nsa

The Observer’s ten-year US correspondent Paul Harris recently wrote a thoughtful article entitled “From hope to fear: the broken promises of Barack Obama.” Here is his summation: Read below the fold...

Edward Snowden is risking his welfare in order to expose illegitimate surveillance of millions of Americans and foreign peoples who are innocent of any wrongdoing.

Edward Snowden has revealed the betrayal and incompetence of our Congress and judicial system, both unable to watch-dog and prevent such anti-4th amendment over-reach of the executive branch’s intelligence and security operations. Read below the fold...

Johnathan Easley in “Ron Paul Warns US Government May Assassinate NSA Leaker Snowden” quotes the former Republican Representative from Texas:



“I’m worried about somebody in our government might kill him with a cruise missile or a drone missile ... I mean, we live in a bad time where American citizens don’t even have rights, and that they can be killed, but the gentleman is trying to tell the truth about what’s going on.”







snip

Read below the fold...

Will Obama Buy Torture-Lite?

You’ve got to hand it to them. Torture aficionados at the White House and CIA have conned key congressional leaders into insisting not only that torture-lite would be a swell idea, but advocating that the overseers of torture be kept on.

From change-you-can-believe-in, we seem to be slipping back to fear-you-can-trade-on.

Read below the fold...

Influential Democrat asks Obama to keep spy chiefs

The comments in Wednesday's Congress Daily by U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a Texas Democrat, run counter to the views of his likely Senate counterpart, who has called for a new team.

Reyes said he had recommended to Obama's transition team that CIA Director Michael Hayden and Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell be kept in place for at least six months.

Read below the fold...

Surprise! Verizon and AT&T Win Homeland Security Contracts.

Verizon Business, a unit of No. 2 U.S. telephone service provider Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N), said on Wednesday it has won a contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security worth around $678.5 million over 10 years.

...
AT&T Government Solutions, a business unit of AT&T Inc (T.N), won a $292 million contract to serve as the secondary network service provider in the Eastern and Western region.

And nothing for Quest. Read below the fold...

Read below the fold...

That's all Internet traffic, foreign and domestic, data and voice. And the decision to do this was taken, not because of 9/11, but as soon as Bush took office. As was the decision to ignore the rule of law. So much for the idea that the extremely benevolent and trustworthy Bush administration was reacting to 9/11, and just wants "surgical" surveillance* to keep us safe from terrorists, eh? Read below the fold...

Here's the trad press follow-up on McConnell's long interview yesterday in The El Paso Times.

Read below the fold...

[Welcome to the French, C&L readers, Blog Report readers, and devotees of the girl in the grey flannel bra.] Read below the fold...

Of course they'll use spy satellites for domestic politics*. Why would you even think things could be different? The Times:

At issue is a newly disclosed plan that Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence, approved in May in a memorandum to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, which puts some of the nation’s most powerful intelligence-gathering tools at the disposal of domestic security officials as early as this fall.

Read below the fold...

[Welcome, Crooks and Liars readers. Remember that the hearing is happening today, so let's be on the alert to see how--or, it's be optimistic, if--our Constitution is further shredded by Bush's monarchical pretensions.]

Prove me wrong. Please. Read below the fold...

Please, Dems. Don't capitulate on this one, too! WaPo: Read below the fold...