Comment about – House Fails to Extend Patriot Act Spy Powers | Threat Level | Wired.com

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Civil Rights, cricketdiane, extension of the Patriot Act in 2011, federal legislation and laws, Homeland Security, House of Representatives, individual liberties, individual rights, Patriot Act, President Bush Republican enacted laws, rights of citizebs, spying, unwarranted government eavesdropping and wiretapping United States, unwarranted search and seizure, US Bill of Rights, US Congress, US Constitution, US government domestic spying, wiretapping

from – House Fails to Extend Patriot Act Spy Powers | Threat Level | Wired.com

The three expiring Patriot Act provisions are:

• The “roving wiretap” provision allows the FBI to obtain wiretaps from a secret intelligence court, known as the FISA court, without identifying what method of communication is to be tapped.

• The “lone wolf” measure allows FISA court warrants for the electronic monitoring of a person for whatever reason — even without showing that the suspect is an agent of a foreign power or a terrorist. The government has said it has never invoked that provision, but the Obama administration said it wanted to retain the authority to do so.

• The “business records” provision allows FISA court warrants for any type of record, from banking to library to medical, without the government having to declare that the information sought is connected to a terrorism or espionage investigation.

via House Fails to Extend Patriot Act Spy Powers | Threat Level | Wired.com.

My Note –

We’ve had these in place since 2001 / 2002 – and they didn’t stop the Fort Hood shooting, the recent shooting Loughner did, but in the meantime, the government for ten years has certainly used these provisions when they wanted.

I’m glad that it has not received the votes, but there are other choices that the House and Senate will be voting on to replace these provisions. Not to be a thing of panic, there are a multitude of cases in which the government has over the last thirty plus years, used its powers to spy on people with or without the Patriot Act and its provisions.

During the Nixon years, there was quite a to do about it, and yet, it didn’t necessarily stop there as a result. As an example, finding out what I’ve read at the library probably isn’t going to indicate what stupid choices I might make today – I would guess the same thing is true for other people.

And, most unfortunately, when a bomb was placed in a car on Times’ Square – it wasn’t any of the things in the Patriot Act’s spying tools that were allowed to be used against Americans, that made a difference at all – it was the awareness of the immediate surroundings by an individual who noticed it and called about it. Nothing stopped it from being done in the first place, as we would have hoped.

There is no telling what the next version of those provisions will be, once the House and Senate have finished mucking about with it. The chances are, it could be worse than the Patriot Act was in the first place because of the contests of will that are going on in the Legislature right now. It is hard to tell which is worse, when they work together to trade off with one another whatever is best for us in order to “make a deal” and thereby selling us all down the river, or when the two sides in our political arena square off against one another and play war while making sure neither side can win, consequently costing all of us, both immediately and down the road.

– cricketdiane

***

 

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US – Republican Administration Policies continue unabated, unhindered, and without regard, using their “conservative thinktank” policies to impose and define America with Abuses of Human Rights, Violations of Civil Rights, Oppression of the Disadvantaged and Disabled – These Bush, Reagan and even, Nixon era bureaucrats are still using their Gestapo tactics of unbridled cruelty, senseless unmerciful viciousness and psychotic sadistic whims on citizens lives while causing egregious harms against mankind – Here is what their efforts are using our money and resources to do this time – (leftover evils from previous Republican bureaucratic policies) – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5949202/40-MPs-in-plea-to-Barack-Obama-over-computer-hacker-Gary-McKinnon.html – These Republican right wing policies continue to be imposed on our society by using the Conservative Caucus choices that were enacted throughout the US agencies, state legislatures and under the guise of US states’ rights from the last twenty years, which inflict their abuses of power, intolerance of Human Rights and degradations of people upon every person it touches – now to include Gary McKinnon, UK citizen for hacking into US databases to find out about UFOs . . .

