Warrantless Wiretap is a Great Big Blackmail Scam: Why Do We Tolerate It?

[McCamy Taylor]

I have been waiting for someone to say what we all know. Warrantless wiretap---domestic spying---is a great big blackmail scam. One of the very first things that Dick Cheney did when he began to recreate Dick Nixon’s attempts to found a totalitarian regime was institute domestic spying. By now, we all know that this plan did not start after 9/11. The administration went to the telecoms early in 2001 and told them it wanted to be able to intercept phone calls, emails, faxes. We know that Verizon and AT&T went along with the plan and Qwest refused on the grounds that it was illegal. Verizon and AT&T have been well rewarded by the FCC. Qwest has been punished with criminal prosecutions. From a whistle blower, we know that every communication within the United States was funneled through a single room, where they could be analyzed.

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/04/70619

"While doing my job, I learned that fiber optic cables from the secret room were tapping into the Worldnet (AT&T's internet service) circuits by splitting off a portion of the light signal," Klein wrote.
The split circuits included traffic from peering links connecting to other internet backbone providers, meaning that AT&T was also diverting traffic routed from its network to or from other domestic and international providers, according to Klein's statement.
The secret room also included data-mining equipment called a Narus STA 6400, "known to be used particularly by government intelligence agencies because of its ability to sift through large amounts of data looking for preprogrammed targets," according to Klein's statement.
Snip

"Despite what we are hearing, and considering the public track record of this administration, I simply do not believe their claims that the NSA's spying program is really limited to foreign communications or is otherwise consistent with the NSA's charter or with FISA," Klein's wrote. "And unlike the controversy over targeted wiretaps of individuals' phone calls, this potential spying appears to be applied wholesale to all sorts of internet communications of countless citizens."

Here is a 29 page pdf document that Klein has written with technical information about the spying program above.

http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/homefront/etc/kleindoc.pdf

Starting last fall in my journals, I have been warning about a Congressional attempt to cover up the Bush administration’s domestic spying program. Despite a massive outpouring of protests from their Democratic constituents, Senate Democrats have continued to bring the issue up for a vote again and again, as if hoping the sneak the measure through. Yesterday, while Democrats were engaged with the 2008 primary, they succeeded. Here is a list of the Democratic Senators who voted Yes to Telecom Immunity

Bayh (D-IN)
Carper (D-DE)
Conrad (D-ND)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Webb (D-VA)

Plus a whole lot of Republicans who sold their souls years ago and are probably beyond redemption.

Note that members of the Senate Intelligence Committee have been adamant in favor of telecom immunity while members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have been equally opposed. While some have seen this as representing a difference in priority---Intelligence is more concerned with National Security, Judiciary focuses on upholding Civil Liberties---I think we must consider another possibility.

Obviously, when Dick Cheney, who considers himself the heir to Dick Nixon, institutes a massive domestic spying program, it is for one purpose. He plans to gather blackmail information to use to keep his political enemies, members of the press and businessmen in line, the same way that Nixon gathered blackmail information that he used to keep his many perceived enemies in check. Karl Rove is also a specialist in the use of blackmail. The AT&T program would have been invaluable for both men. With it, they could monitor the political strategies of the Democrats. They could discover secrets of Democratic politicians, their families and friends. They could discover secrets of journalists, their families and friends. Even foreign politicians could be targeted. Community and religious leaders, business leaders---anyone whom the Bush administration needed in their pocket could be monitored.

I think the real difference between Judiciary Committee Senators and Intelligence Committee Senators is the former are all skilled lawyers. They know the law. They know how to avoid breaking the law. They know never to put anything incriminating in writing—or in email or in a telephone conversation. And they have taught their families the same things. Other members of the Senate may not have been so careful.

No crime need have been committed for Karl Rove and Dick Cheney to use blackmail to influence a vote or a recommendation or buy a reporters silence. Remember the ludicrous Martha Stewart trial and incarceration? I believe that was meant to serve as a warning. What moderately wealthy to rich person has not received a call from their stock broker or financial adviser saying “Sell”? Suddenly, every one of those “sell” or “buy” calls is a potential Martha Stewart case. Now, this is just a what if, but what if John Kerry decided to challenge the Ohio 2004 results and Karl Rove got on the phone and said “We know that your wife’s financial consultant had insider info that he passed to your wife”? Who is more important? An election or his wife? Maybe the election, but if it was a reporter who had a damaging story about Bush and he had to chose between the story and his wife, the story would go in the shredder. What if John Edwards was the last candidate Rove wanted to run against, because with both Edwards being skilled attorneys, they had never left anything incriminating for the Bush administration to use against them?

