Why aren't more people talking about this?
Former chief executive Joseph P. Nacchio, convicted in April of 19 counts of insider trading, said the NSA approached Qwest more than six months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to court documents unsealed in Denver this week.
...Nacchio's account, which places the NSA proposal at a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, suggests that the Bush administration was seeking to enlist telecommunications firms in programs without court oversight before the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The Sept. 11 attacks have been cited by the government as the main impetus for its warrantless surveillance efforts.
...In a statement released after the story was published, Nacchio attorney Herbert Stern said that in fall 2001, Qwest was approached to give the government access to the private phone records of Qwest customers. At the time, Nacchio was chairman of the president's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.
"Mr. Nacchio made inquiry as to whether a warrant or other legal process had been secured in support of that request," Stern said. "When he learned that no such authority had been granted and that there was a disinclination on the part of the authorities to use any legal process, including the Special Court which had been established to handle such matters, Mr. Nacchio concluded that these requests violated the privacy requirements of the Telecommunications Act."
Let's put on our tinfoil hats for a moment, shall we? Do you think the criminal gang that's been spying on us basically since the moment they took office will leave quietly? Do you think they'll let Hillary take over? Or do you think it's just a matter of time before they fill the camps with foul-mouthed lefty bloggers?
I am mystified as to why this is not getting more play.
Perhaps because it is so unbelievable. Though one would think we would no longer be victims of cognitive dissonance in current times. Nothing is beyond the pale.
Speaking the truth has become heretical; questioning authority "unpatriotic." Those ideas make countenancing such a proposition as work camps for Americans unspeakable.
Posted by: Lisa | October 14, 2007 at 02:27 PM
I am mystified as to why this is not getting more play.
Perhaps because it is so unbelievable. Though one would think we would no longer be victims of cognitive dissonance in current times. Nothing is beyond the pale.
Speaking the truth has become heretical; questioning authority "unpatriotic." Those ideas make countenancing such a proposition as work camps for Americans unspeakable.
Posted by: Lisa | October 14, 2007 at 02:28 PM
I am mystified as to why this is not getting more play.
Perhaps because it is so unbelievable. Though one would think we would no longer be victims of cognitive dissonance in current times. Nothing is beyond the pale.
Speaking the truth has become heretical; questioning authority "unpatriotic." Those ideas make countenancing such a proposition as work camps for Americans unspeakable.
Posted by: Lisa | October 14, 2007 at 02:28 PM
Lisa's so mystified, she's beside herself. Twice!
Posted by: actor212 | October 15, 2007 at 07:58 AM
Lisa thought it was so nice she said it twice and then once more for luck.
I don't think we are capable of any more outrage. I'm outraged out. Will they walk away and allow another prez in the oval? Hell, I'm way past guessing when it comes to these bastards.
Posted by: pissed off patricia | October 15, 2007 at 11:49 AM
excellent point. Does anybody that actually have functioning grey matter within their skull cavity think that these guys wouldn't just shit at the thought of Hillary with secret wiretapping power?
They don't intend to leave office, pure and simple.
Posted by: Undeniable Liberal | October 15, 2007 at 01:13 PM
Now, in fairness, I heard this story on three different media outlets over the weekend, so it's a bit unfair to say no one's talking about it.
Posted by: actor212 | October 15, 2007 at 01:55 PM
I'm German, living in Ireland since 1984.
This scares the living daylights out of me.
The reason is this:
At the time of the Panama-invasion, I was listening to a German journalist who managed to phone a report out of Panama city. What he described had little to do with the official version:
He described how he and his sound-engineer left the hotel on the first day of the invasion; they tried to move along a main road leading away from the hotel- on their hands and knees, constantly playing 'dead' whenever one of the helicopters went overhead. They were literally shooting at everything that moved.
The two journalists saw little groups of dead bodies all along that road; in one sidelane alone they counted over two hundred.
On the second day, he managed to reach one of the main hospitals in Panama city- it showed bulletholes, the windows where partially blown out, and the electricity was off. The generator no longer worked.
Outside was a pile of bodies six meters high: One of the doctors explained that, on the previous day, some people had tried to get their dead and wounded to the hospital; there was no way all the bodies could be accomodated. Those people had been from all over the city- except the wealthy districts.
They had described to that doctor the same thing the journalist had seen for himself:
Little groups of bodies along the roads.
He then observed an American howitzer-battery (I assume that would be something like 8 - 10 guns, 155mm self-propelled howitzers) firing at General Noriega's headquarters (Concrete compound with a fence around it), for about two hours.
Not one of the shells even landed inside the fences; instead they went overhead and landed in a place called "El Corrillo" (I hope I spelled that right).
After listening to all that, I was waiting for the great media-outcry. There was none.
So, at some point, I came to the conclusion that the MSM are being controlled by someone- not just in the US, but also (to a lesser extend perhaps) here in Europe.
I found that view to be correct when I tried to post some things at MSNBC, only to discover that they got censored.
(Example: During the Iraq-invasion, TV-images turned up (Euro-News) which showed an American convoy- with a pickup-truck in between, armed with a heavy machinegun manned by a fellow in an Iraqi army-uniform.
The narrator explained that these were "...The first images of some of the Iraqi exiles recruited by the Americans; those will probably form the core of a new Iraqi security-force...")
MSNBC would probably claim that they only censor posts which are abusive, attacks on other users, or off topic. My posts were neither. They still got censored...
'Lisa' was wondering why this story above didn't get more coverage. I'm not surprised at all...
Be afraid. Be VERY afraid...!
Posted by: Josef Balzer Askeaton Ireland | October 15, 2007 at 05:25 PM
Martial law will be declared in late October 2008. Americans will be too engrossed in the MLB playoffs to notice. November 4 will come and go...
But at least we'll have catchy songs!
Posted by: Comandante Agi | October 15, 2007 at 08:03 PM
ugh, this should be on the news, but it will get buried because Britney and her daily frappucino run are more important.
Posted by: catherine | October 17, 2007 at 12:28 AM
Nice to see someone who does not regard 9/11 as year zero!
More power to your pen!
Posted by: Paul Stott | October 21, 2007 at 12:29 PM