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conservative Republicans legacy, Gary McKinnon, Homeland Security actions, human rights violations in the United States, Patriot Act, Republican policies in action, UK, US Bill of Rights, US Constitution, US extradition of UK man who hacked into government databases looking for UFO information, US government policies, US human rights, US oppression (of diversity - differences and disabled individuals - elderly - poor - disadvantaged - homeless - destitute - nonconformist ) continues along conservative christian values of intoleranc, US oppression of diversity difference and disabled individuals continues along conservative christian values of intolerance and shameful cruel sadism same as the Bush administration CIA and domestic p

My Note – A little about this year’s poisoning of horses (real life in America, and I should’ve put the story about the Holocaust survivor that was strangled, beat and killed in his home – 90 years old, survived horrors of prison camps in Hitler’s version of Germany, and this is what America gives him in his final years, unbelievable) and below that, what the current uses of the “Patriot Act” and Homeland Security are doing to a 43-year old UK man who has a form of autism and is brilliant in spite of it –

– cricketdiane

****

* At least 20 horses were deliberately poisoned on farm, authorities say
* Toxic oleander leaves were found with apples, carrots in horses’ stalls
* No word yet on possible motive or sickened horses’ prognosis

updated 8:00 a.m. EDT, Sat August 1, 2009

(CNN) — More than 20 horses became ill when they were intentionally poisoned with toxic leaves in southern California this week, authorities said Friday.
These oleander bush leaves, toxic to horses, were found in a San Diego, California, stable.

[etc.]

An exact number of horses sickened was unclear, but officials believe they were more than 20. The animals, whose prognosis was not known, were under the care of veterinarians.

An investigation is under way.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/08/01/california.horses/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

***

[And from April of this year – ]

Polo horses may have been poisoned
Twenty-one ponies who mysteriously died as they were being prepared for a major match in Florida are likely to have been poisoned, vets believe.

By Tom Leonard in New York
Published: 6:38PM BST 20 Apr 2009

A horrified crowd at the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington watched in silence on Sunday as vets tried desperately to save the animals after they collapsed or became dizzy as they were led out of their trailers.

The team is owned by Victor Vargas, a Venezuelan businessman, close confidant of Hugo Chavez and one of the richest men in South America.

Vets at the scene, who inserted intravenous tubes and tried to cool them down with fans and water, said the horses suffered pulmonary edema, an accumulation of fluid in their lungs, and heart failure.

They had high temperatures and were disoriented but felt no pain.

The as yet unidentified toxin could have been in tainted food, vitamins or dietary supplements, or some combination of all three that caused a toxic reaction, said Scott Swerdin, a vet who treated the horses.

James Belden, a local vet who worked for the team, Lechuza Caracas, said it was a clear case of “some sort of poison” and played down the possibity of steroid abuse.

[ . . . ]

John Wash, president of club operations for the International Polo Club Palm Beach, said the polo teams were told by veterinary officials that whatever killed the horses wasn’t airborne or contagious.

“It won’t just be the polo scene in Wellington, I think it will affect the polo scene worldwide,” Mr Wash said.

“In polo’s history there’s never been an incident like this that anybody can remember. This was a tragic issue on the magnitude of losing a basketball team in an aeroplane crash.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5189672/Polo-horses-may-have-been-poisoned.html
***

40 MPs in plea to Barack Obama over computer hacker Gary McKinnon

More than 40 MPs have issued a highly unusual direct plea to the Barack Obama urging him to halt the “shameful” extradition of a British computer hacker to the United States.

By John Bingham and Christopher Hope
Published: 8:00AM BST 01 Aug 2009
Gary McKinnon: British judges agree to more extraditions than US counterparts British computer hacker Gary McKinnon suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism Photo: AP

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, also threw his weight behind a campaign against plans to send Gary McKinnon, who suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism, for trial in the US accused of breaking into sensitive military networks.

It came as the 43-year-old lost an eleventh hour High Court challenge to the move claiming that it would worsen his condition and represent “inhuman” treatment.

In a letter, seen by The Daily Telegraph, a group of MPs urged Mr Obama to halt the extradition arguing that “most reasonable individuals” would view it as disproportionate given his mental state.

