I feel the government's noose around my neck getting tighter. This is not the time for good people to politely stand around and do nothing. The following editorial and letter to the editor is from the New Haven Register, Sunday May 21, 2006
BUSH LIED ABOUT PHONE SURVEILLANCE
Misleading public, ignoring courts and Congress, his reassurances are hollow.
Lost in the uproar about the revelation that the National Security Agency has gathered the phone records of tens of millions of Americans is how consistently the president and top officials of his administraiton have lied to Congress and the American public. This loss of credibility should be just as deep a concern as President Bush's refusal to seek court approval for this spying, the extension of NSA surveillance beyond its overseas charter and the total lack of oversight by Congress of this wholesale invasion of Americans' privacy.
Perhaps , this deliberate deception should not be surprising from a chief executive who excused the government's poor performance after Hurricane Katrina by saying "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." In fact, federal emergency management officials had done just that. Bush was told the day before Katrina hit last September that the levees might not hold. Perhaps, he forgot.
Bush certainly didn't forget that he had approved a massive domestic spying program, first reported this month by USA Today, that collected vast numbers of records on ordinary Americas' phone calls and Internet use.
A limited part of the NSA's domestic eavesdropping was first reported in December by The New York Times. Then, it was estimated to affect only a few hundred to a few thousand individuals.
In January, Bush said the intercepted phone calls were not within the United States. "This is a phone call of an alQaida, known al-Qaida suspect, making a phone call into the United States."
In February, Ge. Michael V. Hayden, former head of the NSA and Bush's nominee to head the Central Intelligence Agency, described the telephone surveillance as "very specific and very targeted."
Also in February, Alberto Gonzales, attorney general of the United States, told Congress that after the Sept. aa attacks, Bush had decided against allowing the NSA to intercept domestic phone calls and e-mails.
Each of these statements by Bush, Hayden and Gonzales was false.
Why should we believe the president now when he says that Americans' privacy is being "fiercely protected?"
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
ALL CHANCES OF PRIVACY MAY VANISH
It shocked me to learn that the government has violated the time honored right to the attorney-client privildge. I have been a lawyer for over 25 years and I have always thought that either receiving or making telephone calls to clients was information protected from the government through the Constitution and state and federal law.
We have to now ask whether this practice includes e-mails, delivery services (Fed Ex, UPS) and the U.S. mail.
Does the government know with whom I communicate, regardless of the content and medium?
Anyone who believes that technology is incapable of drawing inferences regarding the business of these communications is mistaken. I know what the government can do with the millions of records it collects because I HAVE BEEN AN ELECTRICAL ENGINEER AND A LAWYER WORKING IN THE FIELD OF COMPUTER DATA MINING FOR NEARLY 35 YEARS.
Unless we check this practice, we will soon discover that all semblance of privacy has vanished.
Joseph Carvalko, Milford Connecticut
MY COMMENT
As for me, I got a credit card that has a cash back feature. To maximize the cash return, I've started purchasing most everything using this credit card. It has dawned on me that my credit card record, available to the government, can be used to trace where I am and what I do. It is no comfort to me that everything I do and where I go is perfectly innocent. There are plenty of innocent people who have been crushed between government gears. Their lives have been ruined. Am I protected by our constitution? Can I point to it in my defense? Not if government officials are spying on innocent people without a court order...not if our elected officials are ignoring our civil rights.
Somewhere I read that the price of freedom is eternal vigelence. I thought that ment a threat from without. Who would think it could mean a threat from within.
BUSH LIED ABOUT PHONE SURVEILLANCE
Misleading public, ignoring courts and Congress, his reassurances are hollow.
Lost in the uproar about the revelation that the National Security Agency has gathered the phone records of tens of millions of Americans is how consistently the president and top officials of his administraiton have lied to Congress and the American public. This loss of credibility should be just as deep a concern as President Bush's refusal to seek court approval for this spying, the extension of NSA surveillance beyond its overseas charter and the total lack of oversight by Congress of this wholesale invasion of Americans' privacy.
Perhaps , this deliberate deception should not be surprising from a chief executive who excused the government's poor performance after Hurricane Katrina by saying "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." In fact, federal emergency management officials had done just that. Bush was told the day before Katrina hit last September that the levees might not hold. Perhaps, he forgot.
Bush certainly didn't forget that he had approved a massive domestic spying program, first reported this month by USA Today, that collected vast numbers of records on ordinary Americas' phone calls and Internet use.
A limited part of the NSA's domestic eavesdropping was first reported in December by The New York Times. Then, it was estimated to affect only a few hundred to a few thousand individuals.
In January, Bush said the intercepted phone calls were not within the United States. "This is a phone call of an alQaida, known al-Qaida suspect, making a phone call into the United States."
In February, Ge. Michael V. Hayden, former head of the NSA and Bush's nominee to head the Central Intelligence Agency, described the telephone surveillance as "very specific and very targeted."
Also in February, Alberto Gonzales, attorney general of the United States, told Congress that after the Sept. aa attacks, Bush had decided against allowing the NSA to intercept domestic phone calls and e-mails.
Each of these statements by Bush, Hayden and Gonzales was false.
Why should we believe the president now when he says that Americans' privacy is being "fiercely protected?"
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
ALL CHANCES OF PRIVACY MAY VANISH
It shocked me to learn that the government has violated the time honored right to the attorney-client privildge. I have been a lawyer for over 25 years and I have always thought that either receiving or making telephone calls to clients was information protected from the government through the Constitution and state and federal law.
We have to now ask whether this practice includes e-mails, delivery services (Fed Ex, UPS) and the U.S. mail.
Does the government know with whom I communicate, regardless of the content and medium?
Anyone who believes that technology is incapable of drawing inferences regarding the business of these communications is mistaken. I know what the government can do with the millions of records it collects because I HAVE BEEN AN ELECTRICAL ENGINEER AND A LAWYER WORKING IN THE FIELD OF COMPUTER DATA MINING FOR NEARLY 35 YEARS.
Unless we check this practice, we will soon discover that all semblance of privacy has vanished.
Joseph Carvalko, Milford Connecticut
MY COMMENT
As for me, I got a credit card that has a cash back feature. To maximize the cash return, I've started purchasing most everything using this credit card. It has dawned on me that my credit card record, available to the government, can be used to trace where I am and what I do. It is no comfort to me that everything I do and where I go is perfectly innocent. There are plenty of innocent people who have been crushed between government gears. Their lives have been ruined. Am I protected by our constitution? Can I point to it in my defense? Not if government officials are spying on innocent people without a court order...not if our elected officials are ignoring our civil rights.
Somewhere I read that the price of freedom is eternal vigelence. I thought that ment a threat from without. Who would think it could mean a threat from within.
posted by gardenbug at Sunday, May 21, 2006
2 Comments:
Do you know who to see to find out if the government snooped our phone lines/emails?
No, I don't know who to see. Do you? Under the freedom of information act, We should be able to see all our records. First, you have to know where to go to make the request.
Post a Comment
<< Home