No Immunity For Telcos (Nor For Bushco) Yet

The Bushies have been wiretapping every single packet on the internet, not to mention all other forms of electronic communication, since on or thereabouts 27 February 2001, over 8 months before the WTC 9/11 attacks, and they've been doing this spying w/o warrants as well, contrary to FISA at the time and contrary to the 4^th amendment as well. That's not an opinion, that is a fact and if you disagree, you simply haven't been paying attention. Last August just prior to the traditional August congressional recess the Democratic majority was railroaded into passing the Protect America Act of 2007 (don'cha just love those Bush euphemisms?) which legalized what the Bushies had been doing all along & progressives like myself were once again disgusted that the new Democratic majority would cave once again so easily to fear mongering and other garbage. (Ohh, those scary Moooooslims are gonna kill us all!). Fortunately the bill that was passed and signed was 1) only for a 6-month extension and 2) did not include retroactive immunity for the telcos meaning civil lawsuits against the telcos could proceed. The reason these civil suits are important has nothing to do with financial damages per se, their importance is that in light of all the presidential stonewalling (executive privilege, state secrets), these lawsuits are the only way any information about these illegal & unconstitutional spying programs will come to light.

Bush has been demanding a permanent extension to these wiretapping/spying rules and retroactive amnesty for the telcos as well. This of course would throw out any and all lawsuits against these the telcos meaning the plaintiffs would automatically lose any and all rights of discovery as well, meaning Bush, Cheney & all their minions would escape any liability as well for their illegal spying as all information would be hidden. The Democrats were expected to cave again on another extension + retroactive amnesty for the telcos but apparently Mitch McConnell pushed a little too hard and today, the Democrats in the Senate stood up to the Republican's filibuster tactics and refused to vote for cloture which in effect scuttled the retroactive amnesty for the telcos along with the PAA extension. Furthermore McConnell managed to scuttle any PAA extension at all, at least for now, meaning Bush's warrantless spying will once again be illegal as of 01 February 2008. 44 Dems and 1 Rethug, Spector, voted against cloture. TPM has a brief summary of what happened plus lots of other articles (please search their site) about FISA. No, the issue is not over, but dollars to doughnuts, tonight in GW's SOTU address, we'll hear a line about how Democrats are freedom-hating terrorist-lovers who want a new terrorist attack against America. Also, McConnell blocked any short-term extension at this time to the PAA law, meaning FISA reverts to the existing rules as of 01 February 2008.

Wow, 44 Democrats (& 1 Republican, Spector) stood up for the Constitution. Please note the 4 "Democrats" who did not:

Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Ben Nelson (D-NE)
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
Mary Landrieu (D-LA)

these sorry-ass folks need another job!

Why Financial Crises Will Keep Happening

Ian Welsh made a point back on 6 January 2008, one that I seem to agree with - Once upon a time, the United States had a tax code that would whack one with an income level above a certain amount at a rate of 90%; there were scandals and ripoffs to be sure (Billie Sol Estes or Robert Vesco anyone?), yet for the most part major financial scandals after 1940 in my opinion were local and contained, restricted to either individuals or small groups, not on a national scale like today. While this upper bracket tax rate had been fiddled with in the the intervening years, it wasn't until Saint Ronald that this upper tax rate declined from (then) 70% to 28% (Reaganomics. scroll down a little) - all of a sudden we get the S&L scandal, BCCI, the dot.com bubble, and now, the mortgage bubble. Funny. do you think these "bubbles" are a coincidence that the folks that took home the money (loot) were taxed on it from 10% (dividends) to 28% max, do ya think that maybe that's why these 'bubbles' occurred in the first place? Well? I quote Ian -

What would you do, or rather, what wouldn't you do, if you knew that by working hard for five years you'd have enough money that you need never, ever, work again for the rest of your life? Not just that, but for most executives, you would be rich. Want a house on the Riviera? Want to spend the rest of your life traveling? Have a hobby? Whatever it is, you'll be able to indulge it, because you'll be rich and money is freedom.

So even if, in the end, Merrill Lynch was going to be stuck with a bunch of bad debt, or Citigroup was going to have problems, why should you give a damn? Making record profits for a few years allows you pay yourself, or to be awarded commissions and bonuses, that add up to more money than a normal person earns in 45 years.

From the perspective of self-interest you'd have to be a fool not to do it. And for most people, even some CEOs, even if you don't like it you'd still be a fool not to do it, because if you opt out, someone else will just take your place, run the scams and reap the windfall of ill-gotten gains.

What Really Protects Your Privacy?

Let's say the government wants to spy on you but doesn't care to 'bother' with a warrant. What protects you from them? The laws? The courts? Privacy agreements with your telco? Guess again - How about the government not paying their bills?

Yikes.

Update 26 February - fixed link

Sibel Edmonds Speaks!

