i want our great land to be safe

i want our people to be safe. i want to protect us from terrorists. both foreign AND domestic (and believe me i'm more afraid of and there is a greater threat from DOMESTIC terrorists). i want all of this badly. i want it all within the bounds and confines of the LAW.

i do NOT want our warriors using rape as a weapon of war as they did/are doing in bosnia and columbia and sudan (and a great many MORE areas). i do not want our warriors to start drafting child soldiers as they do in the congo and elsewhere. i do not want us to turn into the beasts that are running rampant through many other countries.

this is the united states of america. WE DO NOT TORTURE.

we ARE now the savages. we MUST stop this. we MUST repair what we've done. WE MUST BRING THOSE RESPONSIBLE TO JUSTICE

Internal Rifts on Road to Torment

Interviews Offer More Nuanced Look At Roles of CIA Contractors, Concerns Of Officials During Interrogations

By Joby Warrick and Peter Finn

Washington Post Staff Writers
In April 2002, as the terrorism suspect known as Abu Zubaida lay in a Bangkok hospital bed, top U.S. counterterrorism officials gathered at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., for a series of meetings on an urgent problem: how to get him to talk.

Put him in a cell filled with cadavers, was one suggestion, according to a former U.S. official with knowledge of the brainstorming sessions. Surround him with naked women, was another. Jolt him with electric shocks to the teeth, was a third.

One man's certitude lanced through the debate, according to a participant in one of the meetings. James E. Mitchell, a retired clinical psychologist for the Air Force, had studied al-Qaeda resistance techniques.........

why are we hearing from this satanic monster so effing much now?

shouldn't he have crawled back under his rock? shouldn't the earth have swallowed him up?

i guess the devil one knows is better than the devil one doesn't know.

i would like to say, we were ALWAYS at risk. didn't matter if it was bush or gore or kerry or now obama. from foreign AND domestic terrorists. we always WILL be at risk as well. it is my firm belief (as well as the belief of people actually more knowledgeable than i) what king george and his merry band including the soul-less big dick did put us so much MORE at risk. they attacked a country who posed no threat to us. they didn't help their OWN people (think katrina). they funded stupid shite (abstinence only. funded it here and funded it in places such as africa). they didn't fund other stuff they SHOULD have (comprehensive sex education as only one example). they tortured. this is the united states of america. WE DO NOT TORTURE

Cheney Says Current Policies Put More Americans at Risk

By Michael D. Shear

Washington Post Staff Writer
Unrepentant and newly unbridled, former vice president Richard B. Cheney has embraced two missions in his political retirement: to forcefully defend the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies and to publicly condemn those who would unravel them. He did both yesterday, using the drama of a televised feud with President Obama to deliver the blistering accusation that more Americans are likely to die because the president has turned away from George W. Bush's post-Sept. 11, 2001, national security agenda. Cheney seemed eager to fan the flames of the debates raging through Washington........

this is eye opening

and frightening and sad and a national tragedy


The FBI's Least Wanted

Special agent Bassem Youssef was one of the FBI's up-and-comers—fluent in Arabic, ambitious, with a record of spotting threats and cracking terrorist cells. So of course the bureau sent him to rot in a desk job.

—By Bruce Falconer

The FBI's highest-ranking Arabic-speaking agent is a ghost. He goes to work each day, but walks the halls like an empty suit. Fellow agents whisper about his loyalty and talk about throwing him "off the roof." Bassem Youssef, after all, is the whistleblower at the center of two of the FBI's biggest ongoing scandals: its rampant abuse of national security letters to access confidential information on US citizens, and its failure to recruit Arabic-speaking agents. He's sued the bureau for discrimination and has been sidelined to a paper-pushing job. Yet he won't quit—he remains determined, he says, to fight the war on terror, even if he has to battle his bosses to do it.

It wasn't always so. In the mid-1990s, if you were to call the FBI and ask for Bassem Youssef, the switchboard operator would tell you there was no such person. Known in those days by his alias, Adam Shoukry, Youssef was a star counterterrorism specialist, one of only a few agents in bureau history whose work was deemed so sensitive that the attorney general allowed him to go undercover within the FBI itself. Almost a full decade before the 9/11 attacks, he managed to penetrate "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel-Rahman's Islamic Group, which carried out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. (Some of its key members later joined Al Qaeda, which Youssef identified as a threat long before it was on most intelligence agents' radar.).........

to ponder..................

