The Specter-Whitehouse substitution amendment #3927 just failed 30-68. Voting against it were liberal senators like Dodd, Biden, and Murray. They opposed it because it would have taken the cases pending against the big telecoms and substituted the federal government as the defendant in all of them. It was a special treatment amendment and had it passed, it would have undermined the rule of law in America. That said, 31 votes for it were almost all Democrats.posted by delmoi at 10:50 AM on February 12, 2008
The bill allowed the monitoring of electronic communications on people "reasonably believed to be outside the United States," without a court's order or oversight. It continues to require a court order to conduct electronic surveillance or physical search when targeting persons located in the United States.a. Uhhh, where does that IP phone with Skype come from ?
'There had been an attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Other attacks were being planned. The nation was gripped by fear and apprehension that another attack was imminent. Anxiety filled the air – whether you were getting on a plane or a train or going to a football game. The U.S. Capitol was hit by an anthrax attack. People were snapping up gas masks and survival kits.'"That is absolute bullshit. The government approached the telecoms re:surveillance months before 9/11.
The project was described in the ATT sales division documents as calling for the construction of a facility to store and retain data gathered by the NSA from its domestic and foreign intelligence operations but was to be in actuality a duplicate ATT Network Operations Center for the use and possession of the NSA that would give the NSA direct, unlimited, unrestricted and unfettered access to all call information and internet and digital traffic on ATT's long distance network.This was a premeditated violation of the Constitution by the government, and the telecoms had no reason to blindly follow along at the time. Inexcusable.
The NSA program was initially conceived at least one year prior to 2001 but had been called off; it was reinstated within 11 days of the entry into office of defendant George W. Bush.
An ATT Solutions logbook reviewed by counsel confirms the Pioneer-Groundbreaker project start date of February 1, 2001.
The U.S. Capitol was hit by an anthrax attack.
Four Americans have died as a result of these acts of terrorism...The Postal Service and the FBI have offered a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the arrest and the conviction of the anthrax terrorists...We do not yet know who sent the anthrax -- whether it was the same terrorists who committed the attacks on September the 11th, or whether it was the -- other international or domestic terrorists. We do know that anyone who would try to infect other people with anthrax is guilty of an act of terror...I'm proud of our citizens' calm and reasoned response to this ongoing terrorist attack.Which I would like to see brought up when Senator McCain or anyone else claims we haven't been attacked since 9/11. Republicans are 0-2 at preventing terrorist attacks inside the US and 0-2 at punishing the people behind them (at least until the new circus trials are over).
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Too bad the people don't give a shit.
posted by Hugh2d2 at 10:10 AM on February 12, 2008