A new government report has disclosed that President Bush authorized secret surveillance activities that went beyond the previously disclosed NSA program – raising the prospect of additional unlawful conduct by the Bush Administration. At the same time, a House member has revealed that CIA Director Leon Panetta has shutdown a program that was never revealed to Congress in direct violation of federal law. I discussed these stories on this segment of MSNBC Countdown.
In a notable change, the report now describes the entire program as the “President’s Surveillance Program,” going beyond the domestic surveillance program. It also highlights the individual who is most accountable for criminal violations as well as the failure of the Obama Administration to allow investigations into unlawful surveillance or torture. As the evidence of such unlawful conduct mounts, the blocking of a criminal investigation by Attorney General Holder grows more serious as an abdication of his oath to uphold our laws.
Notably, the “usual suspects” refused to be interviewed: former CIA Director George Tenet, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card; former top Cheney aide David Addington; and John Yoo, who served as a deputy assistant attorney general. Given the potential incrimination prospects, they have at least acted in deference to the criminal code even as Holder appears to ignore it.
For the full story, click here.
It was also disclosed that CIA Director Leon Panetta has terminated a “very serious” covert program kept secret from Congress for eight years. Rep. Jan Schakowsky disclosed the violation of federal law, but once again Congress is silent on holding anyone accountable.
For that Panetta story, click here
You couldnt be more correct!!!
Homeland Security And Spy Agency To Work Together
by The Associated Press
October 13, 2010
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130546958
“The National Security Agency has traditionally pulled computer security into the realm of secrecy and surveillance,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center. “There is a great need to insure that the NSA’s tools for surveillance are not directed at the American public.”
This I know for certain. The NSA’s “tools for surveillance” are most certainly being directed at the American public. I’m not guessing. I’m not speculating. Who will be able to get to the bottom of it is the question. And God help us, if no one digs deep enough to expose it.
IT’S BACCKKK….
“documents obtained by Wired also point to a possible resurrection of the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program. Shortly after 9/11, the government sought to build TIA, a mammoth data mining operation that would trawl through an extensive list of databases containing personal information about Americans – including communications, medical, travel, education and financial data – in an attempt to detect supposedly “suspicious” patterns. Congress shut down the program amid bipartisan objections that it was the most far-reaching domestic surveillance proposal that had ever been offered. The ACLU has long suspected that the congressional dissent over and public demise of the Pentagon’s TIA program would result in a concealed and more invasive version of the program.
“It is not only troubling that the FBI is collecting this vast amount of information, but also that the information remains in the possession of the FBI, whether or not it is relevant to suspected criminal activity or reliable,” said Christopher Calabrese, ACLU Legislative Counsel. “The way this collection and retention works, if you happened to be staying at the same hotel or renting a car the same day as someone currently under FBI investigation, your private information is swept up and locked into one of these databases forever. The presumption of innocence is turned on its head and everyone becomes a suspect.”
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/09/24-25
Can somebody ’splain this to me. I’m a Democrat and I’d love to indict Bush. Why did JT say that “no Democrat wants to indict him [Bush]“?
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I trust he meant Dems in Congress, because he certainly wasn’t speaking for me on that score, either.
There are still things coming out that we didn’t know before. If Holder is feeling a need to control it, perhaps he’s doing so, now, before he commences it.
Too many years of heartbreak have gone by for it to turn out any other way but well. Not if I have anything to say about it.
I don’t have to have it fast. I want it right.
cybergal619, I think that Democrats are afraid of that old saw that “what goes around comes around.” The fear is that Republicans will paint any investigation as a political witch hunt and will look for revenge when their electoral fortunes improve. Pres. Obama fears that prosecutions will harm his ability to enact his domestic agenda. AG Holder fears that once an investigation is commenced, he will be unable to control its scope and depth. All of these fears are probably well-founded, but illegitimate in my opinion.
I so agree with Gary T way upthread about wanting more of JT’s excellent oratory skills. I saw him on Friday’s Countown where he was talking illegal surveillance. JT was saying that Dems love to uncover crimes, but they don’t like to prosecute them and that if they did investigate, the trail would lead all the way up to Bush and (this is the part I didn’t understand) “no Democrat wants to indict him.”
Can somebody ‘splain this to me. I’m a Democrat and I’d love to indict Bush. Why did JT say that “no Democrat wants to indict him [Bush]”?
Patty C
Anybody whose opinion matters around here knows that I consider John Yoo a disgrace as a lawyer as author of the torture memos.
Nice try though, AY.
My sarcasm obviously went way over your head, but your cyberbabble and signature stellar wordsmith abilities, on the other hand, are a dead giveaway – every time.
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Well we certainly know your opinion sucks worse that the coast of Maine and is akin to how Rhode Island came to get its grant as an Original Colony. You must agree with the premise of Yoo as you keep posting here and Torturing souls without any remorse. So by default you must have adopted the memo’s and agree.
Your sarcasm is lost only on onto the author of the same. As you have to be able to understand what it is you are attempting to communicate or you are a fool for attempting to do so, this clearly you have grave difficulties doing.
However, I am rest assured you will understand the following attributed to Henny Youngman but could have been written as your life script:
“A drunk was in front of a judge. The judge say,s “You’ve been brought here for drinking.” The drunk says, “Okay, let’s get started.”
Or you in your claimed medical practice as the Nurse says:
“Doctor, the man you just gave a clean bill of health to dropped dead right as he was leaving the office”. Doctor: “Turn him around, make it look like he was walking in.”
So please do not attribute anything to me unless you know for certain I did in fact say it.
Anybody whose opinion matters around here knows that I consider John Yoo a disgrace as a lawyer as author of the torture memos.
Nice try though, AY.
My sarcasm obviously went way over your head, but your cyberbabble and signature stellar wordsmith abilities, on the other hand, are a dead giveaway – every time.
You might be drunk that I can not disagree with what you do with Yoo, no one cares but when you are offensive against who, we will all give you your due.
Thank you, CEJ
Vince,
Thank-you for all your very through work in battling the bizarre birthers and other phony baloney trolls!
I am drunk with power on the Turley blog!
Everybody is trembling in awe of my elite status.
Boy, I am one powerful bitch! I had no idea.
‘Let them eat cake’, seems trite…
I call it like I see it. If you don’t like it, tough.
Jeremy Scahill, who has been held up by Jill more often than I care to recall, has written at length on Gitmo, but he has never actually been there.
I love Bill Maher as he has provocative guests on his show, but as is often the case more recently, when I saw Jeremy Scahill there, I experienced him as a bit of a wacko, frankly. Which is probably why Bill had him on…
Obama is not Bush. He is not responsible for his crimes and I don’t have to listen to anyone who accuses him unfairly.
That ain’t too nice Patty C. You have been warned by the Professor. Show respect, you disagree keep it to your self you drunken winch.
I’m a bit afraid to speak with pictures, so I won’t.
But Jill is very informed, as is Mike and Buddha and Mespo. What a great bunch of patriots.
Always an indelible read here and that’s good enough.
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I agree re Mike and Mespo. Jill and Buddha are a tad paranoid for my tastes.
Holder is simply and miserably Obama’s Coward of Obstruction. Prosecuting Obama and Holder could start us in the right direction. We need mass arrests by the military in Washington D.C.