What you should be afraid of instead of terrorists

Posted by Cory Doctorow

Are you an American who worries about terrorism? Stop. If you want to worry about something, here's John Goekler's Counterpunch article on the statistically likely killers that you need to fear: According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, between 310,000 and 580,000 of us will commit suicide by cigarette this year. Another 260,000 to 470,000 will go in the ground due to poor diet and sedentary lifestyle. And some 85,000 of us will drink to our own departure.

After the person in the mirror, the next most dangerous individual we're ever likely to encounter is one in a white coat. Something like 200,000 of us will experience "cessation of life" due to medical errors - botched procedures, mis-prescribed drugs and "nosocomial infections". (The really nasty ones you get from treatment in a hospital or healthcare service unit.)......................

this isn't comforting at all

did you know our colleges and universities (especially the 'historically black' ones) are BREEDING GROUNDS FOR TERRORISTS? i sure didn't. dang! what you'll learn from conservative right wing closed mined evil souled organizations

Fusion center declares nation's oldest universities possible terror threat
Stephen C. Webster
A newly leaked terrorism assessment from a law enforcement fusion center in Virginia highlights US universities as potential "radicalization nodes" for terrorists.

RAW STORY has published the entirety of the 215 page report, available here in PDF format.

From page 17:

A wide variety of terror or extremist groups have links to [a highlighted area of Virginia]. This area not only has a diverse population due to the strong military presence, but it is also the site of several universities.

While most of these universities are considered urban, two are designated as a Historically Black Colleges and Universities, while Regent University is a private, evangelical Christian institution. While the majority of individuals associated with educational institutions do not engage in activities of interest to the VFC, it is important to note that University-based students groups are recognized as a radicalization node for almost every type of extremist group.

Though the report singles out "historically black colleges" early on, it also contains an extensive list of peaceful American and International activist groups from nearly all cross-sections of political engagement, placing them side-by-side with groups that have long been known for resorting to violence.
.......................

proof enough for me

the lone terrorist survivor of the mumbai attacks did indeed come from pakistan. i'm NOT saying the pakistani government had anything to do with the attacks, but i'm not saying they didn't either. the government is still not readily admitting the gunman was pakistani.

Villagers: Surviving Mumbai attacker killed for Kashmir
By Saeed Shah | McClatchy Newspapers
FARIDKOT, near Depalpur, Pakistan — The lone gunman captured alive by Indian police during last week's terrorist attack on Mumbai comes from a dirt-poor village in Pakistan's southern Punjab region where a banned Islamist group has been actively recruiting young men for "jihad," according to residents of the village and official records seen by McClatchy Newspapers.

Ajmal Ameer Kasab, the dark haired 21-year-old man arrested by Indian authorities in the first hours of the assault -- in which over 170 people died -- left the village four years ago, several residents said. He would return once a year to see small family home and one villager recalled him talking about freeing the Muslim-dominated region of Kashmir from India.

His origins are a key to the investigation of the attack and could have a profound impact on relations between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, already at the brink of confrontation. Until now, the Pakistan government has repeatedly said that there was no solid evidence to back Indian accusations that the gunmen came from Pakistan. .................

one would think the assholes at faux 'news'

would have better things to say in the wake of what happened in mumbai. well, one would HOPE they would. just when you thought they were actually HUMAN...they knock you back over with their stupidity, evilness, bullying AND their INSTIGATING. that's what they do best ... INSTIGATE

Fox: Will Mumbai attacks delay Gitmo closing?
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Fox News' Alisyn Camerota appears to be hoping that in the wake of Thursday's terrorist attacks in India, Barack Obama might rethink his campaign pledge to close down the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.

"President-elect Barack Obama condemns the attacks in Mumbai and promises to root out terrorism, but he also promises to close down Guanatanamo Bay," Camerota noted, as the Fox banner asked "Obama's Guantanamo Paradox: Can he close Gitmo after India attacks?"

Camerota spoke with Democratic political consultant Bob Beckel and former Republican Senator Rick Santorum about Guantanamo on Friday, asking, "Is it hard to get a handle on exactly where Barack Obama stands on how he would handle terrorists?"
.......

because there is not enough

pain and horror and misunderstanding and war and murder and torture in the world as it is, let's just add a bit more. when we hurt one we hurt many. when we hurt another, we just hurt our OWN brother or sister.

violence.

why?

