Bush Acknowledges Approving Eavesdropping (televised radio address)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051217/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush



WASHINGTON - President Bush said Saturday he personally has authorized a secret eavesdropping program in the U.S. more than 30 times since the Sept. 11 attacks and he lashed out at those involved in publicly revealing the program.

"This is a highly classified program that is crucial to our national security," he said in a radio address delivered live from the White House's Roosevelt Room.

"This authorization is a vital tool in our war against the terrorists. It is critical to saving American lives. The American people expect me to do everything in my power, under our laws and Constitution, to protect them and their civil liberties and that is exactly what I will continue to do as long as I am president of the United States," Bush said.

Angry members of Congress have demanded an explanation of the program, first revealed in Friday's New York Times and whether the monitoring by the National Security Agency violates civil liberties.

Defending the program, Bush said in his address that it is used only to intercept the international communications of people inside the United States who have been determined to have "a clear link" to al-Qaida or related terrorist organizations.



President Bush delivers his live radio address from the Roosevelt Room at the White House, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2005 in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

because he is the Dictator
and he says so.

Bullshit, George! Bullshit!

the Democrats on TV this morning after his admission have been pounding this fact. Though Julian Epstein failed to believe that impeachment is an option. :eyes:

Yeah, Condi, our Constitution is quite old too; guess that justifies throwing it out the window. (sarcasm)

Has anyone else noticed that we have an unlikely ally in all this: Sen. Arlen Spector (R-PA) seems to be coming down hard on this law-breaking behavior by Bush!

Edited to add (as I think further on that last paragraph): Bush et.al. are saying that there were people in Congress who were notified about the spying. If so, wouldn't Arlen Spector, Chair of the important Judiciary Committee, be notified??? (Note that Sen. Carl Levin, ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, who also sits on the Intelligence Committee and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, wasn't notified either, per his comments on MTP.) Why would he be by-passed, and who exactly did they notify in Congress, and why? Were they only those Congresspeople who the Bush people could be confident of obtaining consent?

I want to know who they are.
Armed Services >
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations

I'd vote for Arlen Spector for President before I would vote for Joe Lieberman!

If that was the choice.

That is why shrub had to go around the law.
I do not think it is terrorists they are going after.
Rove has been listening in on his opponents, maybe blackmailing them into silence? This is why Dems are so quiet?

How dare people take away his rationale for destroying the United States Constitution.

How do we know that this secret program suveils only terrorists. It's secret after all.

Now that he's an admitted criminal, do you think that Bush will have to pay for his crime and impeachable offense?

Answers on a counterfeit postage stamp, please.

ananda

Without identifying specific lawmakers, Bush said congressional leaders have been briefed more than a dozen times on the program's activities. The president also said the intelligence officials involved in the monitoring receive extensive training to make sure civil liberties are not violated.

Appearing angry at times during his eight-minute address, Bush left no doubt that he will continue authorizing the program. "I intend to do so for as long as our nation faces a continuing threat from al-Qaida and related groups," he said.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10505574/

Did he tell anyone else?

if a US citizen was communicating with a foreigner who is a terrorism suspect.

However, another recent story (the Quaker group under survellience because they had a task force to study how to get info to youth about gaining conscience objector status were a draft enacted) begs the question... were any of the survelences of peace groups? Of individuals whose only "suspected crime" was political criticism of republicans, esp bush? Why is the assumption that what bush 'claims' is true operational in these stories? There is too much evidence of abuse of power, and of bush uttering lie after intentional lie, to buy this on face value.

In fact, I would be quite surprised to learn that they weren't doing exactly the things you listed. We don't know what data was being gathered yet or the true extent of the operation. These guys should have acquired a reputation for duplicitousness from their past acts.

and it is only propaganda. If this were a legitimate surveillance, they could easily get a warrant. The spin I also heard on MSM is that Congress knew about it and helped keep the secret.

I am stunned that there is not outrage across the US. They have been so good at slowly chipping away at our rights and sensibilities that this is simply another assault and we shrug our shoulders. Imagine if Clinton had done this! He would have been hog-tied and sent out of WA on the back of a truck.

