Govt Wiretapping More Vast Then Commonly Acknowledged

MSNBC INTERVIEW

Raw Story - Former National Security Agency analyst Russell Tice, who helped expose the NSA's warrantless wiretapping in December 2005, has now come forward with even more startling allegations. Tice told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann that the programs that spied on Americans were not only much broader than previously acknowledged but specifically targeted journalists.

"The National Security Agency had access to all Americans' communications -- faxes, phone calls, and their computer communications," Tice claimed. "It didn't matter whether you were in Kansas, in the middle of the country, and you never made foreign communications at all. They monitored all communications."

Tice further explained that "even for the NSA it's impossible to literally collect all communications. . . What was done was sort of an ability to look at the metadata . . . and ferret that information to determine what communications would ultimately be collected."

According to Tice, in addition to this "low-tech, dragnet" approach, the NSA also had the ability to hone in on specific groups, and that was the aspect he himself was involved with. However, even within the NSA there was a cover story meant to prevent people like Tice from realizing what they were doing.

"In one of the operations that I was in, we looked at organizations, just supposedly so that we would not target them," Tice told Olbermann. "What I was finding out, though, is that the collection on those organizations was 24/7 and 365 days a year -- and it made no sense. . . I started to investigate that. That's about the time when they came after me to fire me."

When Olbermann pressed him for specifics, Tice offered, "An organization that was collected on were US news organizations and reporters and journalists."

"To what purpose?" Olbermann asked. "I mean, is there a file somewhere full of every email sent by all the reporters at the New York Times? Is there a recording somewhere of every conversation I had with my little nephew in upstate New York?"

Tice did not answer directly, but simply stated, "If it was involved in this specific avenue of collection, it would be everything." He added, however, that he had no idea what was ultimately done with the information, except that he was sure it "was digitized and put on databases somewhere."

Tice first began alleging that there were illegal activities going on at both the NSA and the Defense Intelligence Agency in December 2005, several months after being fired by the NSA. He also served at that time as a source for the New York Times story which revealed the existence of the NSA's wireless wiretapping program.

Criminal Police Disable Video

As happened with the criminal commonwealth of Virginia's criminal assault upon me in 2006, police in Prince Georges County Maryland cover up their criminal behavior by disabling the police video- even as the US Supreme Court excuses police 'blunders' designed to subvert the Constitution.

From the The Agitator:

Did the Cameras Go on Strike?

Sunday, January 18th, 2009

A jury has found that officers with the Prince George’s County, Maryland (where else?) police department used excessive force when they apprehended and arrested a TV reporter who was investigating possible improper use of public resources. I don’t know the much about the case other than what’s in the article, and from the article, it sound like the jury got it right–too much force, though the decision to puller her over may not have been out of bounds.

But it’s the last sentence of the article I found particularly interesting:

In all, nine police cars from Prince George’s and Cheverly responded. Although most of the squad cars were equipped with video cameras, police said none of them were working that day, Pavsner said.

So “most” squad cars in PG County have video cameras. Yet at the scene of a controversial arrest, with nine cars at the scene, not a single squad car camera was “working that day?”

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U.S. SC to allow 'Barney Fife' 4th Amendment Subversion

From The Washington Post:

Papist members vote to subvert 4th Amendment

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/14/AR2009011401409.html?hpid=moreheadlines

[excerpt]

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the court, said the evidence may be used "when police mistakes are the result of negligence such as that described here, rather than systemic error or reckless disregard of constitutional requirements."

He was joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.

So, as with such subversive police tactics as the [criminal-apostate] Commonwealth of Virginia's excuse that the police video was "just grey static", record keeping 'blunders' may be used to subvert the U.S. Constitution's 4th Amendment protections against politically motivated searches.

In this case, the defendant-victim was given a 27 month prison sentence for "crimes" that the statutes violate the Constitution (drug and gun possession).

Decisions as this show where these Supreme Court 'justices' loyalities lay.

U.S. President Bush and Chief Justice Roberts with Cardinal Archbiship McCarrick

Cardinal Egan: 'My We Knows'

And a few links courtesy of Drug War Rant:

A number of people have been writing about Herring v. United States -- yet another incursion into the already decimated Fourth Amendment.

• Jeralyn at TalkLeft: More Criticism of the Supreme Court's Herring Decision
• Fourth Amendment.com: Yes Virginia, there is a Barney Fife exception to the exclusionary rule.
• New York Times Editorial: The Fourth Amendment Diluted (see also this NY times article)