OrwellUSA News Roundup

In fact, since 2002, authorized by a secret order from President Bush, the agency has intercepted the international phone calls and e-mail messages of hundreds, possibly thousands, of American citizens and others in the United States without obtaining court orders. The discrepancy between the public claims and the secret domestic eavesdropping disclosed last week have put the N.S.A., the nation's largest intelligence agency, and General Hayden, now principal deputy director of national intelligence, in an awkward position.

The episode could revive old fears that the secret agency is a sort of high-tech Big Brother. It was such fears - based on genuine abuses before the mid-1970's, hyperbolic press reports and movie myths - that General Hayden worked to counter as the agency's director from 1999 until last April. The New York Times.


The presiding judge of a secret court that oversees government surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases is arranging a classified briefing for her fellow judges to address their concerns about the legality of President Bush's domestic spying program, according to several intelligence and government sources. Washington Post.

The law does not authorize warrantless surveillance, under any circumstances, and the president"s assertion (in an apparent exercise of activism he would criticize if it were a judge doing it) that his authority to violate this law inheres in the Constitution, or in the resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq has already been thoroughly and completely debunked by several legal experts, including prominent conservative (and Reagan Justice Department official), Bruce Fein, who has said: "President Bush presents a clear and present danger to the rule of law," and Jonathan Turley, a Georgetown law professor, who opined, on the December 19th edition of Fox News‛ "The O‛Reilly Factor," that "it is a crime to order surveillance or conduct surveillance unless you've gone to a judge. Federal crimes can rise to impeachable offenses."

The fact that this president chose to confront his critics by flaunting his disregard of the legal restrictions on his conduct will undoubtedly contribute to his downfall. It is almost inevitable, given the outcry from politicians, pundits, and legal scholars about this latest episode of presidential hubris, that impeachment is on the horizon. Indeed, several members of Congress have already floated the idea. Let's not forget, the illegal use of electronic surveillance was one of the charges leveled against Nixon in his articles of impeachment. And history, as we know, has a funny way of repeating itself. ----Booman Tribune.

Counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief, newly disclosed agency records show.

One F.B.I. document indicates that agents in Indianapolis planned to conduct surveillance as part of a "Vegan Community Project." Another document talks of the Catholic Workers group's "semi-communistic ideology." A third indicates the bureau's interest in determining the location of a protest over llama fur planned by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
---The New York Times

Rich Hersh confirmed and elaborated on the NBC Nightly News report (December 13) about secret data bases that the Pentagon is assembling on domestic individuals and groups whom the military designates as “threats,” simply because the common focus of concern among group members is a policy or program that in some way relates to the U.S. armed forces.

Truth Project participants do nothing in secret; they join together in fully transparent and public meetings to develop strategies that they believe will help educate public officials, parents, and teens so that those considering military service are fully informed before they decide.

When the Pentagon starts sending spies into Quaker meeting houses, we believe Congress should examine the motives of such a Pentagon surveillance program. I am sure you agree that those who make an informed choice to enter the military take on an honorable profession. The Founding Fathers regarded as equally honorable those who undertake the exercise of a citizen’s constitutional rights to disagree with and dissent from government policies. They knew that a government that spies on its citizens does so because it distrusts them. And such a government, unless citizens insist on the free exercise of their rights, will next trample on their unexercised rights.

For these reasons, we urge you to seek a congressional hearing on domestic spying by the Pentagon and the possible violation of unalienable rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights which may have occurred at Lake Worth, FL and other locations.

Sincerely,Joe Volk Executive Secretary
Friends Committee on National Legislation

As President Bush and his aides scramble to explain new revelations regarding Bush's authorization of spying on the international telephone calls and emails of Americans, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has begun a process that could lead to the censure, and perhaps the impeachment, of the president and vice president.

U.S. Representative John Conyers, the Michigan Democrat who was a critical player in the Watergate and Iran-Contra investigations into presidential wrongdoing, has introduced a package of resolutions that would censure President Bush and Vice President Cheney and create a select committee to investigate the Administration's possible crimes and make recommendations regarding grounds for impeachment. ---The Nation.