This is outrageous. He is thwarting the checks and balances of our system, the fundament of democracy.

with the illegal detention of an American citizen, Jose Padilla.

I want this little rat bastard REMOVED FROM OFFICE NOW!!

character in every movie who wants to nuke everybody and only considers the most evil and treacherous options in every "national security" crisis. The cliche Hollywood government shithead. Jeez! :eyes:

Down with king George !

Don't Tread On Me.

The rattlesnake, only striking in self defense (as opposed to wars of opportunity for some). Sure hope the patiots in the Republican party awaken soon and remember that defense of our country is more important than defense of their mean little party.

Didn't they try to get them for "Sailor mongering"? They are watching for eco-terrorists, they tell us.

btw, I was a sailor & never once got mongered (that I remember)...

the Bill of Rights:

"Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

I plan to call both Senators and my Rep in Congress over this. He cannot get away with this and then go around presenting it as a breach of National Security for his unConstitutional action to have become public! Dammit! I've had ENOUGH of this little shit of man and I want him OUT OF OFFICE NOW. I'm sicked and tired of "terrorists, 9-11, killers, evil-doers, enemy lurking within, etc. etc. etc." used to justify pissing on the Constitution.

I don't see it as a "goddamned peice of paper," but the supreme law of the land and this little fucktard needs to be held accountable for violating his OATH OF OFFICE, for God's sake!!

end of rant. I've had enough.:grr: :nuke:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

There aren't any wiggle words in there. It doesn't say I might protect your rights unless I think I have a really good reason to give myself more power. It doesn't say I can rig elections if I think my party is more moral, or I can subvert the rule of law when I think we need to win...What would these fucks say if Clinton had done this?

IMPEACH HIM!

Dean's radio address was about economic stabilty and some other stuff I can't remember. :eyes:

CNN LIVE SATURDAY

Aired December 17, 2005 - 12:00 ET

SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD (D), WISCONSIN: He apparently feels, even if he doesn't have authority from the Congress, that he can go ahead and do all this stuff anyway under some inherent power. So, what that really mean if you take his argument all the way is he doesn't even need the USA Patriot Act because he thinks he has some kind of inherent authority to make up the law himself. And I'll tell you something, this president, and no other president, is above the law. And that's exactly what he was just telling us he was.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0512/17/cst.01.html

CNN SATURDAY MORNING NEWS

Aired December 17, 2005 - 10:00 ET

SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD (D), WISCONSIN: Well, it's a sad day when the president of the United States is deciding to play politics with our national security. He's trying to justify not being reasonable about the Patriot Act on the ground that somehow this thing's going to expire unless we do it exactly his way. That's not the case and that's not the way any of us feel.

And then he even goes further, as you pointed out, by saying that he authorized these wiretaps even though there was no specific law allowing it. He's trying to claim somehow that the authorization for the Afghanistan attack after 9/11 permitted this and I'll tell you something, that's just absurd.

There's not a single senator or member of Congress who thought we were authorizing wiretaps. You know, if he needs a wiretap the authority is already there in the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act. They can ask for a warrant to do that and you know what? Even if there's an emergency situation, they can go for 72 hours as long as they give notice at the end of the 72 hours.

So the president is basically saying he runs the war on terror and the Congress and the representatives of the American people don't have to pass laws to allow it. You know what? That's not our system of government. We have a president, not a king, and that's the way he's talking.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0512/17/smn.03.html

Those remarks will only appeal to his sycophants.

Nation of laws, boyo.

He's like a little boy caught in a lie, trying to defend himself. Notice he doesn't address the concerns of the dozen current and previous NAS professionals who outed him to the NYTimes.

I hope to see this dangerous man and this dangerous act written of scathingly in domestic and foreign newspapers this weekend.

He should be impeached and convicted, forthwith.

b_b

receive extensive training to make sure civil liberties are not violated.

I wonder if it's the same type of training his staff received when they were given their security clearances? We know how well that turned out.

their 'ethics' training ...

