Re: [privacy] U.S. Government to Ask Courts to Toss Phone Suits

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

Hear, hear.

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary
security, deserve neither liberty or security."

      - Benjanim Franklin


- ferg

-- "Andrew Blair" <Andrew.Blair () genmills com> wrote:

Sorry for the length. It started short and just kept going...


The scariest thing about all of this is that if we set a precedent
allowing potentially illegal and unconstitutional activities to occur
without challenge, we trap ourselves in a situation where all future
administrations will be able to isolate and hide activities that could
be far and above more abusive than what we are seeing now behind the
guise of "National Security". 

Allowing our government to get away with operating unchallenged behind a
veil of "state secrets" gives executive leaders nearly unlimited power.
Whether or not you think the current administration is or will ever
abuse that power, that power will be abused by someone someday. That
much unchecked power is a terrible temptation.

It is deeply disturbing that Americans are not only allowing this to
happen, but in many cases are willing participants. Complacency is a
dangerous thing, and I fear the period of relative safety and stability
American's have enjoyed for 60 years has led to a society that takes our
constitution and the rights it affords for granted. Any erosion of those
rights is a greater attack on the very foundations of our country than
any an Islamic extremist could carry out.

It appears that the U.S. government really believes what it is doing is
"right", and that is a frightening thought. They believe that with
enough power and enough control we can defeat America's enemies and
protect our people. Failures just mean they need more power and more
control to be successful. Whether technically legal or not, the
activities of our government violates the very spirit of what it means
to be American. 

I believe the government is motivated to go to these extremes by fear.
The fear of attack by terrorists, the fear of losing re-election, and
the fear of not being in control. We cannot let fear be the source of
our laws and policies. Countless tragedies in history were the result of
fear. The Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, McCarthy and the
Red Scare, Stalin and his murderous policies - the list is long and we
must not let ourselves add another.

The legality of the current programs does not bother me as much as the
inability to challenge them. The whole idea of American government is
one of restrained authority and checks and balances. For all the
propaganda of being patriotic and protecting America from terrorists
being put out of Washington, the very idea of the current gross
expansion of Executive power is fundamentally and profoundly
un-patriotic and un-American. 

America is under ferocious and prolonged attack by ideologically radical
foes, but our greatest enemies are not from far away lands hiding in the
shadows and folds of trusting American liberties. No, they tread on the
airwaves, in the papers, and most of all in our nation's Capital.


Andy B

"Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death"
Support those who support your freedoms. Give to the EFF.


-----Original Message-----
From: Fergie [mailto:fergdawg () netzero net] 
Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2006 9:15 AM
To: privacy () whitestar linuxbox org
Subject: [privacy] U.S. Government to Ask Courts to Toss Phone Suits

"...and the clocks were striking thirteen..."

Via The Washington Post (Bloomberg).

[snip]

The government will seek dismissal of 20 lawsuits accusing the biggest
telecommunications companies of providing customer call data to the
National Security Agency, claiming that "military and state secrets"
might be divulged were the lawsuits to proceed.

The Justice Department said it will not ask for the dismissal until all
the lawsuits are consolidated before a single judge, according to papers
filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, where a complaint is pending
against AT&T Inc.

All of the cases contain "allegations about certain telecommunications
carriers' purported assistance in classified government activities," the
Justice Department said in its papers. "The United States intends to
assert the military and state secrets privilege in those actions and to
seek their dismissal."

[snip]

More here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/08/AR200606
0800048.html

- ferg


--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet  fergdawg () netzero net or
fergdawg () sbcglobal net  ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/

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