Comments on: Top Secret: We're Wiretapping You

Top Secret: We're Wiretapping You

Postroad — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 10:19:53 -0800

Top Secret: We're Wiretapping You It could be a scene from Kafka or Brazil. Imagine a government agency, in a bureaucratic foul-up, accidentally gives you a copy of a document marked "top secret." And it contains a log of some of your private phone calls. You read it and ponder it and wonder what it all means. Then, two months later, the FBI shows up at your door, demands the document back and orders you to forget you ever saw it.

By: phaedon

phaedon — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 10:43:46 -0800

i'm wiretapping the white house in retaliation

By: i_am_joe's_spleen

i_am_joe's_spleen — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 10:56:01 -0800

What's that about the Washington Post reporter who got a copy of this call log, but never wrote a story? Boy, they've come a long way since Watergate.

By: rbs

rbs — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 11:01:21 -0800

i_am_joe's_spleen: i thought the same thing

By: delmoi

delmoi — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 11:08:31 -0800

What's that about the Washington Post reporter who got a copy of this call log, but never wrote a story? Boy, they've come a long way since Watergate. Well this was before it was known they were doing it without a warrant. The Post guy might have thought it was legit. Also, I remember reading a couple years ago about an Arab guy who was confronted about some text messages his brother sent on a cell phone in his name to an American friend. The message was about a rock concert, with a band called "Blitzkreeg" I wonder if that was the result of this sweep up or if they had a valid warrant.

By: phearlez

phearlez — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 11:09:42 -0800

Christ, what a fucking embarrassment. Every time I read stuff like this I want to send a bill demanding a refund to the powers that be. All that nonsense because they were too fucking lazy or arrogant to submit to FISA, one of the biggest warrant rubber stamps ever to exist in our country. What's this ongoing boondoggle going to cost me?

By: delmoi

delmoi — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 11:10:18 -0800

My guess as to how this turns out: The government just pays these guys off and asks for a gag order.

By: fenriq

fenriq — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 11:48:45 -0800

I bet they just went and told the scientists working on the erase memory ray to hurry the hell up and finish it. And then they'll be deploying the things like stop lights.

By: inconsequentialist

inconsequentialist — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 11:49:14 -0800

My guess as to how this turns out: The government just pays these guys off and asks for a gag order. I'm surprised they haven't been literally gagged already.

By: beerbajay

beerbajay — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 12:03:26 -0800

What bleeding cunts.

By: unSane

unSane — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 12:04:25 -0800

I'm certainly gagging.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 12:54:03 -0800

Even the lawyers who filed the document with the court are no longer allowed to see it; instead, they've been permitted to file declarations, under seal, based on their memory of its contents. I wonder how much "memory" is involved. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to foresee the government seizing this document the second it was submitted and to therefor take steps to retain a greppable copy.

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 14:23:02 -0800

Memo to cortex: "Springtime for Hitler and Germany" is a hit from "The Producers". Is there comedy gold in this government bungle; maybe a song about wiretapping in a musical called "The Traducers".

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 14:23:27 -0800

Left out a "?"

By: roll truck roll

roll truck roll — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 14:26:11 -0800

What's that about the Washington Post reporter who got a copy of this call log, but never wrote a story? Boy, they've come a long way since Watergate. Sheesh, yeah. Can someone explain to me why the media is so quiet about... everything? Do the major news outlets really just reprint press statements from the White House nowadays? Why am I reading about this on Wired? I know it's an obvious question, but I'm not sure I have a good answer anymore. After six years of deception and misinformation--and everyone sort of knowing about said deception and misinformation--it's time to shit or get off the pot.

