Illegal Wiretapping For Dummies - Part I

The mainstream media, by and large, continues to spin the White House talking points and fails once again to ask the tough questions. So, as usual, we'll have to do their work for them. For anyone struggling to understand the seriousness of the ongoing wiretapping scandal, following is a list of articles that are "must read:"

1. Fog Fact of the Year - the Big Lie Goes On
   by Larry Beinhart
   CommonDreams.org

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   "President Bush gave a radio address on December 17 in which he explained why he had to use illegal wiretaps. As usual, he returned to the events of 9/11."


2. Presidents all the same when scandal strikes
   By former U.S. attorney and congressman Bob Barr
   ajc.com

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   "The signs are everywhere that the Bush White House is busily implementing all parts of this defense strategy. It would be refreshing if it decided to clear the air and actually be honest about its post-Sept. 11 surveillance. However, that's unlikely. The problem this president faces, as did his predecessors, is that full disclosure would lead to the remedy stage. No president wants to fight that end-game."


3. Justice Deputy Resisted Parts of Spy Program
   By Eric Lichtblau and James Risen
   The New York Times


4. DOMESTIC SURVEILLANCE: THE PROGRAM; SPY AGENCY MINED VAST DATA TROVE, OFFICIALS REPORT
   By Eric Lichtblau and James Risen
   The New York Times


5. NSA Spied on U.N. Diplomats in Push for Invasion of Iraq
   The Blog | Norman Solomon
   The Huffington Post


6. Rice authorized National Security Agency to spy on UN Security Council in run-up to war, former officials say
   By Jason Leopold
   The Raw Story


7. Guv fears calls monitored
   By James W. Brosnan
   The Albuquerque Tribune

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   "Gov. Bill Richardson is concerned that some of his phone calls were monitored by a U.S. spy agency and transcripts of them were given to the president's nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton."


8. Fear destroys what bin Laden could not
   By Robert Steinback
   Miami Herald

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   "One wonders if Osama bin Laden didn't win after all. He ruined the America that existed on 9/11. But he had help. If, back in 2001, anyone had told me that four years after bin Laden's attack our president would admit that he broke U.S. law against domestic spying and ignored the Constitution -- and then expect the American people to congratulate him for it -- I would have presumed the girders of our very Republic had crumbled."


9. ACLU Investigates Spying on Local Group
   t r u t h o u t
   NBC San Diego

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   "Following a report showing the Pentagon was spying on a local anti-war group, the American Civil Liberties Union is looking into the possibility that San Diego law enforcement could have been involved."


10. Secret court modified wiretap requests
    By Stewart M. Powell
    Seattle Post-Intelligencer Washington Bureau

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    Intervention may have led Bush to bypass panel, i.e., if you can't do it lawfully, skirt the law.


11. Bush's counsel on spying now under close scrutiny
    By Peter S. Canellos
    The Boston Globe

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    "Since Sept. 11, 2001, Bush's legal advisers have cleared the way for him to hold enemy combatants without trials; eavesdrop on overseas telephone calls and e-mails; place ever-greater numbers of government documents under a veil of secrecy; imprison a US citizen indefinitely on the suspicion of terrorist links; and, according to The Washington Post, operate a secret CIA prison in an Eastern European country...."


12. The Usurpers of Our Freedoms
    By Lawrence R. Velvel
    CounterPunch

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    "At stake in the so-called war on terror is no longer just treatment of detainees, but the freedom of Americans."


13. It's good to be King George
    By Reg Henry
    Post-Gazette

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    "As I was saying to a fellow peasant just the other day, it is ironic that this country should rebel against one King George only to bow down before another monarch of the same name more than 200 years later."


14. The Hidden State Steps Forward
    By Jonathan Schell
    The Nation & t r u t h o u t

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    "With Bush's defense of his wiretapping, the hidden state has stepped into the open. The deeper challenge Bush has thrown down, therefore, is whether the country wants to embrace the new form of government he is creating by executive fiat or to continue with the old constitutional form. Members of Congress have no choice but to accept the challenge."


15. NSA, the Agency That Could Be Big Brother
    By James Bamford
    The New York Times & t r u t h o u t

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    "Deep in a remote, fog-layered hollow near Sugar Grove, W.Va., hidden by fortress-like mountains, sits the country's largest eavesdropping bug. Located in a "radio quiet" zone, the station's large parabolic dishes secretly and silently sweep in millions of private telephone calls and e-mail messages an hour."


16. Power We Didn't Grant
    By Tom Daschle
    The Washington Post

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    "As Senate majority leader at the time, I helped negotiate that law with the White House counsel's office over two harried days. I can state categorically that the subject of warrantless wiretaps of American citizens never came up. I did not and never would have supported giving authority to the president for such wiretaps. I am also confident that the 98 senators who voted in favor of authorization of force against al Qaeda did not believe that they were also voting for warrantless domestic surveillance."

Also see:

• NSA-Spying Worse Than White House Claims


• Illegal Wiretapping For Dummies - Part II