Dozens Die in Mumbai Attacks
Hotels Under Siege; Gunmen Said to Target Americans, Britons
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
NEW DELHI, Nov. 27 -- Gunmen attacked three luxury hotels, a hospital, a train station, a movie theater and other buildings in Mumbai late Wednesday, killing at least 100 people and wounding more than 300 in a rampage through India's financial capital, police said. The attackers took dozens of people hostage, and witnesses said they were seeking out Americans and Britons. An unknown group asserted responsibility in e-mails to India's news media. The gunmen, armed with explosives, lay siege to two of the hotels all night. Troops stormed in to rescue people, some of them foreign nationals, who were trapped inside. The 105-year-old Moorish-style rooftop dome of the landmark Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel was engulfed in fire, and flames billowed out of many rooms. One wing of the waterfront hotel was gutted. Seven hours after the first attack, firefighters rescued more than 50 hotel guests and escorted them to ambulances. ..........

hmmmmmmmm

i posted on 8/29 and 8/27 on this. i was at a loss last week and now it's becoming crystal clear to me. i can see the light. yup. i sure can. however, it's UN-EFFING-BELIEVABLE TO ME.

FBI Wanted Obama Plotters Charged, But A Rove Appointee Said No

By seanjballen -
We noticed last week that it was awfully peculiar that Colorado’s U.S. Attorney, Troy Eid, had so airily dismissed conspiracy charges against the three white-supremacist tweakers who were caught planning to assassinate Barack Obama at last week’s Democratic National Convention in Denver.

..............................

Even more significant, beyond the details of the plot, was the fact that, as the Colorado Independent notes, the FBI asked for more serious charges to be filed and were turned down.

....................

Another funny thing: When a black man in prison sent a threatening letter containing baby powder to John McCain, Troy Eid brought down the full force of the law, complete with press conferences and public declarations that "We won't stand for threats of this kind in Colorado.".........

there's gotta be a

'special place' in the 'afterlife' for people like ingraham. she's beyond being an effing fool. SHE'S the terrorist. poisoning unsuspecting minds (although if you're watching faux 'news' you're asking for a heapin' helping o' steamin' shite)

Ingraham: Kim Jong Il supports Obama
David Edwards and Stephen C. Webster

On Monday, June 23, Fox News personality Laura Ingraham declared that Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama has been endorsed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

"In our 'friends like these' department, the unsolicited endorsements keep piling up for Obama," she said. "First, it was Hugo Chavez, and then it was the modern day band of merry men Hamas. And let's not forget the Jack Lalanne of totalitarianism, Fidel Castro. Now it's, drum roll, please, the one and only contestant in North Korean Idol, Kim Jong Il, ladies and gentlemen."

Ingraham's program displayed a graphic of Kim Jong Il's face under the title, "(Obama Supporter)," with a number of bullet points and a "fun fact" about the dictator.......

i don't care for rachel ray

she's effing ANNOYING as ALL get out. her 'endearing' terms make me want to puke (evoo anyone? i wanna slap that fake-smiled puss every time she utters that). her fake peppiness is a load o' steamin' shite. her voice is like nails on a blackboard. BUT THIS? no. rachel ray a TERRORIST? NO
dunkin' donuts promoting terrorism?
why aren't these people (who dream up things like this) carted away? they're not only nuts, they're DANGEROUS. i'm NOT linking to any of 'em. there ARE links to the ringwing (they're the REAL EFFING TERRORISTS IF YOU ASK ME) twilight zone blogs in the story links below. but i'm personally not going to separate them out.
rachel, on this one, i have your back
AND
to dunkin' donuts: if you pull that ad because of what the twilight zoners are writing and saying, i swear i will NEVER buy another cup o' steamin' hot joe from you EVER again. and i think i personally keep you in business my own damn self. yes, i drink THAT much coffee. when i walk in, no matter WHAT dd i walk into, they have my TWO EXTRA LARGE BLACK NO SUGAR COFFEES already poured and waiting for me on the counter. THEY KNOW

oh and one more little teeny tiny thing. i have a scarf or two JUST LIKE THAT and guess what? I'M NOT A FUCKING TERRORIST EITHER

if you google rachel ray and terrorism, there are a TON of hits. i just picked these three

Dunkin’ Dumbasses
By: SilentPatriot
(title borrowed from John Cole.)
..........

File this under: “we now know why McCain is ignoring Michelle Malkin.”