:sarcasm:


:puke:
dp

Hilarious.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top10dec17,0,252105.story
Bush Acknowledges Approving Eavesdropping
By JENNIFER LOVEN
Associated Press Writer

8:07 AM PST, December 17, 2005

WASHINGTON — President Bush said Saturday he has no intention of stopping his personal authorizations of a post-Sept. 11 secret eavesdropping program in the U.S., lashing out at those involved in revealing it while defending it as crucial to preventing future attacks.

"This is a highly classified program that is crucial to our national security," he said in a radio address delivered live from the White House's Roosevelt Room.

"This authorization is a vital tool in our war against the terrorists. It is critical to saving American lives. The American people expect me to do everything in my power, under our laws and Constitution, to protect them and their civil liberties and that is exactly what I will continue to do as long as I am president of the United States," Bush said.

Angry members of Congress have demanded an explanation of the program, first revealed in Friday's New York Times and whether the monitoring by the National Security Agency without obtaining warrants from a court violates civil liberties. One Democrat said in response to Bush's remarks on the radio that Bush was acting more like a king than the elected president of a democracy.

were talking of the spying article!! te he. 'curious timing"

Angry members of Congress have demanded an explanation of the program, first revealed in Friday's New York Times and whether the monitoring by the National Security Agency without obtaining warrants from a court violates civil liberties. One Democrat said in response to Bush's remarks on the radio that Bush was acting more like a king than the elected president of a democracy.

leaked. This article is now on Yahoo news. It says that Bush is "furious that the story was leaked. It's highly classified, and it's vital to the security of the Americans, bla bla lie lie some more, fib ".

It's clear to me Bush's security apparatus is broken. He's got people leaking all kinds of shit. I bet he's worried sick.

Because the fortress is now breached.

Some Depends he has so many leaks...

The Bush Regime is so like the third reich til it is simply not funny anymore...Impeachment needs to occur...

Can we use the word Fascist now? Or impeachment?

http://www.cnn.com/

President Bush acknowleges allowing eavesdropping


Should the government have been given the authority to spy on Americans without warrants after the 9/11attacks?

Yes 30% 53895 votes

No 70% 125939 votes
Total: 179834 votes


This QuickVote is not scientific and reflects the opinions of only those Internet users who have chosen to participate. The results cannot be assumed to represent the opinions of Internet users in general, nor the public as a whole. The QuickVote sponsor is not responsible for content, functionality or the opinions expressed therein.

I am furious about President Bush's now admitted authorization of spying on American's without lawful warrants approved by even the secret court. While I loathe the secret court and personally feel it's unconstitutional, at least someone outside the executive branch has a chance to approve or halt unlawful acts.

I have the utmost respect for you Senator, and am writing to let you know I fully expect you to not only speak out against this criminal behavior, but to also insist that your colleagues in the House begin to act like Americans instead of just Republicans and begin impeachment proceedings.

If this doesn't prove to every Congressman and Senator that our President feels he is above any and every law in this land, has no respect for the Bill of Rights or Constitution that many have died to protect, than nothing ever will. He has brought shame to his office and should be removed immediately.

I also demand that criminal charges be filed against our Attorney General and any other individual/official who was aware of this unlawful activity and did not report it to the American public and law enforcement officials to be investigated.

While I have your ear, I'm also disgusted with Hassert's announcement that the House won't reconvene until the end of January. Since when does any individual have the right to suspend the people's business for the sake of their party or whatever his supposed intent is.

I expect you to speak out against this affront to the American people and to again lobby your colleagues in the House to get back to work and earn the right to call themselves representatives of the American people.

See, I'm not going to call my so-called representatives until later because if I called right now I'd be arrested. LIke the part where you so graciously said, "I have the utmost respect for you Senator..." it wouldn't come out that way if I tried to say it.

Thank you for pointing out to Republicans, though, that it is time for them to put the country ahead of their party, and the Constitution ahead of their partisan politics.

Here's a :toast: to you.
I'm still in the :argh: phase.

This must be the hardcore do-no-wrong base.

"This authorization is a vital tool in our war against the terrorists. It is critical to saving American lives. The American people expect me to do everything in my power, under our laws and Constitution, to protect them and their civil liberties and that is exactly what I will continue to do as long as I am president of the United States," Bush said.



Hummm... "As long as you are president?!??!"

Well let me show you the door.

Wake up America time to IMPEACH!

