it's enemies are growing stronger and that each person needs to realize this and take steps to protect their homes and families.
I whole-heartedly agree with those words.
The Mentality of the Young
I'm a kid, I identify myself as a kid in the circles I travel in because my mentality is one of youth.
It's not about childish things that I speak of, but of enthusiasm and drive and trying to succeed. Youth drives people, experience maintains them, some say that it's wasted on the young but I don't believe that, if we younguns had the experience to "know better" then we wouldn't have the drive to try in the first place.
When I talk to older people about my beliefs that civil liberties should not be compromised, that net neutrality is very important and that content piracy is a complex issue that shouldn't be resolved by outlawing it outright, my words come from my desire to use the things I know to succeed in life. My age group is fighting an uphill battle against a larger demographic of people – the babyboomers – who have dominated the world thus-far. Babyboomers already have the choice property, the best jobs, and the government authority. They still decide the course of the world that I live in. The odds are stacked against me to succeed.
So I use what tools I have at my disposal. I don't own property, I don't have power, I have some money, but money by it's self will not bring someone to succeed. My tool is information. Information is what has real value to me, it's what has value to everyone my age. Our strength is information and our knowledge of how to control it. This knowledge scares the powers that be, they see information as this indiscernible force that must be tightly controlled or it will get out of hand and consume them. In our modern age the average teenager can find out just as much about another country in an afternoon as it would have taken an intelligence agency a week to compile 30 years ago. And 30 years ago the people that run the country were in my shoes, pushing hard to succeed and get ahead in life.
So is it any wonder that they want to limit and control information? it's the weapon that will usurp their throne. So they weald great blunt instruments in the form of laws to fight this rising tide of information. Laws like the recent FISA amendment to grab all information and somehow intensely scrutinize it for the presence of evil. But we, the young, know this will not work. We know that "terrorists" (I hate that word, it's the most loaded catch word in the history of propaganda.) are not so retarded as to place a collect call to their pal at bombs-r-us in Ihateamericaistan to order their nuclear warheads. The government knows this too, but they don't have to admit it, because they have us from both sides. Those who trust them to do right by the people, and those who don't, know they can't do anything about it.
Those of us who understand how modern information and it's infrastructure work know that simply by existing it makes extremist activities on a massive scale intensely difficult. We as a people are watching, and we cry out loudly when we see something worthy of our attention. So why is it that the government here feels the need to outlaw the sharing of much of this information, or somehow mystically monitor ALL of it?
Those older than me believe that this information is a threat, they tell me as much. They tell me that America is at war and that just across the pond there is a nation full of religious extremists busily strapping dynamite to their chests and getting on a plane, and that we need to tap the phone line of everyone in the country in order to find out when that bomb guy is checking his baggage. I ask these people why they believe that the government should be trusted to only use this private information to "only find the bad guys"? They've proven over and over again that they can't be trusted. There are already impeachment proceedings going on because the current administration used the Justice department to prosecute people for political reasons. Not because they did anything wrong, but because it was expedient to use the system to send them to prison because they were annoying the powers that be. Yeah, they're only going to use telecom info to find the terrorists… riiiight.
While I'm busily using the new tools at my disposal to carve my niche out in life, the establishment sees my chipping as eroding the foundation they tried so hard to build. They want to take my tools away, or at least blunt the edges, maybe have them made out of foam so I don't hurt myself. But I know better, and I won't give them up without a fight.
Political Quote – Scott Adams Edition
"When it comes to picking our next president, I can't decide if I prefer the smooth-talking, inspirational candidate who promises to give my money to people who don't work as hard as I do, or the old, short, ugly, angry guy with one good arm who graduated at the bottom of his class and somehow managed to shag a hot heiress and become a contender for president. It seems dangerous to underestimate that guy." ~ Scott Adams
I find it interesting that yesterday Obama voted for the FISA amendment that compromised rule of law, but McCain was one of only two senators not present to vote. Some might say that his absence is negligent, and maybe it was that he had better things to do. But I think that perhaps his not being there to march lock-step with the rest of the GOP might be because he's trying to get more credit with the Libertarians – or at the very least not alienate them further – without coming across as "Soft on Terror" which of course is death to his campaign.
Personally I think that the Senate decisions these candidates will make in the coming months will be scrutinized very closely, and in some ways they will be quite telling. I just hope that the candidate that eventually becomes president proves that they're working for the people and not just playing politics. That means Obama better clean up his act and stop compromising the bill of rights, and McCain better prove that he can get things done, by actually DOING SOMETHING.