A new Dunkin Donuts ad featuring Rachel Ray sporting a tattered white scarf has the wingnuts in a tizzy, with Michelle Malkin leading the charge. You have to be deranged to see this ad and come to the conclusion that Rachel Ray is a secret Yasser Arafat-loving, terrorist-sympathizing threat who must be stopped for the sake of civilization. Take a glimpse with me into the warped mind of a lunatic fringer:

Michelle Malkin - Of donuts and dumb celebrities:

Is Ray’s blunder worth boycotting DD over? I’ll be interested to hear the company’s take. At this point, I’m going to give the management the benefit of the doubt. They have braved boycott threats and attacks over their lonely, principled stance against illegal immigration. Given their pro-rule of law, America first position, I highly doubt the executive offices are filled with moonbats who endorse Ray’s keffiyeh chic.

Charles Johnson @ Little Green Footballs - Mainstreaming Terrorism to Sell Donuts:

I didn’t believe this story when people first started emailing about it; but sure enough, its true. Dunkin Donuts, the venerable old fried dough seller, is the latest American firm to casually promote the symbol of Palestinian terrorism and the intifada, the kaffiyeh, via Rachael Ray: Dunkin’ Breakfast Choices............

Rachael Ray and Dunkin Donuts are promoting the symbols of terrorism
Two conservative bloggers, Charles Johnson and Michelle Malkin, blogged about how Dunkin Donuts via Rachael Ray is promoting terrorism through fashion. From Charles Johnson's site:

"I didn’t believe this story when people first started emailing about it; but sure enough, its true. Dunkin Donuts, the venerable old fried dough seller, is the latest American firm to casually promote the symbol of Palestinian terrorism and the intifada, the kaffiyeh, via Rachael Ray: Dunkin’ Breakfast Choices."...........

Another reason to hate Rachael Ray

There've always been a lot of people who've criticized Rachael Ray, the bubbly Food Network host. I'm one of them. Still, I can't say I ever thought anyone would get overwrought enough about Ray to actually accuse her of "mainstreaming terrorism." Then again, I hadn't counted on Charles Johnson, who runs the right-wing blog Little Green Footballs.

Ray provoked Johnson's ire with an online ad she's in for Dunkin' Donuts in which she can be seen wearing a keffiyeh, a traditional item of clothing in the Arab world. In a post headlined, "Mainstreaming Terrorism to Sell Donuts," Johnson writes, "I didn’t believe this story when people first started emailing about it; but sure enough, its true. Dunkin Donuts, the venerable old fried dough seller, is the latest American firm to casually promote the symbol of Palestinian terrorism and the intifada, the kaffiyeh, via Rachael Ray.".........

yet another telling episode

that will be ignored by the powers that be AND the american public. i guess they don't realize we have a system of justice in this country. i KNOW they would be outraged (and are outraged) if and when OUR citizens are treated exactly like we are treating some. the democrats in congress and the senate are sitting on their big fat asses. sure, they'll form some committee or another, sure they'll moan and gripe. BUT THEY WON'T DO AN EFFING THING. this has to not only be recognized for what it is (treason, crimes against humanity, crimes against the united states of america) BUT THOSE RESPONSIBLE BE MADE ACCOUNTABLE
From Chief Prosecutor To Critic at Guantanamo

By Josh WhiteWashington Post Staff Writer
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, April 28 -- The Defense Department's former chief prosecutor for terrorism cases appeared Monday at the controversial U.S. detention facility here to argue on behalf of a terrorism suspect that the military justice system has been corrupted by politics and inappropriate influence from senior Pentagon officials.
Sitting just feet from the courtroom table where he had once planned to make cases against military detainees, Air Force Col. Morris Davis instead took the witness stand to declare under oath that he felt undue pressure to hurry cases along so that the Bush administration could claim before political elections that the system was working.
His testimony in a small, windowless room -- as a witness for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, an alleged driver for Osama bin Laden -- offered a harsh insider's critique of how senior political officials have allegedly influenced the system created to try suspected terrorists outside existing military and civilian courts.
Davis's claims, which the Pentagon has previously denied, were aired here as the Supreme Court nears a decision on whether the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that laid the legal foundation for these hearings violates the Constitution by barring any of the approximately 275 remaining Guantanamo Bay prisoners from forcing a civilian judicial review of their detention. .........