:argh::grr::nuke::argh::grr::nuke::argh::grr::nuke::argh::grr::nuke::argh:


Give Mommy a Kiss....."

This is the time for our Democrats to scream it....

???????????????????????????????????????

W had to do this today for the MSM to replay ad nauseum throughout the weekend and for talk radio to get out to his followers. I would guess that the emails are flying and an op-ed artificial turf letter is being blastfaxed everywhere.

Tough luck pal. The story got out and all anyone is going to remember is "spying on Americans" at least that is what most will remember. No one listens to the Saturday radio address and the speech tomorrow night might have an audience but at this point most people are in heavy "holiday" mode. They will be cooling out from a weekend of shopping or they have already turned off the white noise coming from DC. Sorry to say it but that is the way it is right now.

This was a "datadump" that hit Friday MORNING and is going to be carried on until after the new year. All the retractions and all the long winded parsings of facts will do no good. The story has been told (this really was no surprise to anyone who half pays attention) it's in the books and no one likes it.

Damn! Bush broke the law despite whatever his intentions were. Why aren't democrats saying what Bush did was ILLEGAL??!

sniffle

So we have a mad man running lose in the White House.

Kind of sounds like Ollie North and his bullshit.

So, it's okay for him to do as he damn well pleases to "keep Americans safe", but Katrina survivors who grabbed a loaf of bread and a bottle of infant formula were criminals who deserved to be shot. After all, there were rules to be followed and laws to be obeyed, and. . .and . . . and . . .

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051217/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_13

:eyes:

WASHINGTON - Facing angry criticism and challenges to his authority in Congress, President Bush on Saturday unapologetically defended his administration's right to conduct secret post-Sept. 11 spying in the United States as "critical to saving American lives."

One Democrat said Bush was acting more like a king than a democratically elected leader. But Bush said congressional leaders had been briefed on the operation more than a dozen times. That included Democrats as well as Republicans in the House and Senate, a GOP lawmaker said.

Often appearing angry in an eight-minute address, the president made clear he has no intention of halting his authorizations of the monitoring activities and said public disclosure of the program by the news media had endangered Americans.

Bush's willingness to publicly acknowledge a highly classified spying program was a stunning development for a president known to dislike disclosure of even the most mundane inner workings of his White House. Just a day earlier he had refused to talk about it.

"Facing angry criticism and challenges to his authority in Congress, President Bush on Saturday unapologetically defended his administration's right to conduct secret post-Sept. 11 spying in the U.S. as "critical to saving American lives." One Democrat said Bush was acting more like a king than a democratically elected leader. Bush's willingness to publicly acknowledge some of the government's most classified activities was a stunning development for a president known to dislike disclosure of even the most mundane inner workings of his White House. Since October 2001, the super-secret National Security Agency has monitored, without court-approved warrants, the international phone calls and e-mails of people inside the United States."

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/World/Espionage_and_Intelligence/

That's a good one! :rofl:

There are two standard defenses: 1) I cannot comment on an ongoing investigation. (A dodge that will soon cover his entire administration), and 2) I cannot discuss issues of national security.

Or, he could be lying his face off and committing crimes left and right, but you have no right to know about it or hold him accountable.

There's that great quote: "Those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither." He can't promise to keep us safe. The truth is, he has made the world more dangerous, and harm comes in a lot of ways, not the least of which is economics. The Daddy Party. Lying, cheating and stealin, just to keep us safe. How touching.
]

:wtf:

It's the same as the defense of torture. If torture is so effective how come nobody has presented a single case where an individual revealed under torture a specific attack that was then prevented. Same with eavesdropping. Can they point to a success story?

considering he presided over the worst terrorist attack on US soil, in the HISTORY OF THE US.

is really going over big ain't it?Even republicans who actually care about freedom have to be a little troubled by this story.Oh wait-earth to SoFla-these are the one out of three people we see walking around every day on the street that can NOT,under any circumstances admit they were or possibly COULD ever be wrong.Hence the 38% approval ratings.

but we DO have some idea about how many lives were LOST on his watch!

and by the way, FISA hasn't met a warrant it couldn't say NO to.

