House Debates, Holds Rare Secret Session

[Algorem]

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/03/house-debates-h.html

By Ryan Singel EmailMarch 13, 2008 | 6:46:37 PMCategories: NSA, Sunshine and Secrecy, Surveillance

As Thursday night crawled toward midnight in Washington, D.C., the House of Representatives went into a secret session, whose first rule is "Don't talk about the secret session."

But prior to the secret session, House members spoke alot about the secret session.

For more than an hour they debated the nuances of a proposed secret session of the House that the Republicans wanted in order to share secret information about a secret wiretapping program that is being debated by Congress due to a secret ruling from a secret spying court about the legality of the President's secret spying program.

The House is scheduled to vote on legislation about spying and legal amnesty for partners in the president's secret wiretapping program tomorrow, though that vote was ostensibly scheduled for Thursday and could get postponed again...



March 13th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
FISA Debate To Go Into Secret Session, No FISA Vote Tonight

http://berniehund.com/2008/03/13/fisa-debate-to-go-into-secret-session-no-fisa-vote-tonight/

» by sinde in: Current Events, The Issues

The Secret Session was brought up by Representative Blount. Rep. Dennis Kucinich quizzed the the motion. When has specific legislation gone in secret preliminary to a vote? Rep. Kucinich pressed other representatives as to why there was a need for secrecy. In his twelve years in the House he has never seen anything like this.

In 1983 on Contra and 1979 and 1980, there were secret sessions. Prior to that, the last Secret Session was held in 1825. One of the members of the House suggested that he had attended the three latest and heard nothing but “mumbo-jumbo” and nothing of value.

A representative from Georgia believes that the session is necessary although extraordinary. From New York, it was suggested that Congress is frowned on enough by the public and called the measure extreme. Why was the secret information not taken to the Intelligence Committee, rather than the House?

Is the “secret information” on Top Secret Level or Secret Level? That was an unanswered question. It was finally decided that it was on the Secret Level...



http://www.emergentchaos.com.nyud.net:8080/images/sept-05/cone-of-silence.jpg


http://www.rozario.com.au.nyud.net:8080/rozario_files/GetSmartConeOfSilence.jpg

http://alistair.cockburn.us.nyud.net:8080/images/Maxwell_Smart_in_a_cone_of_silence.jpg

[thunder rising]

1. shhhhhhh....

[dipsydoodle]

2. .......it's a secret

[Selatius]

3. People are too fucking stupid to understand how government should run. Therefore...

we should keep them in the dark and treat them like some incredibly stupid children.

[defendandprotect]

4. Evidently this has now passed with NO IMMUNITY . . . ???

[InsultComicDog]

5. OMG The Cone of Silence!

WHAT?!?!