Some States Have a Sneaky Plan to Stop the NSA

[marmar]

Some States Have a Sneaky Plan to Stop the NSA

Thursday, 23 January 2014 09:56
By Kevin Mathews, Care2 | Report


What are outraged American citizens to do after the federal government has pretty much decided to do nothing to fix the unconstitutional NSA spy program? Get the states involved! A handful of states across the country have already begun devising plans to thwart the dubious agency with state laws, including stopping the NSA facilities’ water and electricity access.

So far, six states (Missouri, California, Oklahoma, Kansas, Washington, and Indiana) have introduced bills that target the NSA. Though they all differ somewhat, each state's bill would impede NSA operations within their boundaries.

In Washington, for example, the bill would attack the NSA on multiple fronts:

* State and local officials would be barred from providing information or “support” to the NSA.
* The NSA would be forbidden from researching and recruiting at state universities.
* Evidence collected by the NSA would be inadmissible in state courts.
* Businesses that have contracts with the state would not be allowed to conduct business with the NSA in any capacity; companies that disobeyed would lose their contracts and face criminal charges.
* Access to water and electricity provided by the state would be cut off altogether.

The last one is particularly a doozy since the buildings would be unable to operate without power and water. NSA’s facility in Utah, for example, requires 1.7 million gallons of water each day. (Forget the warrant-less surveillance for a moment – can we get some eco activists on their case?) Presumably, the NSA would seek these pulled resources from private companies instead, but it would certainly make things more complicated for the agency. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/21397-some-states-have-a-sneaky-plan-to-stop-the-nsa

[Coyotl]

1. Has the NSA found a source for the water they need in Utah?

Last I heard they were unable to. That should have been considered before building the place, but hey ....

[infoviro]

3. That was brilliant, build in the Great Basin desert.

But the reason why the NSA center is located there is access to linguists. Mormons are some of the most poly-lingual people on the planet.

[geek tragedy]

2. the evidentiary one is probably constitutional, the rest are nullificationist loon ideas

that would stand zero chance of standing up in court.

Substitute "Obamacare" or "the ATF" for "the NSA" and you'll see what I mean.

[Historic NY]

4. Won't work......

and about that water thing my town try it they shut down the water to an airport (with military facilities) for non payment after they found they tapped the lines from a spur that fed an adjoining town. It won't work especially if Federal Funds were used in the first place to design, repair, replace or build the system.

[spin]

5. Congress critters should fear the data gathering ablilty of the NSA ...

even more than the average citizen. In the past members of our Congress and even Priesidents were forced to go along with whatever J. Edgar Hoover wished.

It's About Blackmail, Not National Security
By Alfred McCoy, TomDispatch
21 January 14

***snip***

After a quarter of a century of warrantless wiretaps, Hoover built up a veritable archive of sexual preferences among America's powerful and used it to shape the direction of U.S. politics. He distributed a dossier on Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson's alleged homosexuality to assure his defeat in the 1952 presidential elections, circulated audio tapes of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s philandering, and monitored President Kennedy's affair with mafia mistress Judith Exner. And these are just a small sampling of Hoover's uses of scandal to keep the Washington power elite under his influence.

"The moment [Hoover] would get something on a senator," recalled William Sullivan, the FBI's chief of domestic intelligence during the 1960s, "he'd send one of the errand boys up and advise the senator that 'we're in the course of an investigation, and we by chance happened to come up with this data on your daughter...' From that time on, the senator's right in his pocket." After his death, an official tally found Hoover had 883 such files on senators and 722 more on congressmen.

Armed with such sensitive information, Hoover gained the unchecked power to dictate the country's direction and launch programs of his choosing, including the FBI's notorious Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) that illegally harassed the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements with black propaganda, break-ins, and agent provocateur-style violence.

At the end of the Vietnam War, Senator Frank Church headed a committee that investigated these excesses. "The intent of COINTELPRO," recalled one aide to the Church investigation, "was to destroy lives and ruin reputations." These findings prompted the formation, under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, of "FISA courts" to issue warrants for all future national security wiretaps.
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/424-national-security/21617-focus-its-about-blackmail-not-national-security

Perhaps both Republicans and Democrats in our Congress could work together for a change and come up with ways to rein in the NSA before we lose our democracy.

This excellent article (( a worthwhile read)is discussed in a post at http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4369093. Thanks to DU member Jackpine Radical for finding it.

[global1]

6. NSA Would Seek Pulled Resources From Private Companies ........

This scares me - getting private companies involved with the activities of NSA.

[tavalon]

7. As a Washingtonian, I would just like to say:

my state rocks. I still want us to secede and join Canada, but in the meantime, I like being a member of this state.

[randome]

8. And then the states can withhold water from gays, liberals, etc.

Pass a law that makes anything they say inadmissible. Bar them from state universities. More loony ideas.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."
Leonard Cohen, Anthem (1992)[/center][/font][hr]

[RobertEarl]

9. What we are seeing...

...There is a very deep awareness that if we don't begin putting a halt to unfettered and rampant spying on Americans, we may one day be known as modern day 'Good Germans'.

It is good to see people aware of the danger inherent in allowing any more J Edgars or cheneys to gain power. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.