It's not wiretapping, it's John Poindexter's TIA

John Poindexter, the convicted (Poppy pardoned) Iran-Contra spook was put into DARPA in Feb 2002 to head a group (Information Awareness Office) to develop an all knowing all seeing system that would scan everything that came to be called Total Information Awareness. Phones, radios, emails, credit records, library records, everything was to be scanned looking for patterns or phrases deemed "interesting" for good old Rummy. Congress killed the program and the good Admiral faded from sight. Rummy commented at the time that they would just have to get the info some other way. Does anyone doubt for a second that Rummy/Cheney and their old I/C buddies would think twice about diverting funds (remember the $700M moved from the Afghan war to start-up Iraq) or cutting backroom deals for their own pet projects?

These are the guys that backed Osama to fight the Russians. They cut a deal with Iran to wait until minutes after Reagan was sworn in to release the hostages. They gave Saddam any weapons he wanted to fight the Iranians. They sold weapons to the Iranians to fight Saddam -> to use the money to supply the Contras to overthrow an elected government -> that used CIA connected gun runners that subsidized their income by bringing drugs into the US (the Mena,AR connection the Pukes always tried to lay on BC).

This crime cartel has never made a move or earned a dime that wasn't stained with blood. They wrap themselves in the flag and hoist the battered body of Jesus to stave off any questions or responsibility. At the risk of sounding like a Pat Robertson, how can our Nation not fear the wrath of a just Creator? The God that GW, et al claim to own must have one big time Biblical reckoning brewing that will make 9-11 and Katrina look like a day at the beach. Impeachment is the least of their worries.

http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/poindexter.html

The world has changed dramatically since the Cold War when there existed two super powers. During the years I was in the White House it was relatively simple to identify our intelligence collection targets. It was sometimes hard to collect the intelligence, but the targets were clear. Today, we are in a world of asymmetries. The most serious asymmetric threat facing the United States is terrorism, a threat characterized by collections of people loosely organized in shadowy networks that are difficult to identify and define and whose goals are the destruction of our way of life. The intelligence collection targets are thousands of people whose identities and whereabouts we do not always know. It is somewhat analogous to the anti-submarine warfare problem of finding submarines in an ocean of noise - we must find the terrorists in a world of noise, understand what they are planning, and develop options for preventing their attacks. If we are to preserve our national security, we must figure out a way of combating this threat.


http://www.cato.org/dailys/01-20-03.html

John Poindexter, head of the Pentagon's Office of Information Awareness, is developing a vast surveillance database to track terror suspects. The Total Information Awareness (TIA) system will, according to Poindexter, "break down the stovepipes" that separate commercial and government databases, allowing OIA access to citizens' credit card purchases, travel itineraries, telephone calling records, email, medical histories and financial information. It would give government the power to generate a comprehensive data profile on any U.S. citizen.

Adm. Poindexter assures us that TIA will be designed to respect constitutional guarantees of privacy and shield law-abiding citizens from the Pentagon's all-seeing eye. But if the history of military surveillance of civilians is any indication, accepting that assurance amounts to the triumph of hope over experience.

Everyone at DU should have looked at each other and hissed "Poindexter", ala Jerry's reaction to Newman.

You got it.