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Spying started well before 9/11

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 7:57 AM on July 3, 2006.


It's about power, pure and simple...
skeletor

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Bloomberg News reported, on the Friday before a four day weekend, that Bush administration NSA spying plans began well before 9/11.

"The U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc. to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lawyers claimed June 23 in court papers filed in New York federal court."

Whoops.

John in DC writes: "if true, it negates Bush's entire argument that the spying was needed to fight the war on terror..."

More than that, it negates the administration's legal defense that it was the Authorization to Use Military Force that authorized the program.

It obliterates it and seems to point to the expansion of presidential power as the true reason for the program.

It makes liars out of a number of people as well, according to Matt O, via Dave Neiwert:

  • "Cheney said if the administration had the power 'before 9/11, we might have been able to pick up on two of the hijackers who flew a jet into the Pentagon.'"
  • Then-NSA chief (and now CIA chief) Michael Hayden ("Had this program been in effect prior to 9/11, it is my professional judgment that we would have detected some of the 9/11 al Qaeda operatives in the United States, and we would have identified them as such," said Hayden

Just in case anybody thinks that FISA, the system given the runaround with Bush's NSA program, was unnecessarily harsh, consider this: Since its inception in 1978, according to The One Percent Doctrine, only 5 of 19,000 applications were denied.

Five of 19,000.

The Punchline: NSA spying doesn't really work. (Americablog, Great Society, Orcinus)

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Evan Derkacz is a New York-based writer and contributor to AlterNet.


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You know... progressives say things...
Posted by: JoshuaLudd on Jul 3, 2006 8:26 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
... and are called kooks or liars... only to have it come out later that they are EXACTLY right.

Can we please just impeach these lying sacks of shit already??? How many times does it have to be proven that they lied to us many many times? How long does it take until someone figures out why Bush and Cheney will never do anything under oath???

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The Enemy
Posted by: the islander on Jul 3, 2006 8:54 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Now we have seen the enemy and it is us.
For those who fear only the truth the enemy is everywhere.

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madashell
Posted by: abby on Jul 3, 2006 8:56 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I hope everyone reads this and has it driven into his/her brain that the Bush gang set out to destroy our constitutional rights long before 9-11.
And the question arises: If, as they claim, the phone tapping was begun to save the country from an attack, why wasn't it successful?
And the next question arises....What was this action really intended for?
There's also another question even more sinister: Was the 'attack' known about in advance? And who really planned it?
It sure as hell wasn't the Iraqis!
Skeptical in Seattle

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e-man
Posted by: e-man on Jul 3, 2006 8:56 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Funny, what I'm reading in the story is that data was asked for. Was it received? No confirmation as to whether or not data was shared and whether or not it could have prevented 9/11.

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» RE: e-man Posted by: PEEK
Gee Evan, this has been obvious for years
Posted by: Citizendeane on Jul 3, 2006 9:13 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Did you just figure it out? Too bad America doesn't get it until its too late. Same was true of Mussolini's Italy and of Hitler's Germany, the first authoritarian national supremacist states. But, I am probably wasting words.

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» Your response is well appreciated Posted by: Citizendeane
» Evan: how about a follow up? Posted by: Citizendeane
STOP THIS ADMINISTRATION'S PROGRAM FOR EMPIRE
Posted by: Christie on Jul 3, 2006 9:44 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Voter Fraud And Flipped Votes Can Trump All

Please everyone, mention voter fraud in every post. We must have honest elections to preserve --no, make that return to --democracy, or we will be The American Empire. Write to, email or call your Senators and Congressmen, State elections officials, TV stations and newspapers. Include some reference to the fact voter fraud and flipped votes can trump all other efforts by the people to reverse the dismantling of our Constitution and Bill of Rights. In every comment you make on every Website dealing with this Administration’s actions, ask others to act, not just talk to each other.

For the 4th of July, read and weep -- or read, hope and act.

**********************************
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

excerpts from “America the Beautiful”

*******************************************

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sickofsleaze
Posted by: ladybug1@carrollsweb.com on Jul 3, 2006 10:02 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Why am I not surprised?

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nsa spying on your IP traffic? can be checked out
Posted by: aurora2484 on Jul 3, 2006 10:45 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
by repost Saturday, Jul. 01, 2006 at 4:21 AM
from Postman Patel

"AT&T technician Mark Klein learned of a secret room installed in the company's San Francisco internet switching center ... what he saw and learnt prompted him to call at the Electronic Frontier Foundation unannounced in late January 2005 with documents in hand..."