GWB. Fucking America because he thinks he can. Here's hoping he catches some incurable crotch rot.

on edit:
-snip-
Here are some more details on the record of the FISA Court (the Court established in 1978 by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act).

According to this table compiled from DOJ statistics at the EPIC website, the FISA Court did not reject a single warrant application from its beginning in 1979 through 2002. In 2003 it rejected four applications. In 2004, the number was again zero.

So, in a quarter century, the FISA Court has rejected four government applications for warrants.
-snip-
Read the rest at:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/007280.php

No one is saying that all eavedropping is illegal, but he needs a warrant! And there is a special court that gives out warrants for the asking! Why can't he get warrants?

This is just part of the project to make Bush a supreme dictator.

Lying to cover the lies is just more lying.

I'm gonna love watching Bush spend his golden years in prison. I am thinking incarceration on Shemya in the Aluteans. About as unlike the comfort of Crawford Texas as is possible in the United States.

It's no surprise, coming from the ass who thinks that the Constitution "is just a goddamned piece of paper."

:mad:

:dunce:

might just be more important than saving American lives. American lives have been sacrificed in Iraq, FOR WHAT ?
Makes more sense that American lives would be sacrificed to save our Constitutional rights being usurpted by the criminal Bush administration.

he thinks that eavesdropping helps to save his ass!

Wonder why McCain is hugging bushie after what bushie did to McCain during the election?? Blackmail -- I'll bet.

Spy on his enemies -- I'll bet the names of people who were spied on are the same as on his enemies list. And these buggers carry a grudge -- big time.

Little phone calls or whisper in someone's ears and a critical vote is changed.

spied on not only thousands but Hundreds of Thousands of people.

Bush, in his infinite stupidity today says that "he has to, in order to stop Al-Qaida operatives in this country".

Do we have HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Al-Qaida in this country? If not, then how does he justify spying on that many people?

as defined by himself and those who tell him what the definition of an American should be. The only American lives that ultimately must be saved are those great person-patriots called Corporations. And so we can see that this surveillance goes a long way in saving those lives. Such pesky activist, oops I mean terrorists, must be surveilled so as to keep the elites and their minions safe from the dangers of collective bargaining, mandatory health care and any costly environmental regs.

We also must protect the lives of those Bush is sending off to die by closely monitoring the activities of such diaboloical terrorists as the Quakers and other evil peaceniks.

Hopefully Lockheed-Martin, a great American, doesn't feel itself threatened by any anti-war groups. This would be bad for morale and our national well-being. Wouldn't it?

...snooping is to kill as many people as they can.

Sat Dec 17, 2005 7:45 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush defended a secret order he signed allowing for eavesdropping on people in the United States, as he fought on Saturday for the renewal of the anti-terror USA Patriot Act.

On Capitol Hill, where a hearing has been promised on Bush's order, lawmakers in both parties said they wanted to avoid allowing the Patriot Act to expire. One possibility was a temporary extension until differences could be resolved in efforts to balance national security with civil liberties.

Bush said he made the secret order to allow eavesdropping of people in the United States after the September 11, 2001, attacks, and criticized leaks to the news media about it.

"I authorized the National Security Agency, consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution, to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations," Bush said a rare live radio address.

"This is a highly classified program that is crucial to our national security," Bush said.<snip>

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=fundLaunches&storyID=2005-12-18T004458Z_01_SIB572032_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-PATRIOT.xml

since he doesn't understand any of this crazy gobmint shit, he can just say any absurd thing without flinching. most fourth graders couldn't get thru that statement without laughing. okay, 8th graders.

They scream the loudest about getting the gov't out of people's lives yet they run the gov't like Big Brother.

has that day arrived? and he's publicly admitted it, even bragged about it(the bit about reauthorizing it THIRTY times) i'd say. he can't pass the buck this time. the only worry i have about this is that this could be PLANNED to result in an eventual court challenge that his new pet justices will rubber stamp, meaning more power to the chimp.

... More Than a Dozen Times.

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20051215232809990023

(If this is a dup I apologize in advance... I'm a rather slow typist this morning.)
On edit... alerting mods to request combining since simlar.. although different writer and source.

