-Caveat Lector- http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/todays_editorial/article/0,1426,MCA_537_1556234,00.html
Editorial 11/20: Spying, but on whom? November 20, 2002 YOU DON'T have to be partisan or paranoid to feel uneasy that three Reagan-appointee appeals judges, named by a conservative Republican chief justice to a shadowy court, meeting in secret at a Justice Department headed by a conservative Republican attorney general, resolved a key issue of personal privacy. The 24-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, in its first and so far only ruling, basically erased the distinction between surveillance - such as wiretaps and E-mail intercepts - for intelligence gathering and surveillance for criminal prosecutions. This makes secret wiretap warrants easier to obtain, and Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft immediately announced he would take full advantage of his expanded powers. Taken by itself, this ruling may not be a terribly big deal. But as part of a pattern, it shows a disturbingly dismissive attitude by the Bush administration toward questions of personal privacy, freedom of information and civil liberties. The administration has asserted the right to jail American citizens without charge, without counsel and without habeas corpus, solely on its say-so. After Sept. 11, 2001, the Justice Department swept up about 1,200 foreigners and held them in secret, deciding their fate in closed hearings. The Guantanamo detainees are intentionally held in legal limbo, accorded no rights under U.S. law or international treaties. On its own, the administration has set up a parallel court system of military tribunals with the power to impose the death penalty. The Bush White House has reserved the right to decide what papers would be released from the libraries of previous presidents. Ashcroft urged federal agencies to fight requests filed under the Freedom of Information Act. The administration placed gratuitous limits on freedom of information requests to the new Department of Homeland Security and exempts some functions of the department, such as advisory committees, from open-meetings regulations. The deliberations of Vice President Cheney's energy task force remain secret to both Congress and the public. The surveillance appeals court acted because a lower court had unanimously rejected an Ashcroft wiretap request, ruling the expanded powers he invoked did not adequately protect Americans' privacy. The lower court is hardly obstructionist; until this case, it had never turned down a wiretap request, approving 934 in 2001 alone. The fact that the court was this concerned should be cause for others to be concerned. Normally, the Supreme Court would resolve this sort of legal contradiction. But the Justice Department is the only party to this proceeding, and having gotten what it wanted, it's not going to appeal. The new Congress will have to face up to the question of whether basic America protections are being eroded piecemeal. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