we all know

bill o'wrongly is a steamin' pile
Last night, O'Reilly attacked companies doing business without Iran. But, once again, he left out his boss, Rupert Murdoch

Last month, AMERICAblog exposed yet another act of hypocrisy from Bill O'Reilly. We also showed he's a wimp who is afraid of his own boss:
Earlier this year, arm chair terrorism fighter Bill O'Reilly blasted the chair of General Electric for doing business with terrorist countries like Iran. Bill was in rare form when he took on this issue. But, Bill needs to have on another guest and blast him for cavorting with Iranians and Syrians, possibly even aiding in the recruitment of terrorists and certainly facilitating the spewing of hatred against Israel.That guest would be Rupert Murdoch, the head of FOX News.Murdoch owns FOX, for whom O'Reilly works. Murdoch also owns MySpace.com. Therein lies the problem. An astute observer pointed us to some of the users of Mr. Murdoch's site. There are numerous users of MySpace.com in states that sponsor terrorism, like Iran, Syria and Sudan. That alone should warrant intervention from O'Reilly using his own standards for doing business with terrorist nations. But, that's not the biggest problem. It's the Web sites honoring terrorist organizations that give us pause. There is the self-described "Offical Hezbollah MySpace" page. ..............

you know there have been so many lies

even THEY don't know what's true and what's shite now
we all know iraq was NEVER capable of attacking us. we also know iraq had NOTHING to do with 9/11.
what we don't know is if king george and his court knew 9/11 was going to happen prior to it happening. we also know we no longer have rights. we no longer have a constitution. we no longer have LAWS to protect us

Top Democrats demand Attorney General explain remarks about pre-9/11 phone call
Muriel Kane
(Update - Department of Justice responds to Mukasey controversy over 9/11 comments)
A letter has been sent by leaders of the House Judiciary Committee to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, demanding that he explain a recent public statement that federal authorities failed to intercept a call from suspected terrorists in Afghanistan prior to the 9/11 attacks, when doing so could have prevented the attacks from taking place.
Mukasey blamed that failure on a lack of the sort of warrantless wiretapping authority that the administration has now called on Congress to provide. However, there has never been any previous mention of such a call, and the Judiciary Committee letter -- signed by Chairman John Conyers and two subcommittee chairs -- points out that the law that existed at the time would have allowed the call to be intercepted immediately, with permission granted retroactively by the FISA court..........

Feith: We invaded Iraq because we were afraid they'd attack us
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
During an interview to be broadcast on 60 Minutes this Sunday, former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Doug Feith was asked why the US chose to go after Saddam Hussein instead of Osama bin Laden.
CBS's Steve Kroft asked Feith, "Why was the decision made to go after him after 9/11? Because we knew even then, he didn't have anything to do with it."
"What we did after 9/11 was to look broadly at the international terrorism network from which the next attack on the United States might come," Feith replied, "and we did not focus narrowly only on the people who were specifically responsible for 9/11. Our main goal was preventing the next attack."..........

if you live in boise

quick pack your bags and move to a SAFE city like la. it's DANGEROUS to live in boise as it turns out. NO, this isn't april 1st any longer. it's real (well really effed up)
it would be funny if shite like this didn't cost TONS OF MONEY (studies i mean)

Terrorism Study Drops a Bombshell on Boise

By Lyndsey Layton and Ashley SurdinWashington Post Staff Writers
Quick: Name the Western U.S. city most vulnerable to a terrorist attack. Is it Los Angeles, with its crowded roads that make quick escape impossible? San Francisco and its iconic bridge? Or Seattle with its Space Needle and busy port?
Try Boise, Idaho, with its, um, potatoes.
A new study funded largely by the Department of Homeland Security ranked 132 American cities according to vulnerability to terrorist attacks. Boise was the only city in the western half of the country to make the top 10.
"To be honest, we're a little bit surprised," said Adam Park, a spokesman for Boise, a landlocked city of 200,000 where the big event this weekend is a Professional Bull Riders invitational. .......

