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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumsthe government acknowledged for the first time that the N.S.A. started systematically collecting...
White House Tries to Prevent Judge From Ruling on Surveillance EffortsBy CHARLIE SAVAGE and DAVID E. SANGER - NYT
12/21/13
In a set of filings in the two long-running cases in the Northern District of California, the government acknowledged for the first time that the N.S.A. started systematically collecting data about Americans emails and phone calls in 2001, alongside its program of wiretapping certain calls without warrants. The government had long argued that disclosure of these and other secrets would put the country at risk if they came out in court.
But the government said that despite recent leaks by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor, that made public a fuller scope of the surveillance and data collection programs put in place after the Sept. 11 attacks, sensitive secrets remained at risk in any courtroom discussion of their details like whether the plaintiffs were targets of intelligence collection or whether particular telecommunications providers like AT&T and Verizon had helped the agency.
Disclosure of this still-classified information regarding the scope and operational details of N.S.A. intelligence activities implicated by plaintiffs allegations could be expected to cause extremely grave damage to the national security of the United States, wrote the director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr.
So, he said, he was continuing to assert the state secrets privilege, which allows the government to seek to block information from being used in court even if that means the case must be dismissed. The Justice Department wants the judge to dismiss the matter without ruling on whether the programs violated the First or Fourth Amendment.
The filings also included similar declarations from earlier stages of the California litigation, which were classified at the time and shown only to the court but were declassified on Friday. The judge, Jeffrey S. White of the Northern District of California, had ordered the government to evaluate how the disclosures since Mr. Snowdens leaks had affected its earlier invocations of the state secrets privilege.
The plaintiffs have until late January to file a response...
More: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/22/us/white-house-tries-to-prevent-judge-from-ruling-on-surveillance-efforts.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1387674025-oxk6Hg8jDjNuxoKtjF/UaA
Harmony Blue
(3,978 posts)that they have overplayed their hand and they don't know what to do.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)and look what is happening now....
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)To continue to keep it secret.
Huge fucking kick and fucking rec.
RC
(25,592 posts)eShirl
(18,490 posts)WillyT
(72,631 posts)Fear itselfthe fear that "paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance," as FDR had itwas already being wielded as a weapon against Americans by their own government.
Link: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2006/09/fear_factor.html
Thanks for the reminder.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)WillyT
(72,631 posts)nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)There is an iteration of that running around.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)And our light hearted jokes were probably pointing to that, as well as actual monitoring by the usual suspects of places like this.
Hi guys, remember the fourth amendment? Somehow I suspect is printed on the toilet paper... Anyhoo, happy holidays...being the nice light hearted liberal. And I know you Echellon boys will read this, since the dictionary will be triggered.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)Panel this week, that they have NEVER CAUGHT a single terrorist as a result of all this spying.
That SHOULD be enough to shut them down, take the billions they get each year to spy on the American people and start feeding the poor, creating jobs etc that actually ARE related to National Security.
Sick to death of the 'national security' excuse. We were sick of it when Bush was doing it and are sicker and tired of it more each day.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)MisterP
(23,730 posts)Savannahmann
(3,891 posts)Anyone participating should get 20 years in the electric chair.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)And recommending.
randome
(34,845 posts)The article does not describe that clearly, probably because fear draws more eyeballs than nuanced fact.
The California litigation over warrantless surveillance represents the remnants of a wave of lawsuits filed in 2006 after The New York Times revealed that the Bush administration had authorized a program of wiretapping without warrants. Most of the initial suits were filed against telecommunications companies and were dismissed after Congress passed a law retroactively immunizing them for participating in the programs.[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]
WillyT
(72,631 posts)Why did Obama continue these programs once he took office.
Sure as hell seems he agrees with the program.
Link: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/06/22/edward_snowden_is_eighth_person_obama_has_pursued_under_espionage_act.html
It's not the change I had hoped for.