We really do hate to keep having to repeat ourselves and with the NSA story it's a total bore. This time I am going to put it in large capital letters to try and get the point across.

THE NSA HAS BEEN RECORDING PHONE CONVERSATIONS FOR OVER A DECADE. THE PROGRAM IS CALLED ECHELON. THE USA TODAY STORY ABOUT THE NSA STORING PHONE NUMBERS IS NOT NEWS.

Why should it worry you unless you have something to hide?

These were the arguments sampled by the Associated Press, who told us once again that the nation was "split" on NSA record collecting. This is another example of 'forced balance' in journalism, to the point where it misses out the truth completely. A Computer World survey found that 71% of respondents said that government wiretaps were "never acceptable" and 76% believed that anonymity is important and that surveillance methods should not store any personal information.

The early morning Fox and Friends show, always first to run defense for the government on whatever scandal is breaking that particular day, assured us that the NSA only keeps records of phone numbers, not details of conversations.

The Echelon program, run by the NSA, has been recording phone calls and storing numbers for over two decades.

The joint NSA / Government Communications Head Quarters of England (GCHQ) Project Echelon was first exposed in the mid nineties and then again most prominently by author James Bamford in his 1999 book Body of Secrets. Bamford comments, "The cooperation between the Echelon countries is worrying. For decades, these organizations have worked closely together, monitoring communications and sharing the information gathered. Now, through Echelon, they are pooling their resources and targets, maximizing the collection and analysis of intercepted information."

In the greatest surveillance effort ever established, the NSA global spy system captures and analyzes virtually every phone call, fax, email and telex message sent anywhere in the world. Quite obviously they cannot listen to everyone anywhere ALL the time, but they have the capability to choose when to listen and who to listen to, wherever they may be.

James Bamford famously recalled how the NSA successfully intercepted satellite calls from Osama Bin Laden in the late nineties as he was talking to his mother.

"I don't want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return." - Senator Frank Church, quoted in ECHELON: America's Secret Global Surveillance Network

Under the Clinton Administration Echelon certainly turned its attention to citizens of countries everywhere and monitored millions of calls and other communications.

Echelon expert Mike Frost, who spent 20 years as a spy for the Canadian equivalent of the National Security Agency, told CBS's "60 Minutes" that the agency was monitoring "everything from data transfers to cell phones to portable phones to baby monitors to ATMs."

Domestic spying is nothing new, there has been at least half a century of such activity in America. The naïveté of the public is at an all time high as they would rather switch off than engage in the mess that is modern day politics in America. The general public will believe that government spying on them is new, and secondly, they will just accept it because they are being told in a very unsophisticated fashion, that it is keeping them safe.


By: Paul Joseph Watson


Source:
http://prisonplanet.com/index.html

Has anyone on this forum thought that Domestic Spying was a new Phenom?
Is there anyone on this forum who doesn't recall the wire taps of the 60's?
Is there anyone on this forum that doesn't know where FISA came from and why?
is there anyone here who never watched Drag Net and saw Detective Friday go off to court to obtain a warrent for a wiretap?
OK, how about Starsky and Hutch?




Spying, both domestic and international, is a reality.
And believe it or not, it needs to happen,
but it also needs to happen within the FISA restrictions.

In fact, FISA needs to be tightened up.

Rep: Sky Of Mind


So you have no problem with the government listening to your phone conversation, search your house when you not home with no search warrant to check to see if you not a member of Al-CIA aka Al-Qaeda? for the sake of the phony so-call War On Terror

Critter,


Reread what I said.

Anywhere in that does it even remotely suggest what you have just asked me?




Anybody who thinks we can or should completely elliminate domestic spying is far away from reality.
In fact, when used with in the limits of the law, it does work to protect our sometimes silly apathetic ass's.


I will repeate myself for you....





Please remember that just because Bushco has cried wolf too many times,
does not mean that there really aren't any wolves out there!

I mean look.
We may wanna wire tap the phones of a few Neo-cons.
Would that be OK?

Little Brother cant spy on Big Brother, it would be nice but it dont work that way you know that as well as anyone.

warrantless wiretapping is illegal. period. reasonable cause. illegal search. miranda. they'll take it all if we let them.

Absoluteoly, and this is the debate!
The wiretaps must be LEGAL.

The discussion isn't about having domistic spying or not.
The discussion is about what is legal domestic spying!



Get the idea of doing away with all domestic spying right out of your head.
That's simply not gonna happen, ever!

Focus your efforts on the issue of legality!
That's where the fight really is!

I have an idea. Republicans want their phones tapped so damn badly, let's pass a law that says the government can only tap the phones of registered Republicans without a warrant, and leave the rest of us the fuck alone.

I have to agree with sky.

The gov't and law enforcement agencies need ways to be able to wiretap people, WITH JUST CAUSE.

How many mafia bosses have gone down because of wiretapping? Drug lords? Etc...

Wiretapping is an efficient, proper, and excellent crime-fighting tool.

However, John and Jane Q Public, who the gov't has no reason to listen to, should be exempt from it unless they give the police a justifiable reason (like being the suspect in a murder trial) to be listened too.

I'd answer, but I have to go rent my rink time in hell now.....sure it will be plentiful & cheap after seeing that one

Typing that acutally made my fingers crack, ears bleed, and I nearly shat my pants in protest.

Odd, eh?

Quite frankly, I wasn't at all surprised.