Hitchens joins authors seeking US wiretapping ban

[kskiska]

· Legal challenge to domestic spy programme
· Former 'war on terror' ally tells of phone call fears

The British writer Christopher Hitchens, one of the most reliable allies of the US administration's conduct of the war on terror, has joined a lawsuit seeking a ban on a domestic spy programme authorised by President George Bush.

In two lawsuits filed separately yesterday by the American Civil Liberties Union in Detroit and the Centre for Constitutional Rights in New York City, the National Security Agency is accused of violating the constitution by eavesdropping on people without court oversight.

The suit brought by Hitchens, Tara McKelvey, a senior editor at American Prospect magazine, James Bamford, author of two books on the NSA, and Barnett Rubin, an academic at New York University, addresses one of the primary fears surrounding the extrajudicial surveillance of telephone calls and email - that the NSA used the eavesdropping programme to spy on opponents of the Bush administration. Hitchens and the other plaintiffs said they feared their email and telephone calls were monitored, compromising their contacts in the Middle East. "People will say it's wartime and we have a deadly enemy, and I agree with that. I was in favour of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan very strongly, but it is even more important in such a time that we don't give away power to the unaccountable agencies that helped get us into this in the first place," Hitchens told the Guardian. "It is extremely important we know what the rules are and there has to be a line drawn. You mustn't turn emergency or panic measures into custom or practice."

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1688842,00.html

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. I betcha he's been bad, and is afraid they already have lots on him.

Dirty little secrets. betcha

[ClintonTyree]

9. That's why they own most of the MSM............

all of those dirty little secrets of the talking heads, stuff they thought no-one would ever find out about. They never counted on the Republicans spying on them and digging up all the of the skeletons in their closets. This is why the "liberal media" is so malleable in the hands of the GOP.

[The Magistrate]

2. Redemtion Is Impossible For This Wretch, Ma'am

He could cure cancer and end hunger and still, for his part in the '98 Coup attempt, his proper lodging would remain the fires of hHell....

"You're a waste of space, Manuel."

[radio4progressives]

6. Again, we are in full agreement...

:hi: :toast:

[Crunchy Frog]

3. Worried that someone's been listening in on his phone sex

no doubt. :puke:

[rodeodance]

4. I think he said this well.

...."People will say it's wartime and we have a deadly enemy, and I agree with that. I was in favour of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan very strongly, but it is even more important in such a time that we don't give away power to the unaccountable agencies that helped get us into this in the first place," Hitchens told the Guardian. "It is extremely important we know what the rules are and there has to be a line drawn. You mustn't turn emergency or panic measures into custom or practice."

[JNelson6563]

5. He has much to fear from Fundy right

He's a rabid atheist and nothing will draw their fire faster than atheism. They don't care about his support for their "righteous" war, they only care that you think as they do re: bible-god.

Julie

[lakeguy]

7. hitchens is crazy...

crazy like gore i tell ya.

wonder what he has to hide?

[Swamp Rat]

8. That tool Hitchens better watch it.

The NSA has the goods on him. :)

[Rageneau]

10. I hope Hitchens is named an Al-Quaeda agent and gets fried for it.

And I hope it is his support of the MurderMonkey that bites him in the butt.

[flordehinojos]

11. how does that saying go?....

"they came for the jews and i didn't speak up because i wasn't a jew, then they came for the catholics and i didn't speak up because i wasn't a catholic, then they came for ... and i didn't speak up because i wasn't a ... finally they came for me and there was no one there to speak for me.." or something like that. i can't exactly recall... but we might be starting to see the beginning of this right here in our beloved america--thanks all to the bush farts and their evil family empire.

[0007]

12. This is indeed interesting. Does the man drink a lot or just

act unusual on certain occasions? Or is Christopher Hitchens a clever man with a devious plan for achieving an end?
Now that Hitchens has exposed himself, and won't go along with the spy ploy, will we be hearing more about his personal life? Or does Hitchens have enough on junior's crime cabal, that junior would catch a dummy?

[rodeodance]

13. if anything, he will bring publicity to this suit--which is good (I think)

[0007]

14. Maybe not for Hitchens, conceivably Hitchens could be blackmailed into

suicide.

[daleo]

15. I suspect we will soon know things about his sex life, etc

That we would just as soon not know. But, Bushco turncoats are usually smeared worst of all.