The Martha Stewart prosecution alone was probably enough to send chills down the spines of dozens, maybe hundreds of people whom the Bush administration wanted to control. In the cozy, incestuous worlds of New York and DC, where everyone knows everyone else, it is probably common for people to overhear other people gossiping about business news that can affect the price of stock and then pass that information around.

Other easy blackmail targets include adult children who may be gay or substance abusers or have had convictions for embarrassing crimes such as sexual assault. Virtuous Congressmen may have dissolute family members or best friends. Same for members of the press. They do not want to see their loved ones pilloried.

Now, the Bush administration insists upon retroactive immunity, not because they worry that the telecoms will go broke. More than likely federal courts will rule that AT&T and Verizon are exempt since they were doing the federal government’s bidding. The reason for the immunity is to same reason why it was so important to recall Gov. Gray Davis of California and replace him with the Terminator. The Bush administration controls the criminal federal courts, but it does not control the civil courts. If the Enron case had ended up in civil court, the truth about how Bush, Cheney, Rove, White and the FERC hand picked by Ken Lay conspired to help Enron price gouge California would have come out. By keeping the Enron case in federal criminal courts, the DOJ made sure that the issue of the California price gouging never came up.

In the same way, the Bush administration is now desperate to keep illegal domestic spying out of the civil court system, because it does not control the civil courts. In the civil courts, the truth about warrantless wiretaps could be revealed. America might come to understand that they have been the victims of a Big Brother blackmail scheme that started well in advance of 9/11, whose sole purpose was to consolidate Dick Cheney’s power.

I do not know for sure that any of the Democrats above are being blackmailed with information obtained through domestic spying, but the odds are good that it is happening. If you add in all the journalists across the country and all the politicians and people who run local elections and community leaders, you can be certain that some of them have caught up in the net that Dick Cheney and Karl Rove have cast. Just think of what might happen if the people in charge of a Democratic precinct have been blackmailed. You could get funny vote totals, chaos, a fudged recount---and these guys could be Democrats.

If there was nothing illegal or immoral about what the administration was doing, why would they be at such pains to keep it secret from the American public which---let’s be clear about this---is supposed to be in charge. Cheney and Rove and Bush are our public servants. They serve at our whim. We should be able to close down that spying room whenever we feel like it. If we can not, then we are living in a Totalitarian State.

The ball is in the House of Representative’s court, now that the Senate has buckled under to administrative pressure. Please, John Conyers, stay strong. America must have a chance to learn the truth about what is going on behind that closed door.

[AndyTiedye]

1. That is the "Other" Secret Program that Was Mentioned in Ashcroft's Hospital Conversations

That is why they demanded that they be allowed to spy on us without any oversight, even from the FISA court. The FISA court would never allow that sort of thing!

Our Congress is being blackmailed.

Kicked and recommended.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. We can't stop it because we are powerless.

If we are unable to stop the corruption that is happening under our noses in our own backyards, how can we begin to stop it at a federal level?

[me b zola]

3. K&R

:(

[peacetalksforall]

4. There is no tin foil hypothesizing here. You have nailed part of the problem.

Very well written though I'm sorry that more people are not reading it.

I say part of the problem because I have one of those sick feelings that some of the Dem leaders were planted and/or allowed in - as in allowed to win - so that they could vote with Republicans.

I can no longer believe that they are voting for their constituency. Look at the votes in Louisiana and Nebraska - red states turning out a win for Obama? Is it possible that those Dem leaders are more right and Republican and are trying to appeal to.

If anyone knows someone who has compared primary turnout and votes to the way these entrenched elected leaders vote - I'd welcome a link.

I think it may be blackmail P:US a Republican sponsorship of these elected Dems who continue to make me feel hopeless about our leaders.