Check if NSA warrantless surveillance is looking at your IP traffic

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» RE: nothing new here move on Posted by: AlienSlave
» RE: nothing new here move on Posted by: Christie
» RE: nothing new here move on Posted by: AlienSlave
» you can watch the watchers Posted by: aurora2484
» RE: you can watch the watchers Posted by: AlienSlave
» thank you Posted by: aurora2484
SPY CATCHER
Posted by: AlienSlave on Jul 3, 2006 11:53 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Does anyone here really know how an Intelligence agency works? What its purpose is? What type of information is targeted? How information is collected? Who sifts through it, categorizes it, and evaluates it, who determines what is to be done with it? Almost the entire worlds Intelligence agencies are incompetent bloated autocratic institutions working with antiquated equipment. They are very narrow minded in goals set for accomplishment. You have very little to fear from state sponsored Intelligence they are bumbling misfits that can’t find work at corporate level Intelligence agencies. Here is where your personal information is targeted with extreme perfection and there are no laws or safe guards to protect you and never will be. The sad fact is you have willing handed over your private information all your life to them now that you are using the internet more corporate raiders have your personal specs than ever before.
AlienSlave

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» RE: SPY CATCHER Posted by: MegOnTheMountain
» RE: SPY CATCHER Posted by: AlienSlave
US PERSON
Posted by: US Person on Jul 3, 2006 12:21 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The New Yorker article on David Addington is very revealing. Addington is the hidden power behind Darth Cheney & Company's unconstitutional grab for power. Using the GWOT as cover, these proto fascists are rewritting the Constitution into oblivion on a scale that eclipses the dark days of Nixon.
These criminals must be held accountable if our democracy is to survive. Otherwise, the flag is only worth burning.

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» RE: US PERSON Posted by: PEEK
Abolishing Freedom
Posted by: maxloen on Jul 3, 2006 2:27 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I think it all goes back to who were the ones who met in 1997/98 Texas preparing the Dolphin for power, and all the tricks and deceptions they were planning to instrument to achieve their goal of Empire. Check the list the newspapers prepared at the time and you'll see they were all the Neocons you can think of, plus a few of their natural allies, including some now well known imperial multinationals.

Progressives have to get acquainted with Professor Shadia Drury. A little commentary on her work, and quotes, follow:

Professor Shadia Drury of University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada is among the world's foremost scholars on the history, philosophy and politics of neo-conservatism. She is the author of the acclaimed books Leo Strauss and the American Right (1998) and The Political Ideas of Leo Strauss (1988). Her recent article “Saving America: Leo Strauss and the neoconservatives” is very useful to understand the subject. There, Drury also offers an insight into the minds of the disciples of Strauss: “The trouble with the Straussians is that they are compulsive liars. But it is not altogether their fault. Strauss was very pre-occupied with secrecy because he was convinced that the truth is too harsh for any society to bear; and that the truth-bearers are likely to be persecuted by society - specially a liberal society - because liberal democracy is about as far as one can get from the truth as Strauss understood it.”[6] Is it any difficult to understand why the neocons lied about WMDs to justify the invasion of Iraq?

Drury says, “Strauss's disciples … are afraid to speak the truth openly, lest they are persecuted by the vulgar many who do not wish to be ruled by them. This explains why they are eager to misrepresent the nature of Strauss's thought. They are afraid to reveal that Strauss was a critic of liberalism and democracy, lest he be regarded as an enemy of America. So, they wrap him in the American flag and pretend that he is a champion of liberal democracy for political reasons - their own quest for power. The result is that they run roughshod over truth as well as democracy.”[8] Strauss, According to Drury, was “the enemy of liberty in general. It was for love of America that he wished to save her from her disastrous love affair with liberty...”

Ah, and don't forget to thank our aristocratic Supreme Court for equating money with speech and corporations with human persons. Elections are not, should not be, about buying votes but about reaching minds with ideas and proposals. Not much of real significance will be achieved until there is thorough campaign finance reform.

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lies
Posted by: rsaxto on Jul 4, 2006 4:36 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Lies and propaganda is all the Bushies are because they're on the way to making Bush a tsar.

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***SIGH***
Posted by: aussidawg on Jul 4, 2006 5:03 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Well, there really isn't much that is surprizing about the Bush administration anymore. This bastard could have kidnapped the Lindburg baby in today's America and gotten away with it. Why you may ask? Because nobody will do anything to hold him accountable. The Bush administration makes Nixon look like Santa Claus. We have no media reporting this, we have no Congress or Senate prosecuting this, we have no Supreme Court doing anything about this, and we the people are doing nothing about this. So folks...are we gonna go down without a whimper?

By the way...HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!! Enjoy it while you have it.

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"are we gonna go down without a whimper?"
Posted by: kww355 on Jul 4, 2006 7:41 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
We HAVE gone down without a whimper! We're too distracted by "bread and circuses" ( i.e. $4 lattes and voting for American Idol ) to realise our freedoms are completely gone.

The theft of the 2000 election ( crude but effective ) and the 2004 election ( much more sophisticated ) went down with virtually no notice. Those who still object are either told to "get over it" or are labelled "tin-foil-hat conspiracists".

2000 was the time to act. It's too late now. Either go off the grid ( tough to do ) or move out of the country if you can get a passport.

