Monday, December 19, 2005
EVIL PRESIDENT SPYING ON EVERYBODY
60 Minutes investigates the NSA’s illegal/unconstitutional/impeach-Bush-NOW! spying capers:
If you made a phone call today or sent an e-mail to a friend, there’s a good chance what you said or wrote was captured and screened by the country’s largest intelligence agency. The top-secret Global Surveillance Network is called Echelon, and it’s run by the National Security Agency and four English-speaking allies: Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
The mission is to eavesdrop on enemies of the state: foreign countries, terrorist groups and drug cartels. But in the process, Echelon’s computers capture virtually every electronic conversation around the world.
How does it work, and what happens to all the information that’s gathered? A lot of people have begun to ask that question, and some suspect that the information is being used for more than just catching bad guys.
The report includes claims from an NSA insider that an ordinary housewife was listed as a possible terrorist following illegal/unconstitutional/impeach-Bush-NOW! telephone surveillance. As Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wuss) said the other day: “This shocking revelation ought to send a chill down the spine of every American.”
That particular 60 Minutes episode went to air on February 27, 2000.
(Via Mark Levin)
UPDATE. Eric Berlin: “If anything, it seems to be more of a blanket program than what Bush approved, and yet I don’t remember anybody getting even a slap on the wrist over it.”