[ . . . ]

Mr McKinnon, described by his own legal team as an eccentric, claims that he was merely searching for evidence of UFOs when he hacked into almost 100 US government computers from his bedroom in north London shortly after the September 11 attacks of 2001.

Although his extradition has already been agreed after a lengthy legal process, he launched a last-minute High Court challenge attempting to force the Home Secretary to block the move earlier this year.

His lawyers also challenged the decision by Keir Starmer QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, not to sanction a trial in this country – something which would preclude extradition.

The lawyers argued that sending him for trial in the US, despite his mental condition and with the prospect of up to 60 years in prison if found guilty, would breach his human rights.

But despite accepting that extradition to the US could cause Mr McKinnon’s mental health to deteriorate and even worsen the risk of suicide, two senior judges ruled that it did not represent a “inhuman or degrading treatment”.

[ . . . ]

Forty MPs including Michael Ancram, Sir Patrick Cormack and Peter Bottomley signed the letter, organised by the Conservative member Angela Browning who is Vice President of the National Autistic Society.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Former Liberal Democrat leader, Chris Grayling, the shadow Home Secretary, and Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, also spoke out against the extradition.

Karen Todner, Mr McKinnon’s solicitor, said: “I have today sent a letter to President Barack Obama signed by 40 members of a cross parliamentary group of MPs asking him to step in to bring this shameful episode to an end. It is a sad state of affairs if this Government cannot protect our most vulnerable citizens.”

Any Supreme Court case is not thought likely to be heard until next spring, in the run-up to the expected general election.

[ . . . ]

Mr Cameron said: “Gary McKinnon is a vulnerable young man and I see no compassion in sending him thousands of miles away from his home and loved ones to face trial.”

Speaking on the steps of the Royal Courts of Justice Mrs Sharp described the attempt to extradite her son as a “disgrace”.

“I’m desperately trying to get through to Obama,” she said. “This is from the Bush era … it is not of Obama, he would not want this to happen.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5949202/40-MPs-in-plea-to-Barack-Obama-over-computer-hacker-Gary-McKinnon.html

***

My Note –

Is That the best they can do with our money – to process and prosecute someone who is obviously not a terrorist, didn’t intend harm and was capable of getting into secure computer databases of our government. They ought to be hiring him instead of prosecuting and persecuting Gary McKinnon – he’s obviously brilliant and we need his expertise, and so does the government of the UK and Interpol and the European Parliaments’ cybersecurity forces.

What are they thinking to bring this man to the United States away from all that he knows and subject him to sitting in a jail cell through the fall and Christmas, locked away from everyone he knows in the abusive environments of our prison system? Why in the hell would anybody do such a thing given that what he did hacking into the government agency computer networks took a brilliant ability that we so desperately need?

How dare anyone destroy that brilliance, genius and level of knowledge when it caused no harm, was not intended to cause harm and was in no way related to terrorism, nor to a terrorist act? Then, to sit him in our jails until Spring of whenever without a due recourse because the bureaucracy of the Republican Party’s Bush Administration is still in unfettered tyranny? Are you kidding me – what kind of people would do this and get it so backwards when we are desperate to have people exactly like this man help us in our intelligence and cyber security fields? If they do this to him, there is nothing worth saving in America because there is apparently too much wrong with it to fix . . .

The United States of America has no business acting like a senseless bunch of Gestapo bastards without the insight or good judgment of a rock. It is a waste of time, effort and resources along with the fact that no good comes of it and it undermines the very foundation of our nation’s premise.

– cricketdiane, 08-01-09

***

Title – (this is not a sentence, it is a paragraph for a title – sorry about that),

US – Republican Administration Policies continue unabated, unhindered, and without regard, using their “conservative thinktank” policies to impose and define America with Abuses of Human Rights, Violations of Civil Rights, Oppression of the Disadvantaged and Disabled – These Bush, Reagan and even, Nixon era bureaucrats are still using their Gestapo tactics of unbridled cruelty, senseless unmerciful viciousness and psychotic sadistic whims on citizens lives while causing egregious harms against mankind – Here is what their efforts are using our money and resources to do this time – (leftover evils from previous Republican bureaucratic policies) –

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5949202/40-MPs-in-plea-to-Barack-Obama-over-computer-hacker-Gary-McKinnon.html – These Republican right wing policies continue to be imposed on our society by using the Conservative Caucus choices that were enacted throughout the US agencies, state legislatures and under the guise of US states’ rights from the last twenty years, which inflict their abuses of power, intolerance of Human Rights and degradations of people upon every person it touches – now to include Gary McKinnon, UK citizen for hacking into US databases to find out about UFOs . . .