If not, I'll see you in the fundamentalist re-education camps. In the Orwellian spirit of this fascist regime ( "Clear Skies Act" or "No Child Left Behind" ) these camps will probably be called "Voluntary Relocation Areas".

As Paul Revere might have said, "Don't say you haven't been warned."

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Spying was set up BEFORE 9-11 to INSURE 9-11
Posted by: xbj on Jul 4, 2006 8:13 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Spying was set up BEFORE 9-11 to INSURE that 9-11 would go ahead as planned.

It's that simple. Osama worked for Bush41 during the CIA years, has always worked for Bush41, and is either dead today or still working for Bush41.

His job? Providing Islamist patsies. If only they knew who they were REALLY working for.

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Frog Man
Posted by: jamesryan on Jul 4, 2006 9:55 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I'm curious. Mr. Derkasz notes that Bloomburg published its article "on the Friday before a four day weekend." What lies behind inclusion of these words?

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» RE: Frog Man Posted by: PEEK
» RE: Frog Man Posted by: jamesryan
THEY GOT OUR NUMBERS! SO, WHAT'S NEW?
Posted by: chanceny on Jul 4, 2006 12:36 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The domestic spying program began under Nixon. It was to be the repubs little black book, on hand to ensure all coming elections. Cheney had a front row seat, watching, horrified, as those gosh darned tapes made by his previous delusional power mad president along with those eyeopening enemies lists, were hurled out of those secretive corridors of perverted powerlust, finally exposed into the sunlight. 9/11 just insured that legal reason could now be attached to the tracking of all citizens, data mining everyone of us, showing 'big brosky' who's naughty or nice! As soon as their power was 'legitimized', it was full steam ahead with nifty, nefarious nationalistic implementations of facist governing principles polluting all branches of government, cojoined with the strongarm tactics of economic intimidation aimed squarely at the corporate entities that literally own the media. It is no surprise these programs that continue to strip away our civil liberties have permeated our system. Bushco has such arrogant disdain for 'ordinary' citizens and such open contempt for any body that deigns to question or disavow their absolute authority, what else could possibly follow but more abuses here, in Guantanamo or Iraq? Tracking US citizens is of tantamount importance for this corrupt cabal to permanently enshrine themselves on the throne of power. There is nothing inept or INCOMPETENT about their handling of the Iraqi occupation or in ignoring Katrina's eminent destrucive path. Their ultimate plan is to disenfranchise the electorate, all the while spreading fear far and wide, scapegoating gays, immigrants and liberals to feed their braindead base and so divide this nation it would become relatively easy to lead us into submission. Let's just see if, after this holiday celebration of our proud heritage, the birth of America, our media will be so outraged by this information that they snap to it and start reporting on this and the numerous other instances of unconstitutional illegal activities practiced by this traitor-infused administration. Maybe impeachment won't seem a far-fetched lefty wish, but a necessary action our founders felt compelled to insert in their constitution to protect this republic from just THIS!

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This Answers one important "anti-conspiracy" argument once and for all...
Posted by: sln70 on Jul 4, 2006 6:31 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
On of the Usual Arguments against any "conspiracy theory" is this: "HOW could they do it? .. Too many people would have been involved and someone surely would have talked by now."

Welp, my guess is that a LOT of people at AT&T knew about this, and that these same people watched the news and heard Cheney deny that they had the surveillance program pre-9/11. They heard Hayden say that had they HAD the program pre-9/11 that they would have stopped the hijackers. And they didn't say anything.. or else if they *did*, no one listened.

And that's how conspiracies work. comprende?

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» Sorry, no Posted by: brunowe
» But there's NO difference Posted by: sln70
ECHELON and counterinsurgency
Posted by: wli on Jul 6, 2006 1:52 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There are two missing pieces here. The first is that not only was massive domestic wiretapping ongoing prior to 9/11, it's been ongoing since 1948. It's called ECHELON.

The second thing is that the spying is doing social network analysis, specifically link analysis, according to defensetech (as mentioned above) and various others. This is not a mere curiosity; it is a technique invented by Yves Godard (French war criminal who fought against the Algerian resistance) for devising lists of people to "neutralize." IOW, this is not merely monitoring "political enemies," it's building a hitlist by ranking the nexuses of communication and/or most important people as targets.

It's no coincidence that this effort is on an incredibly broad basis. The connection is to politics, not terrorism. I'm quite certain the intelligence agencies are trying to use this surveillance to assist counterinsurgency efforts to smash broad social movements to the left in their early stages. Essentially this ends up as a higher-tech COINTELPRO.

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Being a liar isn't enough
Posted by: glorybe on Jul 6, 2006 10:22 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Simply telling lies even when they are huge lies does not equate with an impeachment charge. You need both high crimes and misdimeanors to impeach a president and telling lies is simply not a crime. Maybe we need to pass laws making it a crime for public employees to lie but then they'll all be in prison and we'll have no one left to run the country.

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