FISA Secrets Revealed, ATT and Others Guilty

[cal04]

by OneCrankyDom

In what could be the final nail in ATT and the other phones companys coffins over their helping break the law when it came to spying on Americans , McConnell spilled the beans in Texas. He admitted that they have claimed they didn't do. It is no longer a secret so they should no longer be able to claim "States Secrets" when they next appear in court. There have already beed a few rulings that say since Bush spoke about this part or that, that it can't be called secret anymore. This should be seen the same way by the Federal Judges now looking at the cases against the phone companys. In a transcript of his interview with the El Paso Times is the proof they broke the law, plain and simple.

A: Don't want to go there. Just think, lots. Too many. Now the second part of the issue was under the president's program, the terrorist surveillance program, the private sector had assisted us. Because if you're going to get access you've got to have a partner and they were being sued. Now if you play out the suits at the value they're claimed, it would bankrupt these companies. So my position was we have to provide liability protection to these private sector entities. transcript

National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell is the person that has spilled the beans. I added this part for those that aren't familiar with who he is. I had to edit that from the top section to publish. Sorry for any confusion.

Since at least 2002 ATT and others have been helping violate the Civil Rights of Americans. 2002 is the date given in a interview to Wired by Mark Klein, a retired AT&T technician who witnessed the secret room and hookups.

In 2006, Klein stepped forward and handed sensitive AT&T documents to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group that was preparing a class-action lawsuit against the telecommunications giant.

This case has gone to the Judges and we don't know when their ruling will come down. It is not expected for a few months and I'm not sure if this recent statement will be allowed to be entered into evidence. In my opinion the Lawyers should fight tooth and nail to have it added. It could possibly make their case for them.

Earlier , back when Bush admitted to some parts of the Program or programs, depending on who you are talking to, he did not admit to the wholesale tapping of the internet, which is what these traps have to be doing. Klein spoke about this in his interview.

WN: What made you decide to go public?

Klein: What got me back interested was The New York Times' story in December 2005. (Editor's note: The Times reported that the government had been secretly monitoring Americans' phone calls and e-mails that crossed the nation's border since shortly after 9/11 without getting approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISA.)

The president admitted the program existed, but only admitted that part which had been exposed -- and he avoided talking about the part that wasn't, which was the internet.

The administration sent officials out to defend the program, including (Vice President) Dick Cheney, and they said they didn't think they had to obey FISA.... This was the defense of the indefensible. So I decided if they are going to perpetuate this fraud then I'm going to blow their cover.

Klein is my kinda guy!! We could use a couple thousand of him to step forward with the evidence to all the other laws Bushco has broken. The information he has supplied is in part what the NYTimes used for their expose.

McConnell revealed a few other things in this interview that we had never heard before. One of which is a claim it takes 200 man hrs to prepare the info to get a Warrant, something I find rather hard to swallow. Even if it is true, that is a small price to pay to keep the our Civil Rights from being mugged anymore than they have been.

-- McConnell said it takes 200 hours to assemble a FISA warrant on a single telephone number. ''We're going backwards,'' he said. ''We couldn't keep up.''

-- Offering never-disclosed figures, McConnell also revealed that fewer than 100 people inside the United States are monitored under FISA warrants. However, he said, thousands of people overseas are monitored.El Paso Times Article

Now imagine if they are trapping the entire internet traffic, that could bankrupt the country trying to get a Warrant for every US Person. How do they propose to get around that ? I'm willing to bet we will be sold down the river with the assertion that we MUST trust them. How does that sound to you ? Are you willing to trust Alberto Gonzales to decide if he needs to read your love letters ? I'm not.

Update: Emptywheel over at the next hurrah is writing about this also and she has made this point that I want to include.

What McConnell all but admits is that those lawsuits have merit--that there is a real possibility that having cooperated in the Administration's ill-conceived spying program will bankrupt big telecom. Again, if those suits have merit, there's a reason for the deep distrust--it's because BushCo encouraged the telecoms to violate the privacy of their customers on a massive scale.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/8/22/175927/481

[DS1]

1. All I have to say is

I'd love to the hard drive salesman who got this contract. Redundant capacity for every single phone call? Bank!

[Trillo]

2. WTF should McConnell care if big telecoms get bankrupted?

Isn't the nature of every entrepreneur risk? Is McConnell claiming that for the big (corporatist) telecoms, the risk of bankruptcy shouldn't apply? Further, that breaking the law should should be 'affordable' if you're a huge corporation?