***

I still say – they ought to be hiring this guy, Gary McKinnon instead of giving him hell across two countries and using countless manhours, resources, administrative efforts, prosecution funds and costs to both countries, as well as the mental stress, inconvenience and difficulties it has caused him and his family (and in his community) – it is an insane waste of resources and a complete waste of his talents when we most need them available to us in both countries and in the European Parliament facilities, as well.

– my note

***

US oppression (of diversity – differences and disabled individuals – elderly – poor – disadvantaged – homeless – destitute – nonconformist – creative – gifted – intelligent – genius – brilliant – talented – unusual) continues along conservative christian values of intolerance and shameful cruelty / sadistic games with human lives – the same as the Bush administration CIA, NSA, police brutality and domestic policies of castes and oppression.

In the words of our Chinese counterparts – “Don’t try to catch a falling knife.” I saw it on the bloomberg ticker one night last fall and nearly fell out of my chair considering its implications. It might be correct – it may be that the United States who has demanded that every other nation abide by certain human rights protections for citizens, cannot do the same at home nor in any policies or action it takes. That would be a shame for it to continue that way.

****

Nancy Pelosi and the CIA – it isn’t Leon Panetta’s game – His job sits on top of the agency known for lies, it is their stock and trade – the new Director can’t speak for them or their past actions accurately – no matter what they say at the desks of the CIA operatives and supervisors – the US Congress can’t be made into a war zone by the Republicans over this – they are the ones that are accountable for torture and other violations of the US Constitution

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abuse of the people by the Republicans under Reagan Bush and Bush Junior, Ashcroft, attorneys argue both sides of the same coin using the law as it suits them change the wording it is still torture, Bush Administration, CIA, cooruption and abuse of authority, corruption and abuse of power, Dick Cheney, military intelligence, Nancy Pelosi, Patriot Act, police brutality, Republican party, Republicans, Rumsfeld, Speaker of the House, torture, US Congress, waterboarding, Yoo

I think the people of the United States deserve to know what actually happened when Nancy Pelosi and others were briefed about the CIA’s use of torture and specifically, waterboarding.

But, the fact is, those briefing notes will be kept hidden because the chances are really good that the CIA didn’t clearly show or describe or demonstrate what was involved in any way that would’ve warned the decision-makers of its implications. They didn’t want anyone to stop them.

The difference is whether the CIA in the briefing said they were going to pour a little water over the faces of the captives to make them think the contractors would drown them.

Or, if the CIA said in the briefing that they were going to drown the captives and bring them back from it, to see if they would tell anything that was not already known.

And, whether the CIA in those briefings with Nancy Pelosi and others was conducted in such a way that they showed actual video footage which clearly indicated how the waterboarding and other practices of torture were being done.

The fact is, the CIA and every other intelligence contractor holds beliefs that lies are a tool of the trade. Giving their policies and practices a “frame of reference” that makes them look okay when they are not, is standard operating policy when it comes to decision-makers in Congress, the executive branch administrators, cabinet members, the President and especially, the American people. It has always been that way. And every other intelligence agency in the world works that way too.

The police lie to the criminal to get him or her to confess without an attorney while claiming to be the “good guys.” The CIA and other intelligence professionals lie to the “enemy,” whoever that might be today or tomorrow, and regardless of that saying on their wall, they do not operate in truth, honesty, ethics, morals, or high regard for greater principles. That is not what they’ve been hired to do.

They, [including police officers, security contractors and intelligence agents of our government,] have been hired to screw the enemy agent and pretend they are lovers to get information.

