Bush 'Privacy Board' Just a Gag

[alfredo]

that's the headline on this wired.com article. It's another example of the Orwellian world of the bush Whitehouse.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72248-0.html?tw=wn_index_9


"WASHINGTON -- The first public meeting of a Bush administration "civil liberties protection panel" had a surreal quality to it, as the five-member board refused to answer any questions from the press, and stonewalled privacy advocates and academics on key questions about domestic spying.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which met Tuesday, was created by Congress in 2004 on the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, but is part of the White House, which handpicked all the members. Though mandated by law in late 2004, the board was not sworn in until March 2006, due to inaction on the part of the White House and Congress.

The three-hour meeting, held at Georgetown University, quickly established that the panel would be something less than a fierce watchdog of civil liberties. Instead, members all but said they view their job as helping Americans learn to relax and love warrantless surveillance."


I don't think any of us expected bush and his junta to respect our privacy. If I was part of the audience I would have walked out. Let's hope the investigations into bush's crimes wakes up the American people. They need to know the great peril they are in, not just from bush's Iraq war, but his war on our rights.