what's wrong with THIS picture

our king doesn't HESITATE for one INSTANT in giving a FOREIGN COUNTRY 300,000,000. (a drop in the bucket when you consider the money we spend in iraq DAILY) when (and let's just take THIS ONE EXAMPLE) victims of hurricane katrina STILL suffer (as i said, ONE example. we're not even talking the housing crisis, the cost of heating oil and petrol for the cars or groceries or health care or education or on and on and on)
Bush waives law to give millions to Pakistan's anti-terror fight
President George W. Bush has cleared the way for giving millions of dollars to Pakistan to fight terrorism this year, the White House said Tuesday as a new government took power in Islamabad.
In a memo to the secretary of state dated Monday, Bush used his authority to exempt Pakistan from a law that restricts funding countries where the legitimate head of state was deposed by a military coup, as in Pakistan.
The waiver, which Bush has approved every year since 2003, opens the way for the United States to provide about 300 million dollars this year to key "war on terror" ally Pakistan to boost its counter-terrorism operations.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the Bush administration still had concerns about the human rights situation in Pakistan, where President Pervez Musharraf took power by force in 1999, but stressed its major strategic role........

uniform standards?

my big fat ass! we not only DEMAND uniform standards, we DEMAND innocent people be left off that list. we DEMAND our constitution right to privacy. we DEMAND no warrantless wiretaps. we DEMAND truth, justice and the AMERICAN WAY

we DEMAND those responsible for our loss of rights and the shredding of our constitution be brought up on charges
Reports Cite Lack of Uniform Policy for Terrorist Watch List

By Ellen Nakashima Washington Post Staff Writer
Almost seven years since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the government is still struggling to establish a uniform procedure to put people on its master watch list of known or suspected terrorists, according to two government reports out this month.
The reports' findings come after criticism from privacy advocates that problems with the watch list hamper the government's ability to identify terrorists and do not ensure that innocent Americans are not included.
A inspector general's report for the office of the Director of National Intelligence found that "the nomination processes and procedures vary across the intelligence community, causing inconsistencies and disproportionate responsibilities in making nominations," according to spokesman Ross Feinstein.
A report issued yesterday by the Justice Department's inspector general, Glenn A. Fine, came to much the same conclusion regarding the FBI and six partner agencies. ......

a letter to king george

from congressman silvestre reyes. i'm printing it in it's entirety

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
The Preamble to our Constitution states that one of our highest duties as public officials is to "provide for the common defence." As an elected Member of Congress, a senior Member of the House Armed Services Committee, and Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, I work everyday to ensure that our defense and intelligence capabilities remain strong in the face of serious threats to our national security.
Because I care so deeply about protecting our country, I take strong offense to your suggestion in recent days that the country will be vulnerable to terrorist attack unless Congress immediately enacts legislation giving you broader powers to conduct warrantless surveillance of Americans' communications and provides legal immunity for telecommunications companies that participated in the Administration's warrantless surveillance program.
Today, the National Security Agency (NSA) has authority to conduct surveillance in at least three different ways, all of which provide strong capability to monitor the communications of possible terrorists.
First, NSA can use its authority under Executive Order 12333 to conduct surveillance abroad of any known or suspected terrorist. There is no requirement for a warrant. There is no requirement for probable cause. Most of NSA's collection occurs under this authority.
Second, NSA can use its authority under the Protect America Act, enacted last August, to conduct surveillance here in the U.S of any foreign target. This authority does not "expire" on Saturday, as you have stated. Under the PAA, orders authorizing surveillance may last for one year – until at least August 2008. These orders may cover every terrorist group without limitation. If a new member of the group is identified, or if a new phone number or email address is identified, the NSA may add it to the existing orders, and surveillance can begin immediately. We will not "go dark."
Third, in the remote possibility that a new terrorist organization emerges that we have never previously identified, the NSA could use existing authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to monitor those communications. Since its establishment nearly 30 years ago, the FISA Court has approved nearly every application for a warrant from the Department of Justice. In an emergency, NSA or the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) may begin surveillance immediately, and a FISA Court order does not have to be obtained for three days. The former head of FISA operations for the Department of Justice has testified publicly that emergency authorization may be granted in a matter of minutes.
As you know, the 1978 FISA law, which has been modernized and updated numerous times since 9/11, was instrumental in disrupting the terrorist plot in Germany last summer. Those who say that FISA is outdated do not understand the strength of this important tool.
If our nation is left vulnerable in the coming months, it will not be because we don't have enough domestic spying powers. It will be because your Administration has not done enough to defeat terrorist organizations – including al Qaeda -- that have gained strength since 9/11. We do not have nearly enough linguists to translate the reams of information we currently collect. We do not have enough intelligence officers who can penetrate the hardest targets, such as al Qaeda. We have surged so many intelligence resources into Iraq that we have taken our eye off the ball in Afghanistan and Pakistan. As a result, you have allowed al Qaeda to reconstitute itself on your watch.
You have also suggested that Congress must grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies. As someone who has been briefed on our most sensitive intelligence programs, I can see no argument why the future security of our country depends on whether past actions of telecommunications companies are immunized.
The issue of telecom liability should be carefully considered based on a full review of the documents that your Administration withheld from Congress for eight months. However, it is an insult to the intelligence of the American people to say that we will be vulnerable unless we grant immunity for actions that happened years ago.
Congress has not been sitting on its hands. Last November, the House passed responsible legislation to authorize the NSA to conduct surveillance of foreign terrorists and to provide clarity and legal protection to our private sector partners who assist in that surveillance.
The proper course is now to conference the House bill with the Senate bill that was passed on Tuesday. There are significant differences between these two bills and a conference, in regular order, is the appropriate mechanism to resolve the differences between these two bills. I urge you, Mr. President, to put partisanship aside and allow Republicans in Congress to arrive at a compromise that will protect America and protect our Constitution.
I, for one, do not intend to back down – not to the terrorists and not to anyone, including a President, who wants Americans to cower in fear.
We are a strong nation. We cannot allow ourselves to be scared into suspending the Constitution. If we do that, we might as well call the terrorists and tell them that they have won.
Sincerely,
Silvestre Reyes
Member of Congress
Chairman, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