And, to set up tricks whereby information can be gained by whatever means necessary. And, to mislead, lie, steal, shoot the idiot they want to question and ask questions while applying pressure for the poor bastard or bastardess to bleed to death.

These CIA, NSA, police, and other “security” professionals don’t know why the American people or the members of Congress we’ve elected would frown upon things like that, nor why they don’t want waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation measures” to be used, nor why these things are undesirable.

That’s why we don’t leave decisions about their actions strictly to their own best thinking. It is twisted. Their discussion of it is also twisted. They have training in making it twisted with intentional goals in mind. That is what they are good at doing because we’ve already spent a ton of money making sure they are trained to be like that.

And, when I think of what the CIA agency officials likely told anybody in Congress about what they are doing – including Nancy Pelosi – it probably went something like this –

“We are going to make them uncomfortable and inconvenience them a little but it won’t hurt them in any way. It isn’t torture – we had the lawyers check that. We might pour a little water down on them so they think we might drown them, but we will have a doctor there and a psychiatrist to make sure it won’t really hurt them. That’s okay with you all, isn’t it? We don’t foresee a problem, so there should be a lot gained and no real liability for the agency.”

I wasn’t there and don’t have the privilege of looking over the briefing notes or minutes of those meetings, but I bet the CIA wasn’t forthright about the reality of those interrogation techniques where a clear view could emerge. That is not the way they do things. It isn’t rocket science to figure out that the ability to honestly convey the truth is not one of their strong suits.

If Nancy Pelosi and others in Congress may be censured over this – then President Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and every other jackass that okay’d it needs to go before the world court and be held accountable just as we have done to every other tyrant and oppressive administration across the world.

They knew better. It isn’t possible to waterboard somebody 183 times in a month accidentally. None of them would consider it anything but torture if it were done to them.

And, it wasn’t the only way to do it, didn’t yield the degree and quantity of information they claimed and the only reason to have done it and some of the other things past a point was purely evil, sheer cruelty and sadistic psychopathic thinking.

The Republicans that are screaming for this and that against members of Congress, including Speaker Pelosi are simply trying to deflect the real targets of absolute accountability in this and in other wrongs that defied the Constitution of the United States along with the trust we placed in them.

For me, I want to believe that George Jr. didn’t do this and had a whole bunch of complete jackasses around him that were advising him badly. That is what I want to believe, but the Twin Towers came down on his watch because of the incompetence and infighting he and his cronies of the Republican party created.

And, no good bit of common sense can get through that mess of confused intellectual inbreeding they called policy in any agency they ruled. It is all – every last one of them – mucked up. Every agency, every purpose, every charter, every underlying goal and every policy twisted by their applications of it. But, they were consistent.

To find who actually was the individual or group of individuals behind these choices would be an act of God because the convoluted manner in which they governed and chose to “enact” their principles yielded the exact opposite of what they claimed to have intended – in every agency and facet of American life they touched.

There were reports that our government was broken as the news covered things last year that they found. And, they are right – it was broken and the Republicans who are now screaming against change want to keep it that way. While they are skimming around the People’s pond up there in Washington, they are failing to join with all of us in seeking solutions that will work. It is a disgusting waste of time, effort, good-will and resources.

– cricketdiane, 05-19-09

***

Nancy Pelosi and the CIA – it isn’t Leon Panetta’s game – His job sits on top of the agency known for lies, it is their stock and trade – the new Director can’t speak for them or their past actions accurately – no matter what they say at the desks of the CIA operatives and supervisors – the US Congress can’t be made into a war zone by the Republicans over this – they are the ones that are accountable for torture and other violations of the US Constitution

Leon Panetta cannot even begin to comprehend the beast that he is dealing with in the CIA. It is backwards, upside down and completely convoluted from anything that normal everyday people would consider right. That is why they can do that job. And, then we train them to be more of the same twisted thinking and actions to a greater degree of the extreme. If you don’t believe it – look into the “perception management” techniques the military and intelligence agencies are taught to use. Not for the faint of heart. – my note.