Todays lesson is on the CIA and street whores.
May/11/06 10:34 PM
Mr. President,
The lesson, boys and girls, is thou shall not piss off the CIA.
Today's news leak is brought to you courtesy of USA Today and the result of Porter Goss and his efforts to convert the CIA into another Bush-puppet agency. Those leaks you ordered Goss to stop keep going to courageous reporters who are not afraid to write about highly questionable agency activities. There are obviously many people within the CIA who have been pushed to the point where they feel the need to blow the whistle on you.
So, today, Americans across the country learned that you have been monitoring all their home phone calls, cell phone calls, internet surfing and video, between family members, employees, business contacts, neighbors, and everyone else. We also learned the data comprises the world's largest database at the NSA.
This NSA domestic spying program collects information on ordinary Americans not just crime suspects or potential al queda members.
Three major telecommunications companies agreed to work with you. This huge NSA database is potentially available to other government agencies such as Medicare, Social Security, the Treasury department, FBI, CIA, and DEA. And who says it would stop there. What keeps you from reselling the information to private interests such as insurance companies; your ethics?
You told us you only monitored calls originating either from inside or outside the country to catch terrorists. You lied junior. You lied again.
The article states that the NSA has sophisticated software programs to figure out the communications habits of millions of Americans. They say none of our names; street addresses and other personal information are not being handed over as part of NSA's domestic program.
Even if I were naive enough to believe you; the phone numbers you collect can surely be cross-checked against information from other easily available databases; to get every bit of computerized information anyone has ever entered about us.
You say the "NSA takes its legal responsibility seriously and operates within the law?
Paul Butler, a former U.S. prosecutor who specialized in terrorism crimes, said, "FISA approval generally isn't necessary for government data-mining operations. FISA does not prohibit the government from doing data mining," said Butler.
Many telecom lawyers consider this data collection illegal.
Under Section 222 of the Communications Act, passed in 1934, telephone companies are forbidden from distributing information regarding their customers' calling habits.
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? Can't you do anything lawfully?
Out of all the major telecommunications companies, only Quest refused to comply with the NSA. AT&T Bell South and Verizon all caved in to your requests; they were obviously paid for their efforts. I am sure promises of future juicy government contracts were also dangled before them.
After Quest turned you down the first time, you played the "patriot card" and said Qwest's refusal could compromise national security.
Though you attempted to bully Quest, they remained skiddish about possibly breaking the law.
Quest stated they were ready to cooperate if the NSA took their proposal to the FISA court, but the agency refused because FISA might not agree with them? What were they afraid of? How legal could the program be if they feared to use the FISA courts?
I can still remember when our phone company was considered one of the most reliable, trustworthy companies we had in America. There was good reason why everyone called the phone company "Ma Bell"; we believed in her. She was mom.
As we fast forward the tape to today. Several baby bells and other competitors took over after the AT&T breakup. Through mergers and acquisitions, the Baby bells have evolved back into a small number of telecoms.
Today's news will be a rude awakening to many Americans who remember Ma Bell. With the exception of Quest Communications, Ma Bell has changed. She is no longer that warm fuzzy company that we took comfort in; she is a bitch who sold us out and became an NSA whore, who considers their customers' privacy just another asset to sell for the right price.
From: comments@whitehouse.gov
Date: May 12, 2006 1:18:44 AM CDT
To: guzmatom@mac.com
On behalf of President Bush, thank you for your correspondence.
We appreciate hearing your views and welcome your suggestions.
Due to the large volume of e-mail received, the White House is
unable to respond to every message, and therefore this response
is an autoreply.
Thank you again for taking the time to write.
The lesson, boys and girls, is thou shall not piss off the CIA.
Today's news leak is brought to you courtesy of USA Today and the result of Porter Goss and his efforts to convert the CIA into another Bush-puppet agency. Those leaks you ordered Goss to stop keep going to courageous reporters who are not afraid to write about highly questionable agency activities. There are obviously many people within the CIA who have been pushed to the point where they feel the need to blow the whistle on you.
So, today, Americans across the country learned that you have been monitoring all their home phone calls, cell phone calls, internet surfing and video, between family members, employees, business contacts, neighbors, and everyone else. We also learned the data comprises the world's largest database at the NSA.
This NSA domestic spying program collects information on ordinary Americans not just crime suspects or potential al queda members.
Three major telecommunications companies agreed to work with you. This huge NSA database is potentially available to other government agencies such as Medicare, Social Security, the Treasury department, FBI, CIA, and DEA. And who says it would stop there. What keeps you from reselling the information to private interests such as insurance companies; your ethics?
You told us you only monitored calls originating either from inside or outside the country to catch terrorists. You lied junior. You lied again.
The article states that the NSA has sophisticated software programs to figure out the communications habits of millions of Americans. They say none of our names; street addresses and other personal information are not being handed over as part of NSA's domestic program.
Even if I were naive enough to believe you; the phone numbers you collect can surely be cross-checked against information from other easily available databases; to get every bit of computerized information anyone has ever entered about us.
You say the "NSA takes its legal responsibility seriously and operates within the law?
Paul Butler, a former U.S. prosecutor who specialized in terrorism crimes, said, "FISA approval generally isn't necessary for government data-mining operations. FISA does not prohibit the government from doing data mining," said Butler.
Many telecom lawyers consider this data collection illegal.
Under Section 222 of the Communications Act, passed in 1934, telephone companies are forbidden from distributing information regarding their customers' calling habits.
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? Can't you do anything lawfully?
Out of all the major telecommunications companies, only Quest refused to comply with the NSA. AT&T Bell South and Verizon all caved in to your requests; they were obviously paid for their efforts. I am sure promises of future juicy government contracts were also dangled before them.
After Quest turned you down the first time, you played the "patriot card" and said Qwest's refusal could compromise national security.
Though you attempted to bully Quest, they remained skiddish about possibly breaking the law.
Quest stated they were ready to cooperate if the NSA took their proposal to the FISA court, but the agency refused because FISA might not agree with them? What were they afraid of? How legal could the program be if they feared to use the FISA courts?
I can still remember when our phone company was considered one of the most reliable, trustworthy companies we had in America. There was good reason why everyone called the phone company "Ma Bell"; we believed in her. She was mom.
As we fast forward the tape to today. Several baby bells and other competitors took over after the AT&T breakup. Through mergers and acquisitions, the Baby bells have evolved back into a small number of telecoms.
Today's news will be a rude awakening to many Americans who remember Ma Bell. With the exception of Quest Communications, Ma Bell has changed. She is no longer that warm fuzzy company that we took comfort in; she is a bitch who sold us out and became an NSA whore, who considers their customers' privacy just another asset to sell for the right price.
From: comments@whitehouse.gov
Date: May 12, 2006 1:18:44 AM CDT
To: guzmatom@mac.com
On behalf of President Bush, thank you for your correspondence.
We appreciate hearing your views and welcome your suggestions.
Due to the large volume of e-mail received, the White House is
unable to respond to every message, and therefore this response
is an autoreply.
Thank you again for taking the time to write.