By: ahimsakid

ahimsakid — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 14:45:44 -0800

Remember, in the halls of justice the only justice is in the halls. - Lenny Bruce

By: Mental Wimp

Mental Wimp — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 14:55:09 -0800

Well... [/tinfoil hat on]They've been wiretapping for years, whoever they think is a "terrorist" and all their contacts, so they probably have a pretty good dossier on pretty much everyone they need to intimidate. I don't know about y'all, but I probably have said a few things over the phone that would lead to major embarassment were they made totally public, so this could explain the timidity of Congress, government employees, news media management types, and investigative reporters. [/tinfoil had off]

By: stenseng

stenseng — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 15:35:07 -0800

By: [expletive deleted]

[expletive deleted] — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 15:41:36 -0800

I bet they just went and told the scientists working on the erase memory ray to hurry the hell up and finish it. Burns: I've said too much. Smithers, use the amnesia ray. Smithers: You mean the revolver, sir? Burns: Precisely, be sure to wipe your own memory clear when you've finished.

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 15:45:56 -0800

"Top Secret: We're Wiretapping You" *yakovfilter* In Soviet Russia the....oh, no, wait, same thing, right.

By: !Jim

!Jim — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 16:14:40 -0800

"Can someone explain to me why the media is so quiet about... everything? Do the major news outlets really just reprint press statements from the White House nowadays? Why am I reading about this on Wired?" Because people are far more interested in what Brittany's cooter looks like poor woman, I hope she gets some help, or who is going to get custody of Anna Nichole Smith's bodygod rest her soul\babyetc.?

By: Western Infidels

Western Infidels — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 18:13:38 -0800

It certainly is a comfort to know, whatever our individual feelings about the act of spying on American citizens, that at least it's being done to the same (cough) exacting high standards as most other federal-level police work.

By: Maias

Maias — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 19:19:22 -0800

The media is so quiet because they won't buy or air stories that don't fit their "conventional wisdom" which is that all everyone wants is stories about Britney or Anna Nicole and 2 seconds of Iraq. It used to be 70/30 fluff to serious-- now it's 95/5 and the 5% is devoted to the war and to political coverage of the "who's up and who's down" variety. When you can get them to pay attention to anything else, it has to fit their version of the truth or it won't run or you will be shouted down. very slowly, you can push change in the "conventional wisdom" on a particular subject, but it takes decades. sigh-- one frustrated freelancer...

By: adoarns

adoarns — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 19:30:44 -0800

It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to foresee the government seizing this document the second it was submitted and to therefor take steps to retain a greppable copy.
Seems precisely what Publius ^(pdf), Freenet, and others have sought to do for some years now. Although I suppose a hosted ftp server on, say, Sealand ought to do nearly as well.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 21:21:47 -0800

Two FBI Whistleblowers Confirm Illegal Wiretapping of Government Officials and Misuse of FISA

By: dreamsign

dreamsign — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 05:53:03 -0800

The really depressing thing is if the media tomorrow decided to take this deadly seriously, they could really whip up some public concern. But the reverse won't happen. People are hooked on some kind of laughtrack for life, and if you don't tell them when they're supposed to be outraged, they won't be. The devil you deserve, I guess.

By: phearlez

phearlez — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 09:10:39 -0800

"Can someone explain to me why the media is so quiet about... everything? Do the major news outlets really just reprint press statements from the White House nowadays? Why am I reading about this on Wired?" Because the people that want them quiet are good friends with the people that sign their paychecks? I don't remember who said it, but one columnist I read in the last five years commented that the discussion of liberal or conservative bias in media is nonsense and that the actual bias we should be terrified of is a statist bias, meaning these big corporate-run institutions have an interest in the status-quo and very small, predictable changes. Maybe it reveals my position as a leftish-centrist but I am far more worried by corporate collusion than I am any left/right type battle.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:41:01 -0800

Whistle-blower Had to Fight NSA, LA Times to Tell Story

By: homunculus

homunculus — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 13:18:02 -0800

FBI Misuses, Underreports Patriot Act Power: Audit

By: homunculus

homunculus — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 22:19:12 -0800

The FBI's lawbreaking is tied directly to President Bush