What if Obama or Clinton gets in and these people are still there. By these people, I mean the ones on this list who always vote with Republicans and often vote with Republicans and who do not stand out as Democrats in any way, other than a label.

k & r

[balantz]

25. I agree about the probability of many more recent Democrats in Congress

being elected as a "D", but actually having been selected to run as Democrats, only to turn out to act like Republicans.

Anything and everything that can help the regime remain in power is surely being used.

[leveymg]

36. Problem isn't the Dems "allowed in", it's the Dem leadership who were "read-in".

For Congressional leadership, the threat of prosecution for agreeing to the The Program is enough. For the membership, the threat of retaliation by the leadership if they don't go along suffices. Blackmail isn't even necessary.

In intelligence lingo, to be "read-in" means that that a classified program is revealed to you, and you agree to keep it secret under the terms of a standard government security agreement.

However, being read-in sometimes holds some risk. If the classified program isn't entirely legal, that potentially makes you a co-conspirator in a crime. Unless, you can make the crime go away.

It came out about six weeks ago that key Democratic leaders -- the senior Dems on the House and Senate Intel Commitees (Harmon and Rockefeller)and the Minority Leaders in the House and Senate (Pelosi and Reid) -- were read into the detainee torture program. Along with four of their Republican colleagues. Harmon claimed she opposed destruction of the tapes. Similarly, Rockefeller recently produced a dated letter about the warrantless wiretapping Program after he was told about it in 2002 (the letter basically says he didn't really understand what he was being told and agreed to), which he put in a safe.

The fact is, the wiretapping immunity bill is CYA by the leadership. The rest of the members know what the leadership will do to them if they don't go along with the immunity legislation. The House leadership has considerably less discipline than the Senate, so there may be some chance that immunity doesn't make it through the conference Bill. We'll see.

[L. Coyote]

5. CORRECTION: "every communication within the United States was funneled through a single room"

A single room in SF office had all fiber optic communications at that major hub split and the split went SOMEWHERE!

This is done in ALL major communications facilities with major fiber optic trunk lines. In no way does "every communication within the United States" ever end up "funneled through a single room" in the US at least. I was first informed of this years ago, and my informant said the communications are moved outside US jurisdiction, where it is not illegal to spy on EVERY IOTA.

So, according to my informant, it ends up in at a very vast IA facility "somewhere", but not a room in the US.

[Disturbed]

6. Thirty two Violations of the FISA Law swept under the filthy rug.

That is thirty two Felonies committed by the Pres. of the US!

[L. Coyote]

7. That's 32 re-authorizations of an illegal program, right? How many violations of

the Constitution AND the law is a matter of how many people had their privacy violated. That number is greater than the number of Americans, no doubt.

I wonder when someone outside the US will file suit on this, against the US, Bush, and the Telecom Corps?

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

37. 32 we know of,....many the administration is determined to keep secret.

:grr:

[Sam Ervin jret]

20. And lots of very special software applied to it as well, let's play connect the dots.

But lots of people are talking about it. Just no one in power or in main stream media. And as usual no one is DOING anything about it.

i thought it unwise to let any congressman go in and talk to the white house about this FISA. they went in opposed to this and came out saying "well....maybe " I thought I was watching "Congressional Invaders of the Body Snatchers." i was expecting to see "pod people" everywhere.

I was hoping that when the congress in August made this FISA legislation it was to get "actual legal evidence" that could be used in a court of law against the administration and it's illegal activities. But the date is late and not a thing has happened. Once again I fear my hopes for the Democratic Congress actually doing it's job seem to be for nothing.

[mojowork_n]

31. You're right. There was an interview on "60 Minutes" a few months ago.

At least I'm pretty sure it was 60 Minutes. There was a guy who'd just retired from the phone company, out east somewhere, maybe New Jersey.

Pretty typical looking Boomer, sitting in a chair, all by himself on camera facing an off-screen interviewer. He seemed a bit saggy-looking in the shoulders and upper torso, but he really brightened up when he got a chance to tell his story.

He'd waited until he'd retired to play 'whistle blower'. When he and his crew had been wiring up a new telephone exchange, some remarkably truculent gentlemen in long black leather trench coats, with a peculiarly guttural manner of speaking (OK, I'm making that part up) had told him to take one major relay junction, something that routed all of the telephone traffic for a multi-state area (?) -- and add a second junction.