if you don't think you are next

you are sadly mistaken my dears

Collateral Damage: Surveillance Aimed at Terrorists Can Easily Go Awry
By Jeff Stein, National Security Editor, CQ Staff
U.S. intelligence tapped the telephone calls of Lawrence Wright, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower, starting in 2002.
This may well be news to many people, even though Wright revealed the taps himself in a sprawling, 15,000-word article on electronic surveillance in the Jan. 21 edition of The New Yorker magazine.
Perhaps because the article was not available online it lacked the link-juice to propel it into a frenzy over the “domestic spying” on the Web, the cable news shows and leading American newspapers.
As far as I can tell, only Pam Hess of the Associated Press picked up on Wright’s confrontation with spy chief Michael McConnell over the phone taps, and no major paper ran it. The version of her story that The Washington Post printed recounted McConnell’s telling Wright that water boarding would be “torture” if it were done to him, but dropped the five paragraphs Hess wrote on the eavesdropping. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal skipped Wright’s wiretap account altogether.
But The New Yorker’s Web site did feature an audio interview with Wright in which he described the visit of FBI agents to his Texas home in 2002 to quiz him about the telephone calls intercepted by U.S. intelligence. .........

.....It’s just not true, no matter how many times administration officials say it, that critical operations to find the kidnappers of American soldiers in Iraq and an al Qaeda cell in Germany were held up by FISA regulations. McConnell himself said he was mistaken.But what really troubles me is that so many, many years after the first terrorist attack here (on the World Trade Center in 1993), our spying agencies apparently still haven’t found an effective way to pursue the real bad guys.The huge electronic wires they want to wrap us in are no substitute for good human intelligence work out there — where the bad guys are. As former counterterror agent Michael Tanji put it on Wired magazine’s Danger Room blog: “It’s bad enough that the Director of National Intelligence is trotting out a bogus threat so the government can snoop on all Internet traffic. What’s worse is that this kind of mass surveillance is a pretty lame way to catch the honest-to-God bad guys.”....

this is not only absurd BUT obscene

we're 'winning' both the war on terror AND the war in iraq (or so 'they' say). why then are billions more requested than was requested in 2007 and 2006?

what are we allowing 'them' to do? is it too late, i wonder?

we've literally killed an entire country and now we're working on killing our own
Wars Cost $15 Billion a Month, GOP Senator Says

By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer
The latest estimate of the growing costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the worldwide battle against terrorism -- nearly $15 billion a month -- came last week from one of the Senate's leading proponents of a continued U.S. military presence in Iraq.
"This cost of this war is approaching $15 billion a month, with the Army spending $4.2 billion of that every month," Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska), the ranking Republican on the Appropriations defense subcommittee, said in a little-noticed floor speech Dec. 18. His remarks came in support of adding $70 billion to the omnibus fiscal 2008 spending legislation to pay for the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, as well as counterterrorism activities, for the six months from Oct. 1, 2007, through March 31 of next year. ............