A Pattern of Abuse of Surveillance by the Regime

[AndyTiedye]

Recently Bush** has admitted to illegal monitoring of communications, in violation of the FISA statute.
Indications are that they are running a massive data mining operation.
Can we trust them not to abuse all that information???

Can we trust them not to use it for political advantage, as they did with the information they stole
from the Senate Dems' computer system:

Another GOP Break-in vs. Dems
Reuters 2003-11-26 18:49:00.0

A top Senate Republican expressed "deep regret" Tuesday in announcing that an internal investigation of computer records found that one of his staffers had "improperly accessed" Democratic documents... (and) a former staffer "may also have been involved," but he declined to identify either person.

"I am mortified that this improper, unethical and simply unacceptable breach of confidential files may have occurred on my watch," the Utah Republican told a news conference. Hatch said the staffer who obtained access to the memos denied giving them to the news media, and it remained unclear how reporters got them.

The disclosure came a week after congressional law enforcement authorities began looking into what Democrats called an apparent computer theft of 14 staff memos critical of President Bush's embattled judicial nominees.
...
"It is with deep regret I must report today the interviews conducted to date have revealed that at least one current member of Judiciary Committee majority staff had improperly accessed at least some of the documents referenced in the media reports," Hatch said.
...

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,61382,00.html...


Imagine the commercial value of all that information! It would be worth more than all the gold in Fort Knox! I hope they are taking better care of it than they were in this case:

Applied: Arrests overdue

The chairman and chief executive officer of Palm Beach technology company Applied Digital Solutions (Nasdaq: ADSXE) said news of the arrests of individuals who may have manipulated Applied shares is long overdue.
On Wednesday, Reuters reported an FBI special agent and former agent were among five people indicted for using confidential law-enforcement information to operate an insider stock market trading and extortion ring.

Although Reuters said the indictment did not specify which publicly traded companies were targeted, Applied CEO Richard J. Sullivan said the stock manipulation scheme likely hurt shareholders of Applied.

He did not say why he suspected Applied shares were involved in the scheme.

The government accused the suspects of improperly short-selling publicly traded stocks, which involves an investor putting out false rumors about stock and then profiting when that stock price falls. The defendants in the case appear to be based in New York. Kevin Donovan, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI in New York told Reuters the thousands of men and women of the FBI were distressed that a current and a former FBI special agent are among the defendants in the investigation.

http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2002/05/20/daily113.html

This was from 2002. They have been at it for a while.

Then there's this:

NSA's Sharing of Names Raises Questions

All Things Considered, April 26, 2005 · A disturbing detail emerged from confirmation hearings for John Bolton, the nominee for U.N. ambassador. It seems the names of thousands of American citizens mentioned in intelligence-gathering efforts by the National Security Agency were revealed to Bolton and others who sought them. The NSA is normally not allowed to reveal such information. Greg Miller, national security correspondent for the Los Angeles Times.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4620612

and all the surveillance of the antiwar movement, of course.


Congress expressly forbid them from doing this, but they are doing it anyway.

[lvx35]

1. The further decay of the free market ideal

Of course, corporate espionage is going on. You've got Bush in bed with the phone companies with no oversight, and Bush does corporate favors right out in the open, why wouldn't he do it in private?

What's happening is the corporatist state, the merging of corporate power into a monopolistic communist style government regime. It has nothing to do with what conservatives think is going on.

[AndyTiedye]

2. It's Not Capitalism Anymore When Robber Barons Buy the Government

There is another word for that kind of government.
It starts with an F.

[mia]

3. Not forgetting that the "No-fly blacklist snares political activists".

No-fly blacklist snares political activists
Alan Gathright, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, September 27, 2002

A federal "No Fly" list, intended to keep terrorists from boarding planes, is snaring peace activists at San Francisco International and other U. S. airports, triggering complaints that civil liberties are being trampled....

Federal law enforcement officials deny targeting dissidents. They suggested that the activists were stopped not because their names are on the list, but because their names resemble those of suspected criminals or terrorists.

Congress mandated the list as part of last year's Aviation and Transportation Security Act, after two Sept. 11 hijackers on a federal "watch list" used their real names to board the jetliner that crashed into the Pentagon. The alerts about the two men, however, were not relayed to the airlines....

DATABASE OF SUSPICION
The law orders the head of the Transportation Security Administration to work with federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies to share database information on individuals "who may pose a risk to transportation or national security" and relay it to airlines, airports and local law enforcement. It also requires airlines to use the list to identify suspect passengers and "notify appropriate law enforcement agencies, prevent the individual from boarding an aircraft or take other appropriate action."

more


Just another piece of the "Pattern of Abuse of Surveillance by the Regime".
Wasn't Senator Kennedy detained at the airport too? Back then people were just grateful that something was being done to catch the terrorist and didn't complain too much.

Now we know that the insidious pattern of terrorism within our own country was just getting started. It's all about using fear as a mechanism of control. The fear of punishment looms early on.

You better watch out, you better not cry,
You better not pout, I'm telling you why,
Dubya's laws are coming to town....

[izzie]

4. Didn't Bush say HE had stopped e-mailing when he got in office?

Guess we should had known something was going on.

[AndyTiedye]

5. I Don't Think He Used Email BEFORE He Was in Office Either