So there were two out-going branches for routine traffic, one to carry all the signals normally, and another, duplicate branch that disappeared behind a concrete block wall, carrying all the same traffic.

I posted this in another thread here, a few weeks ago, and someone else had seen the same interview. They thought the program was 60 Minutes, too.

[leveymg]

39. No, that was only the AT&T long-distance lines, and those others that are carried on the same system

By no means did every telcom message in the US go through that switching station in San Francisco. But, that was still millions and millions of calls.

[ooglymoogly]

8. giving any of these monstrous criminals the benefit

of the doubt is a deadly mistake.

[Phred42]

9. Because Half the Dems are Cowards, the Other half are actually

Republican posing as Dems, and there is no Democratic 'Leadership.

Reid and Pelosi are incompetent and simply NOT qualified for their jobs. They both must go - ASAP

Make no mistake - They are are applying the coup de grâce to Democracy.

They are making DAMNED SURE that the next President and congress - no matter how democratic, moral, Constitutional and well intentioned they are, well NEVER BE ABLE TO RETURN US TO Democracy.

[leftofthedial]

10. 2000 was a coup

[Phred42]

11. Correct!

A bloodless Judicial Coup.

Welcome to the New World Order and the North American Union.

[Echo In Light]

15. Takes two to tango

[frog92969]

12. K&R

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

13. I found this from April 10, 2001 on the Wayback Machine

ACLU Ads Warn Of "Massive" Government Cyber-Snooping - Government Activity

April 10, 2001

Ratcheting up its attack on government cyber-surveillance efforts, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is launching a print and Internet advertising campaign that warns of "massive" government monitoring efforts.

In a full-page ad set to debut later this month in issues of The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine, the ACLU warns that government e-surveillance programs like "Carnivore" and "Echelon" are encroaching on Fourth Amendment protections against "unwarranted government surveillance."

"We are clearly trying to raise public awareness about the extent of the government's capacity for (electronic) eavesdropping," Steinhardt told Newsbytes today. "We're trying to focus the attention of the (Bush) administration and the Republican leadership."

House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, agrees with the concerns raised by the ACLU, Armey aide Richard Diamond said today. "I think this is a good time to focus on government privacy abuses," Diamond said, adding that the Majority Leader looks forward to those issues being taken up sometime during this Congress.

Specifically, the ACLU wants Congress and the Justice Department to turn up the heat on the FBI for its use of the controversial e-mail surveillance device, "Carnivore."

The ACLU advertisement bears a picture of a wireless phone under the legend "Now Equipped With 3-Way Calling. You, Whoever You're Dialing And the Government."

http://web.archive.org/web/20041229032855/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NEW/is_2001_April_10/ai_73076308

[McCamy Taylor]

16. Good catch. They needed 9 /11 to silence people like the ACLU. If Enron had gone

bankrupt without 9/11, Bush-Cheney would have lost Congress in 2002 and the WH in 2004.

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

24. thanks, I actually found this last night

and thought it ironic to see your post today.

I wondered what the circumstances were that took Dick Armey out of Congress and WiKi had info he'd resigned in 2002, and this:

In his last legislative effort, he was named chairman of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security and was the primary sponsor of the legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security.


Has me thinking for sure.

[mmonk]

17. That IS a great find. Good work.

[mmonk]

14. One of the ways tyrants shut down democracies is by

a security apparatus. Nothing in our current system is working in terms of a check and balance currently (no branch of government). And now it is exploding as a new "security industrial complex". Where there is money involved, we the people don't stand a chance right now.

[lonestarnot]

18. Private security/prison slave labor industrial complex.

Keep you passport updated, and never surrender.

[mmonk]

19. It is.

Don't know if I'll get permission to fly outside the country once the "list" is in their hands and we have to ask the stste.

[lonestarnot]

33. Guess we'll have to sneak across the Mexican border!

[paparush]

21. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

[baldguy]

22. What do the Bushies have on these people?

Don't make the mistake of believing the illegal wiretapping is going after the average American. It isn't.

And its not going after "terrorists".

It goes after the neocon's political opponents.