I hate wearing the tinfoil hat, but any sane person who has been paying attention knows that there have been strange doings afoot in these United States for quite some time. Starting around the time of the original 'October Surprise' (1980), next came Iran-Contra & the rise of the cocaine trade by our Contra 'allies', the demise of BCCI, the S&L debacle, strange doings in Panama around 1989, the 9/11 attacks, the anthrax attacks, the lead-up to the illegal war in Iraq, the authorized use of torture by the United States government - all these things have received lengthy 'investigations' but never do we the people get the honest truth behind these shady dealings, these 'investigations' always somehow peter out before the entire truth and precise range of complicity is publicly revealed. We do not even have the precise membership nor plan of action from Cheney's energy task force meetings in the spring of 2001. You may quibble with the details but no sane honest person can truthfully deny that serious details from all these 'investigations' are seriously lacking, and I'm not about to discuss the massive spying on United States' citizens by the Bushies.

Sibel Edmonds was hired by the FBI to translate secret intercepts 20 September 2001. She is fluent in Turkish, Persian and Azeri. She was fired by the FBI 22 March 2002 for (official) reasons unknown but she had complained repeatedly to her superiors that the intercepts she was translating involved massive bribes to US government officials, evidence of moles & spies throughout the state, defense & justice departments, evidence of government (US, Turkey & others) involvement, and transfer of US nuclear secrets to the A.Q.Khan network in Pakistan, the nice guys who supplied North Korea, Pakistan, Iran & Libyan nuclear weapons programs. Her reward as a whistleblower was to be slapped with a State Secrets Privilege gag order that prohibits her from speaking this information. She has tried many times to get a public hearing on this information but she has met with a strangely reticent Democratic congress, despite promises to the contrary, even Congressman Waxman has been unwilling to hear her testimony. (Remember Valerie Plame Wilson? She and her front company Brewster-Jennings were working on nuclear weapons proliferation in that very same region when she was outed by Armitage & Rove on the presumed instructions of Cheney - oops! Yet another incomplete investigation)

Ms. Edmonds finally published part of her story in the UK Timesonline 06 January 2008 which you can read here. There is also useful commentary & names named at Let Sibel Edmonds Speak, The Brad Blog & Antiwar.com among others and the list is certain to grow. I f you are interested in this topic may I recommend you view & possibly print these links as I am not certain exactly how long these links will be live. I will not attempt to quote or paraphrase, there's just too much information there.

Welcome to the future - flying cars my ass...

Update 10 January 2008
Tin foil hat mein arse - it's down the rabbit hole we go! Let's start with Chris Floyd's take on this in which he shows strong links between Sibel's stuff and our old friends at BCCI including links to both the Carter presidency (Bert Lance) and our old buddy Henry Kissinger. (Here (thanks to the FAS) is the entire unexpurgated Senator John Kerry's CFR report on BCCI circa December 1992)

Oh look, it's the White Rabbit and he's late! Time to go! I bring you AMERICAN JUDAS 2nd Edition, a well researched & linked post that ties in way too many elements, from AIPAC to Dick Cheney with a special bonus of the 9/11 conspiracy and its plotters, funders & links to the actual terrorists themselves...

Wouldn't you love to read the history books a hundred years from now? Let me leave you with a quote from the Let Sibel Edmonds Speak article -

"Let me repeat that for emphasis: The #3 guy at the State Dept (Mark Grossman) facilitated the immediate release of 9/11 suspects at the request of targets of the FBI's investigation." - "Sibel heard the targets tell Marc Grossman: 'We need to get them out of the US because we can't afford for them to spill the beans.' Grossman duly facilitated their release from jail and the suspects immediately left the country without further investigation or interrogation."

Oh, wait a minute - isn't it the liberal progressives like me who are supposed to hate America?

Update 18 January 2008
Some more info regarding the transfer of nuclear technology through Turkish & Pakistani companies. Still nothing in the United States press however...

Update 18 August 2008
Sibel Edmonds Case: FBI files "formal complaint" with Sunday Times at Daily Kos. Why do you suppose the FBI has a problem w/Ms. Edmunds talking to the London Times, eh? Might that be yet another indication that she might be telling the (inconvenient) truth?

Update 25 August 2008
bmaz at Marcie Wheeler's Emptywheel has a superb post up in which we learn, thanks to The New York Times & others, that

The president of Switzerland stepped to a podium in Bern last May and read a statement confirming rumors that had swirled through the capital for months. The government, he acknowledged, had indeed destroyed a huge trove of computer files and other material documenting the business dealings of a family of Swiss engineers suspected of helping smuggle nuclear technology to Libya and Iran.

The files were of particular interest not only to Swiss prosecutors but to international atomic inspectors working to unwind the activities of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani bomb pioneer-turned-nuclear black marketeer. The Swiss engineers, Friedrich Tinner and his two sons, were accused of having deep associations with Dr. Khan, acting as middlemen in his dealings with rogue nations seeking nuclear equipment and expertise.
...
The United States had urged that the files be destroyed, according to interviews with five current and former Bush administration officials. The purpose, the officials said, was less to thwart terrorists than to hide evidence of a clandestine relationship between the Tinners and the C.I.A.

I'm getting tired of updating this nightmare, when will it all end? In a giant smokin' crater?? The powers-that-be missed the powers & profits that came with the cold war so much they squandered their fellow citizens’ blood & treasure in order to create a new ‘cold war’.