Judge Rejects Request for NSA Documents

[Jhhnn]

The Bush Admin uses "national security" as a catch-22 mechanism, along with the whole idea of "executive privilege". Basically, they claim they can do whatever they want because they've got the power to do so...

From Corbett-

"Wow I am surraounded by idiots! You guys are forgetting one thing. The calls must be to or from outside of the country to a suspected TERRORIST."

Yeh, sure, except that if such were true, rather than what the Bush Admin wants us to believe, then there wouldn't be any need to hide raw numbers under a shroud of secrecy. I suspect that the sad truth is that none of what you've been led to believe is true, at all. If it were, then the Admin would be happy to prove it... Given their track record, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to believe that they're telling us the truth, ever.

None of the Judge's defenders have offered any plausible scenario in which the requested information would compromise security, at all. How could it?

 

[piasabird]

I think to get a document you have to identify who was being wiretapped.

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: shira

Originally posted by: Rainsford
I hate to say it, but I agree with the judge. Classified materials are not subject to FOIA, period. I don't agree with the idea of using the classification system to hide wrongdoing either, but how do you make exceptions to the FOIA rule? We don't want ALL classified material subject to requests, and how can we ask for just the evidence of wrongdoing? I hope any wrongdoing is exposed as much as the next person who loves their country, but this is not a good way to go about that. What we need is the same thing we had LAST time the President thought he was above the law, another Church Committee and other congressional investigations...something our new congress, with restored testicular fortitude, will probably do if necessary.

The problem is, classification seems to be increasingly used as a means of avoiding necessary scrutiny rather than protecting what is legitimately sensitive information. The fact that, for example, the very existence of the NSA wiretapping program is classified is laughable.

Oh I agree, which is what we have other branches of government for...this is the PERFECT thing for Congress to look at, it cannot be solved with a lower level decision by a judge. The problem is that there is a catch-22...how can we figure out what really needs to be classified without revealing what needs to be classified? That's the kind of question a congressional investigation can solve...and we're overdue for one.

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: Corbett
...
Wow I am surraounded by idiots! You guys are forgetting one thing. The calls must be to or from outside of the country to a suspected TERRORIST.

Really? I was under the impression that the folks in the executive branch just had to SAY that's what was happening...and the only folks they had to convince were themselves. That's why we have this concept of judicial review in the first place, so we make sure that people actually follow the rules. Don't tell me your one of those naive folks who actually TRUSTS everyone in government, are you? If you're surrounded by idiots, you must feel right at home.

 

[conehead433]

Originally posted by: shira

Originally posted by: Jeff7
This is why I like to, in threads such as this, add in stuff like this:
Uranium enrichment for weapons
Destroy government buildings
Dirty bombs
Viable nuclear material
Iran Iraq Saudi Arabia Israel
Suicide bomber
Detonator caps
Cellphone-triggered car bombs
9/11 copycat


Wave to Echelon!
Hi FBI, CIA. Welcome to P&N! You shouldn't even be here, what with the illegal searching an all.
😛

Great idea.

I think as a protest Americans who value liberty should start a nationwide program where every email and every phone call is laced with "forbidden" words. If 50 million Americans started flooding the pipeline with billions of "suspect" communications every week, we could bring Big Brother to his knees.

explosives
poison gas
attack
infiltrate
Allah
Washington, D.C.
anthrax
kidnap
hijack airplanes
safe house
Bin Laden
hostages
millions will die
Bush

fixed