(2005-12-19) Nsa And Patriot Act

The US Senate put the Patriot Act renewal on hold on Dec16, when they found they didn't have enough support to end a filibuster. This was largely the efforts of the Democratic Party, though they had some Republican Party support (John E Sununu) as well.

George W Bush and Rudy Giuliani were not pleased.

Some of this back-bone may have been related to the article that day about Bush having given the NSA permission to spy on US citizens. Under a presidential order (Executive Order) signed in 2002, the intelligence agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an effort to track possible "dirty numbers" linked to AlQaeda, the officials said. The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications.

• The timing of the release of this article was immediately questioned. First, the Times had admittedly been sitting on this story for more than twelve months. Second, the Drudge Report announced at 11:37 AM Friday that one of the article's authors, James Risen, was about to have a book released entitled "State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration," and that this story was part of the book. Yet, the Times chose not to disclose this fact.

• John Robb thinks it's Impeach-worthy.

  • He also thinks Google has a fat contract with the Homeland Security Department.

Jan17 update: Werther comments on the Context of discussing the legality of Bush's actions. Let a government slip the civilizing constraints of the Rule Of Law, and its paid servants your hired hands being merely human after all, will become addicted to a sexually Pathological Voyeurism. Fully participant citizens know their rights; subjects do not.