My Weblog

Spying Twists the Party Line

Hopefully this whole spying debate will create some strange bedfellows. Today, a bunch of conservatives were downright brutish to the President, and we are not talking Right-wing firebrands like Michael Savage, these where True Believer-types who have been among El Presidente Arbusto’s biggest supporters.

Then we have this deal on the boarder. Yesterday, America’s DiY vigilante boarder patrol, The Minuteman Project, announced that the U.S. government was turning over information on the Minutemen’s work to the Mexican government. So, if true (Homeland Security did not deny it), not only was the Government spying but they turned their intel over to a foreign power. We’d hate to hear the venom spewed by the Right if these shenanigans were going on with a Democrat in the White House. Gore visited a Buddhist Monastery during the '96 election and got some dirty financing along with his meditation and the Right had him carrying a Little Red Book. Surly this is worse; at least Gore was pandering to Americans.

Of course, the real bummer with both of these events is that it is unlikely some grand collation of Right and Left will form to stop the illegal surveillance. The Left/Right, Blue/Red divide is simply too deep, it'll always come back to some wedge issue (abortion, God in schools, or whatever). And sadly these guys probably know it; they'll just buy time.

We're Back.

Okay. We stopped blogging for a while because we kind of thought no one was listening but after a few of your e-mails and the fact that things have gotten so bad we are at the computer once more.

Thank you all for your encouragement. For a start, check out these links (1,2). Weird indeed. Weird, and scary.

Pentagon Good. President Bad.

Everyone should read the article by Robert Dreyfus in Rolling Stone (4/20) reviewing the Pentagon's domestic intelligence operations since 9/11 .

In 2002 the President authorized the creation of Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), to consolidate all military intelligence capabilities with the hope it could head-off any future attacks or sabotage. This program was later expanded to include a program called Threat and Local Observation Notices (TALONs), which quiet literally gathered tips from local law enforcement and regular folks on any suspicious activities especially in and around military facilities.

Overtime, this program has become somewhat abusive, if not a bit ridiculous.  For example, among the groups added to the CIFA’s database where totally harmless anti-Iraq war groups like Truth Project and the Raging Grannies. The danger with a program like this is obvious. CIFA could have grown into a sort of American Gestapo with neighbors calling on neighbors.  But it did not exactly work out that way, as one a retired Army intelligence officer Christopher Pyle made clear, “a lot of them (TALONs) are filed by paranoid housewives and rabid, retired colonels with nothing better to do…”

And the military, in stark contrast to the Executive Branch, has admitted the error of its ways and is in the process of reviewing the program. As acting deputy undersecretary of defense for counterintelligence and security indicated, “We’ve laid our dirty laundry on the table, we recognize that have to sharpen our focus.”

How refreshing? Little Brother Is Watching wishes the Executive Branch of the Government of the United States could have that kind of honor and foresight.

EFF, AT&T and Mark Klein

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed evidence supporting a motion for preliminary injunction in its class-action lawsuit against AT&T.

The new evidence was based on documentation provided by whistle-blower Mark Klein, a retired AT&T employee, who claims that the NSA has secretly placed a system to monitor phone calls at a switching station in San Francisco. For all the radio patriots out there who scream that a transparent review of the government’s wire-tapping procedures will somehow help terrorists, the EFF made the filing under seal -- a well-established procedure that prohibits public access and permits only the judge.

No matter the outcome of this case, we can all be hopeful for a future when the United States can still produce heros like Mark Klein. In the words of EFF Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl, "Mark Klein is a true American hero...he has bravely come forward with information critical for proving AT&T's involvement with the government's invasive surveillance program."

Little Brother Is Watching could not agree more. Bravo Mark. Bravo EFF.

Alberto Everywhere

Thursday's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee by Alberto Gonzales was incredibly revealing. We learned that in the future the administration will continue to use warrant-less wire-taps and they believe they have every right to tap calls inside the United States if need be. In the past, the President and the Attorney General both claimed this program was only being used on suspects calling outside the good old USA. This thing just gets worse.

Well, we're not Russia

Russia just annouced a plan to use lie detectors as part of the check-in and customs process at airports. Pretty scary.

OH! THE IRONY!

Talk about stupid. A staff member at the Office of Homeland Security was arrested today for soliciting a minor over the Internet. Classy.

Wire-tapper to the Stars

The Bush situation is not the only high profile case of wire-tapping gripping the country.  Though nowhere near as draconian, Hollywood, that bastion of liberalism, is mesmerized by a case of its own.

Detective to the stars, Anthony Pellicano stands accused of illegal wire-tapping in the service of celebrity clientele. In a story straight out of old Hollywood, the detective used the information he’d gleaned on the targets to blackmail them. A number of rich and famous have been questioned in the probe including Brad Grey (a mogul at Paramount), Nicole Kidman, Warren Beatty and Michael Ovitz. It seems supposedly lefty tinsel town is not above a little tap and grab at least when it's used to win juicy divorces, get back lost parts or as leverage in contract negotiations.

The trial is tentatively scheduled to begin on April 18 and it’s sure to be a potboiler.

Big Brother Sam in the House

There was a bizarre story out of Pittsburg last week that we wanted to share.

Last week, a High School English teacher named Glenn Harcsar was shopping at his local Sam's Club in Monroeville, PA with his eight-months pregnant wife when he was stopped by Sam’s Club security and told:

“You've been identified by our scanning system. You're not going to be allowed to purchase these items and you must leave and never come back. Otherwise, you will be prosecuted.”

Harcsar says the general manager and security personnel told him they had him on tape, from their surveillance cameras, shopping at a Tarentum store and a Greensburg store and would not explain why he was being asked to leave.

Thus far, Wal-Mart Sam’s Club has refused to explain what happened but they have apologized to Mr. Harcsar. No word on the details of Sam’s Club ‘scanning system.”

Book Review: The Whiskey Rebellion

A new book The Whiskey Rebellion by William Hogeland  has been published at serendipitous time. This history of the rebellion by Pennsylvania frontiersman against the federal government's tax on domestic Whiskey covers many of the themes we face today. It’s all here, the power of moneyed interests on the government, Congressional and Executive self-dealing to fund the war effort, the role and rights of the executive branch in a time of war, domestic terrorism, masked insurgents, religious absolutism, and the impact the national debt has on politics.

The Whiskey rebels were the Al Qaeda of the day and by the end of the book, Washington and Hamilton make a final push to round them up. This final phase has eerie parallels to the present day. And as Hogeland makes clear,  "almost every adult male was fair game for capture. The fact that most of those arrested would have to be turned loose later was not an issue…” It seems, sadly, the more things change the more they stay the same.