Afternoon Ramblings
A few more days til I go home for a week so I'm catching up on paperwork. It's not fair to leave paperwork for my relief people, even though those people never know what to do with themselves on this job. I tell you, no one can dog-fuck like me, I'm pretty sure there'd be an award recognizing my hard work in the field of dog-fucking if I could actually be bothered to fill out the application form. So I let others get the recognition instead. I'm humble like that.
When I go home, I'm going to watch all the great summer movies coming out. I may even make it to Dark Night if they don't force me to go back to work before then. Everyone's been tossing each other off in anticipation of Dark Night, but I'm not one of them. I'll go see it, but to me the movie I've been drooling big puddles on the floor for is Hellboy 2. Pan's Labyrinth was fantastic, and Guillermo Del Toro is going to rock Hellboy out hardcore.
Sunday all my fanboy fantasies were fulfilled when I got my Zero Punctuation Tee Shirt. Yeah yeah I know, if that fulfills my fanboy dreams then I'm pretty tame, I admit it. It's mostly just that I've dialed down my expectations since the Police came and asked me to stop sending letters to Yahtzee and Warren Ellis proposing a menage-a-trois.
I've also been trying to find better more unbiased sources on Iran. It's frustrating, the traditional media is marching to the Bushies' drum and constantly chants sound bytes translated by Israeli propaganda artists about how Ahmadinejad thinks every American should go to hell. Meanwhile all the liberal bloggers are all showing pictures of some kid playing soccer to the endless chant of "give peace a chance", and there isn't a single solid fact in the lot of it. All I know is that Bush is chomping at the bit to blow Iran to the promised land while creating enough jihadist suicide bombers in the process to ensure that America will never ever be safe in my lifetime. It's a dangerous situation and I wish I could find some credible sources on it.
Oh, and it's a sad time for all you Americans. FISA amendments went through Senate, rule of law is compromised, and telecoms are free from civil lawsuit worry. Just waiting for Bush to get back from G8 Summit to sign it. (Like he won't. This is the magical it's-legal-kuz-I-say-it-is bill drafted to protect him and his cronies from being impeached.) I get word that there may be some loopholes that might still allow for criminal prosecution, but that's a long shot. The lawmakers have amply proven that they don't care about the rights of the citizens they represent and that makes me sad. I don't know how these idealist bloggers keep up their strength honestly.
So that's it for me today. Hope everyone's having a good summer.
A Senator Speaking on Behalf of the People of America
This isn't my first post on the FISA amendment. This goes back to everything I've said in my last post about corporations having lawmakers in their pockets.
Retroactive immunity. What this means is that in the wake of the 9/11 attacks the Bush/Cheney administration ordered the telecommunication companies to unlawfully spy on American citizens. Now there are several hundred law suits against the telecommunication companies over this. The members of the Bush administration NEED to change the law to protect their own asses. Because if the telecommunications companies are found guilty of these crimes, then the members of the administration will be guilty. So they are making it legal, more than legal in fact. Retroactive immunity means that even though what they did at the time was illegal, it's ok because now it's not and they need not ever worry.
Democrats have been fighting this amendment and it's retroactive immunity since it was tabled, but the administration has been using it as a bargaining chip, and now they're very nearly to sell out the American people's right to privacy for a few reallotted tax dollars.
Senator Chris Dodd has stood against this amendment and it's retroactive immunity from the beginning, and yesterday he spoke out against it in one of the most honest speeches I believe I've ever heard any politician make in my life. He may yet fail in his stand for the American people, but he stood up to the Bush administration for the American people when so few others seem inclined to do so. Here is what he said.
This is Why the US Government Needs to Spy on it’s Citizens
From the Huffington Post
"Blogger Michael Nygard was flying to San Jose with his various digital accoutrements including his Blackberry and new MacBook Air when he ran into some trouble passing through the TSA security checkpoint. When Michael put his MacBook Air through the x-ray machine, a gaggle of TSA agents pulled him aside and gathered around the MacBook Air to determine how much of a threat it was to national security. "There's no drive… and no ports on the back. It has a couple of lines where the drive should be." A younger agent tries to explain that it's not a "device" but a fancy new laptop. Eventually, Michael gets his machine back but finds he missed his plane."
From this post we can ascertain only one thing! That the Transportation Security Agency is not updating the software on their vat-grown ninjas. This is obviously due to the fact that the telecomm companies are putting the pressure on the US Government for not passing the FISA bill by not supplying the necessary information needed for these people, and thus why the TSA never got the memo about the MacBook Air or that Bush hasn't gotten the memo about the $3.25/gallon gas prices.
We can only expect these events of misinformation to increase as the FISA amendments go unresolved, so please call your state representative and say that you're willing to inform the government about anything they want to know, like the MacBook air… and rising gas prices. After all, it is your patriotic duty.
Follow Up to My Last Two Posts
If anything can sum up the most dire of my political concerns, this is it.
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