WASHINGTON (Dec. 18) - Facing angry criticism and challenges to his authority in Congress, President Bush on Saturday unapologetically defended his administration's right to conduct secret post-Sept. 11 spying in the United States as "critical to saving American lives."

Bush said congressional leaders had been briefed on the operation more than a dozen times. That included Democrats as well as Republicans in the House and Senate, a GOP lawmaker said.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she had been told on several occasions that Bush had authorized unspecified activities by the National Security Agency, the nation's largest spy agency. She said she had expressed strong concerns at the time, and that Bush's statement Saturday "raises serious questions as to what the activities were and whether the activities were lawful."

Often appearing angry in an eight-minute address, the president made clear he has no intention of halting his authorizations of the monitoring activities and said public disclosure of the program by the news media had endangered Americans.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This whole thing brings back memories of McCarthy, Hoover & Nixon. It was wrong and unconstitutional then and now. Franklin had it right.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

or whatever it is called. Isn't there some sort of secret court, with judges who work only with intelligence issues?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051218/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush;_ylt=AhTw9bTR.xpShcLg2074I6as0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--
Bush Defends Secret Spying in the U.S.

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer 39 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Facing angry criticism and challenges to his authority in Congress,
President Bush on Saturday unapologetically defended his administration's right to conduct secret post-Sept. 11 spying in the United States as "critical to saving American lives."

Bush said congressional leaders had been briefed on the operation more than a dozen times. That included Democrats as well as Republicans in the House and Senate, a GOP lawmaker said.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she had been told on several occasions that Bush had authorized unspecified activities by the National Security Agency, the nation's largest spy agency. She said she had expressed strong concerns at the time, and that Bush's statement Saturday "raises serious questions as to what the activities were and whether the activities were lawful."

Often appearing angry in an eight-minute address, the president made clear he has no intention of halting his authorizations of the monitoring activities and said public disclosure of the program by the news media had endangered Americans.........

the next time i break the law i'll just point out what george did and i'm sure everyone will completely understand and let me get away with it

First they were shocked - shocked, I tell you - about the torture. Got to put a stop to that...yeah, yeah. Now it's spying on citizens. Especially those who object to the junta's policies, and are conveniently labelled "terrorists". By the time the two holiday weekends have passed, most of the sheeple will have forgotten after the stalinist media inundates their minds with fluff. The junta will then carry on as usual. Who's going to bring it up again. It's "old news".

Some amazing stuff they've been doing for our own good. Heck, we probably demanded it just like the Democrats demanded he invade Iraq. Torture. Spying. Lying for war. But only because He cares so much about our well-being. Yeah. That's it. Like Katrina, for example. He's just doing it for our own good.

In 2006 it'll be football, the Superbowl, and all of this will be old news.

This POS is running OUR government like he ran his busineses....INTO THE GROUND!

with the info Bush has been getting via illegal tapping???

The role of the Gestapo was to investigate and combat "all tendencies dangerous to the State." It had the authority to investigate treason, espionage and sabotage cases, and cases of criminal attacks on the Nazi Party and on Germany.

The law had been changed in such a way that the Gestapo's actions were not subject to judicial review. Nazi jurist Dr. Werner Best stated, "As long as the ... carries out the will of the leadership, it is acting legally." The Gestapo was specifically exempted from responsibility to administrative courts, where citizens normally could sue the state to conform to laws.

The power of the Gestapo most open to misuse was "Schutzhaft" or "protective custody" — a euphemism for the power to imprison people without judicial proceedings, typically in concentration camps. The person imprisoned even had to sign his or her own Schutzhaftbefehl, the document declaring that the person desired to be imprisoned. Normally this signature was forced by beatings and torture.

wikepidia reminds us...

http://www.internetpirate.com/echelontranscript.htm



60 MINUTES
Television Broadcast February 27, 2000

ECHELON; WORLDWIDE CONVERSATIONS BEING RECEIVED BY THE ECHELON SYSTEM MAY FALL INTO THE WRONG HANDS AND INNOCENT PEOPLE MAY BE TAGGED AS SPIES

STEVE KROFT, co-host:

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.

They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security,

deserve neither liberty or security

- Benjamin Franklin