This is the next step in the fascist takeover of America.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

23. K&R n/t

[balantz]

26. It all makes good sense.

And I don't think you even scratched the surface on the many kinds of blackmail possible.

I would even go so far as to say there were offers that couldn't be refused that framed many in a bad way, and now they don't dare step over the line. Meaning the manipulation is total and goes beyond just fishing the lines and catching chance hits.

[bonito]

27. Kick n/t

[McCamy Taylor]

28. Looks like the phone companies are blackmailing them directly on net neutrality, too.

The candidates can always fall back on the old "Money talks" belief about Washington politics, but when so many members of the Democratic base have been such ardent supporters of something like net neutrality and then their newly elected Democratic Congress gives it all away to the Phone Company, you just have to assume that the Phone Company is using the information they acquired illegally to blackmail them.

I am afraid that the only solution is to vote out of office all the Democrats that are going along with the telecoms and replace them with new Democrats---people whom the Bush administration may not have bothered to spy upon. And try for practicing attorneys. They are very cautious people.

[Senator]

29. K&R&ImpeachNow

[Usrename]

30. Insider trading is another huge motive.

I remember when Frist and Hastert had the day traders working out of their offices, and we all know how Dubya got away with dumping all of his holdings in Harken Energy.

Does anyone doubt that they are also collecting insider information to make lots and lots of money?

[elehhhhna]

45. The temptation to do some Corporate spying is probably too great for them to pass up...

Easy to flip some info to Halliburton or Carlyle Group, right?

[Kolesar]

32. Paul Craig Roberts - A Gestapo Administration

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts01022006.html
...excerpt...
Why would President Bush ignore the law and the FISA court? It is certainly not because the court in its three decades of existence was uncooperative. According to attorney Martin Garbus (New York Observer, 12-28-05), the secret court has issued more warrants than all federal district judges combined, only once denying a warrant.
...snip...
One reason is that the Bush administration is being used to concentrate power in the executive. The old conservative movement, which honors the separation of powers, has been swept away. Its place has been taken by a neoconservative movement that worships executive power.

The other reason is that the Bush administration could not go to the FISA secret court for warrants because it was not spying for legitimate reasons and, therefore, had to keep the court in the dark about its activities.

What might these illegitimate reasons be? Could it be that the Bush administration used the spy apparatus of the US government in order to influence the outcome of the presidential election?

Could we attribute the feebleness of the Democrats as an opposition party to information obtained through illegal spying that would subject them to blackmail?
...snip...
Paul Craig Roberts has held a number of academic appointments and has contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. His graduate economics education was at the University of Virginia, the University of California at Berkeley, and Oxford University. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.

[mod mom]

34. I am LIVID beyond belief over this! I'm not surprised by the usual DLC lackeys BUT WHY

Webb and McCaskill?

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

35. What if the so-called "CTs" were right and we have been set up for dictatorship?

My heart sank to my stomach, yesterday, when the house failed to pass an extension. You know damn well the pressure is really going to laid on thick: "terror, terror, terrorists". I even worried that, should the administration please, a terrorist attack will become real, coincidentally, during the period of expiration of the former FISA act.

I kid you not. I feel threatened,...not by a potential terrorist act but rather by my own government's activities.

I have been exposed to AMPLE evidence of record, all ready in public sphere, proving to me without a shadow of doubt that this administration has repeatedly abused its power and committed crimes against me as a member of WE THE PEOPLE in violation of the laws of this nation. I have no doubt whatsoever that this administration has violated FISA along with its co-conspirators, the telecoms. I have no doubt whatsoever that those violations have absolutely NOTHING to do with protecting the American people but rather EVERYTHING to do with asserting power and control over this nation.

I join you in asking Conyers and ALL member of the house to be resolute in protecting this nation and her people from dictatorship, from those who are willing to violate our basic constitutional rights and liberties.

[f the letter]

38. Really nice post

People should be in the streets over this. Retroactive immunity for doing something completely illegal and unconstitutional? Way to go, congress.

i'm skeptical that the reason the wiretapping is happening is to blackmail Democratic leadership though..

