sept 11

The WSJ has an interesting article explaining how the NSA has been increasing their spying power. One thing I found really interesting was at the start of the article:

Five years ago, Congress killed an experimental Pentagon antiterrorism program meant to vacuum up electronic data about people in the U.S. to search for suspicious patterns. Opponents called it too broad an intrusion on Americans' privacy, even after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But the data-sifting effort didn't disappear. The National Security Agency, once confined to foreign surveillance, has been building essentially the same system.

The central role the NSA has come to occupy in domestic intelligence gathering has never been publicly disclosed. But an inquiry reveals that its efforts have evolved to reach more broadly into data about people's communications, travel and finances in the U.S. than the domestic surveillance programs brought to light since the 2001 terrorist attacks

So what the NSA is doing was basically killed by Congress five years ago. Yeah - if they won't let one agency do it, just have another agency pick it up. This is just another example of how Bush has no respect for the law, the Constitution or this country.

Al Qaeda won the war on terror. It's over. They knew Americans were a bunch of over reactionary twits and would destroy this country after their attacks on 9/11. Their biggest ally was, and still is, George W. Bush. America should be ashamed to have given in to the terrorists so easily.

As well as violating the rights of U.S. Citizens:

The Bush administration is urging Congress to pass a law that would halt dozens of lawsuits charging phone companies with invading ordinary citizens' privacy through a post-Sept. 11 warrantless surveillance program.

The measure is part of a legislative package drafted by the Justice Department to relax provisions in the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that restrict the administration's ability to intercept electronic communications in the United States. If passed, the proposed changes would forestall efforts to compel disclosure of the program's details through Congress or the court system.

The proposal states that "no action shall lie . . . in any court, and no penalty . . . shall be imposed . . . against any person" for giving the government information, including customer records, in connection with alleged intelligence activity the attorney general certifies "is, was, would be or would have been" intended to protect the United States from terrorist attack. The measure, which has not yet been filed, is contained in a proposed amendment to the fiscal 2008 intelligence authorization bill.

Bush can want all he wants from this Congress, but until he starts to give in return and stop threatening to veto every Democratic bill, he won't get shit. True I am sure he will show his usual level of maturity by stomping his feet in front of the camera and doing his typical name calling.

There are so many 9/11 conspiracies out there that it is impossible to keep track of them all. I have read everything from the administration hired the hijackers to there was C4 planted inside of the World Trade Towers.

I am not one that prescribes to these theories. I do believe that the administration had more knowledge of what was about to happen then they let on to and had a seriously flawed response, but these ideas that people planted explosives to take down the towers are absurd (and I do not need people making a big ordeal over what C4 can do. I have actually handled C4 and am trained in explosive ordinance disposal).

Now having said all that. Even if the administration hired hijackers and planted C4 inside the WTC, we will never know. These are the kind of things the government will make sure the American people never know because of the ramifications it holds. This country would erupt and we would be facing civil war like conditions if something like this ever came out.

So why bring this up? Well some of my fears about that day are looking more true. This is from today's Washington Post:

Some staff members and commissioners of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon's initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public rather than a reflection of the fog of events on that day, according to sources involved in the debate.

It looks like the warrentless taps are starting to get their real test. That
test is being conducted where they belong - in our court system:

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A federal judge gave the government two months to
respond to an Ohio trucker's request that his terrorism conviction be thrown
out on grounds that the government illegally spied on him.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema cited "the potentially weighty issues
raised in the defendant's motion" in an order Wednesday that set a 60-day
timetable for the government to respond to Iyman Faris' arguments.

Faris' challenge is among the first to seek evidence of warrantless
electronic eavesdropping by the National Security Agency, a practice that
began after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Government officials have reportedly credited eavesdropping with
uncovering terrorist plots, including one by Faris to destroy the Brooklyn
Bridge. Critics say President Bush didn't have authority to order the
wiretaps, but he has staunchly defended the practice.

Article continues
here

Faris is of course one of the men convicted for his part in a plan to "blow
up" the Brooklyn Bridge. Of course the real plan was dismantling the bridge with
blow torches. This will really turn into something if the judge decides to let
him go free because evidence was obtained illegally. It will also be a massive
blow to the administration and their claims of authority to wiretap without
warrant.

How can we trust the President when he constantly lies to us? Last month he
told the people of this country that Congress had access to the same
intelligence about Iraq that he did. That was proven a lie a couple weeks ago
when a nonpartisan congressional investigation group released a report stating
the President has access to "far greater amounts" of intelligence than congress.

Now we find out about a lie he told in his press conference on Monday to
justify his illegal wiretapping program:

President Bush asserted this week that the news media published a U.S.
government leak in 1998 about Osama bin Laden's use of a satellite phone,
alerting the al Qaeda leader to government monitoring and prompting him to
abandon the device.

The story of the vicious leak that destroyed a valuable intelligence
operation was first reported by a best-selling book, validated by the Sept.
11 commission and then repeated by the president.

But it appears to be an urban myth.

The al Qaeda leader's communication to aides via satellite phone had
already been reported in 1996 -- and the source of the information was
another government, the Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan at the time.

The second time a news organization reported on the satellite phone, the
source was bin Laden himself.

Causal effects are hard to prove, but other factors could have persuaded
bin Laden to turn off his satellite phone in August 1998. A day earlier, the
United States had fired dozens of cruise missiles at his training camps,
missing him by hours.