The worst thing about this is how many of our own Democratic senators voted in favor of immunity. That is amazing. You can call it 'administrative pressure' but i think that implies they have some reason to buckle other than their own collusion and spinelessness. i expected this nonsense vote from the republicans, but this is fucking stupid. Wish there were something a bit better than harassing John Conyers via phone and email that we could do.

[Kolesar]

40. The communications industry is a powerful lobby and they can break a politician with their lies

...and misreporting. Something has got to be done to break up the TV broadcasters trusts and spread the ownership around.

[McCamy Taylor]

42. Previous poster hit nail on head. Fisa court would OK any legitimate reason. Blackmail is only

thing that FISA court would not give rubber stamp retroactive authorization. Say for instance the Bush administration wanted to wiretap all known members of Al Qaeda. They could do this without a warrant---and when something showed up, they could go to FISA and say "Lookie what we found!" and FISA would say "What good boys you are! Here is your authorization."

But if Karl Rove wanted to wiretap Democratic National Headquarters fax machines and emails and phone calls and if he found something good, there is no way that FISA would ever in a million years tell him "Hey, like that tidbit you found about how the Dems are gonna spend $15 million in Ohio and concentrate on the economy with a big TV ad campaign the week of September 21. OK, here is your authorization."

And FISA would not be amused at the DOJ gathering info about journalist's sex lives and drug use or about the financial transactions of candidate's (such as Feinstien and Kerry) spouses.

Wiretap could discover that the persons in charge of elections in a bunch of Ohio Democratic precincts had 1. internet gambling 2. internet porn 3. homosexuality problems. These revelations could be used in a presidential election to force them to go along with anything that that states GOP SOS wanted to do.

[donkeyotay]

41. As CT after CT turn out to be true, I wonder about whether this siphon

worked both ways. If they could siphon info out, could they siphon info in? Votes, for instance?

[McCamy Taylor]

43. MSM TV coverage of GOP House walk out for FISA interesting. CNN covered Dem pow

as would be expected since the Bush administration has been attempting to reward the Phone Companies for their part in domestic spying by seizing control of the nation's cable business (via the FCC) and rewriting the rules to favor a take over of AOL-Time Warner's lucrative cable business by the telecoms like AT&T. Therefore, while CSPAN should the orchestrated GOP walkout with speeches, etc., CNN showed Pelosi talking about protecting the US Constitution and abuses of power by the WH (presumably in both the areas of FISA and the Contempt of Congress measure) and CNN quoted Harry Reid as saying that the failure to pass a new FISA bill just means that we revert back to old FISA which will keep the country safe.

However, even MSNBC, which is supporting McCain, did not cover the dog and pony show put on in front of Congress for the benefit of the telecoms and the Bush administration, making me wonder if GE/MSNBC also has a bone to pick with AT&T and Verizon. Do they, as another rival communication giant, think that the Phone Companies have gotten too big for their britches under Bush-Cheney as well?

Oh, and a big thank you in advance to Conyers and Pelosi, because it looks like they are going to stay strong.

[Mezzo]

44. Barbara Mikulski is dead to me

I'll never vote for her again. Her vote on the Bankruptcy Bill was bad enough, but this takes the cake.

Thank you for such a great thread.

I hope we can all organize against these traitors. Last election cycle, a phrase got coined on us: swiftboating. This time, and in the coming months, I say we introduce our dems to a new term: primaried. Like Al Wynn in Maryland's 1st Congressional District got primaried. Joe Lieberman got primaried.

These traitors to the Constitution need to get primaried. All 13 of them.

[McCamy Taylor]

46. For Cheney, the worst thing would be full disclosure. Then Congress would outlaw what he did. Public

would demand it. Recall the half hearted attempt to regulate the power of the executive branch in the wake of Watergate. If there is an actual civil case with full disclosure and if the public realizes just how much data was mined you will see the public demand legislation making it illegal for anyone to ever do anything like this again. Plus, you will see a bunch of retailers begin offering security devises to make it harder for people to spy on you.

The advocates of the fascist totalitarian state know that we could get a 60 plus Dem senate and a Dem president next fall. That means next year we could get legislation outlawing what Cheney did with AT&T.

That is probably the biggest reason why the fascists and the information brokers want to make sure that this never ever gets into a civil court. Money is a concern but a secondary concern. They do not want Americans learning the truth.