Warrantless spying on Americans - another shoe drops!

[Rodeo]

ABC News is reporting that the Bush Administration and/or NSA is tracking the phone calls of reporters in connection with “leak investigations.”

This is how the middle innings look on the road to fascism. First, they tell us they are only conducting warrantless spying on domestic/international calls involving terrorists.

Then, they tell us they are compiling via warrantless demands to phone companies a databank of ALL domestic calls in the US, again supposedly to track terrorists.

Now, if this report is correct, they are using their (ever-expanding) warrantless powers to get data logs of reporters' phone calls, and presumably data logs of those people that spoke to reporters and those people that spoke to those people.

The warrantless noose is tightening.

How long before we find out they just couldn’t resist the urge to listen in on some of those domestic calls?

Guard your constitution, it's the only thing between you and tyranny. Warrantless spying on Americans by Americans is wrong.

Federal Source to ABC News: We Know Who You're Calling

May 15, 2006 10:33 AM
Brian Ross and Richard Esposito Report:

A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential sources.

"It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick," the source told us in an in-person conversation.

ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls.

Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.

One former official was asked to sign a document stating he was not a confidential source for New York Times reporter James Risen.

Our reports on the CIA's secret prisons in Romania and Poland were known to have upset CIA officials. The CIA asked for an FBI investigation of leaks of classified information following those reports.

People questioned by the FBI about leaks of intelligence information say the CIA was also disturbed by ABC News reports that revealed the use of CIA predator missiles inside Pakistan.

Under Bush Administration guidelines, it is not considered illegal for the government to keep track of numbers dialed by phone customers.

The official who warned ABC News said there was no indication our phones were being tapped so the content of the conversation could be recorded.

A pattern of phone calls from a reporter, however, could provide valuable clues for leak investigators.

[Jim Richards]

our Constitution in flames.

[speeder]

Un-freakin' believable. And I'm sure that Mul will defend it.

Are you flooded there, Steve?

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally posted by speeder
Are you flooded there, Steve?

If Mul is "Steve", then yes, he is. He probably already jizzed a few times just reading that.

[dd74]

This is the most abusive administration toward American rights that I think we shall ever see in our lifetime, and all because of their inherent and clear paranoia.

It's Nixon all over again.

I can't believe I once supported them...

[Rodeo]

Mul is most assuredly not Steve

And yes Steve is trying to keep his nose above water here in Rhode Island.

This scene is less than a mile from my house:

[Jim Richards]

waterfront property! big bucks!

[deathpunk dan]

Rodeo
You in edgewood?

[Nathans_Dad]

So if this is a leak investigation then there would likely be a warrant for this sort of thing, no? I don't see any mention in that article of "warrantless spying" and it specifically mentions that this is in relation to a CIA leak investigation.

Once again Rodeo spews out a piece of info and tries to link it with his pet project, the NSA eavesdropping program. Typical.

[Rodeo]

Originally posted by deathpunk dan
You in edgewood?

yep

[Rodeo]

Originally posted by Nathans_Dad
So if this is a leak investigation then there would likely be a warrant for this sort of thing, no? I don't see any mention in that article of "warrantless spying" and it specifically mentions that this is in relation to a CIA leak investigation.

Once again Rodeo spews out a piece of info and tries to link it with his pet project, the NSA eavesdropping program. Typical.

So I take it that if your assumptions are incorrect, you would favor impeaching the president if his administration engaged in warrantless spying on reporters?

A simple yes or no would do. Save the vitrol for someone else.

[lendaddy]

I really don't get this, perspective is lost here.

Is it illegal for the police to tail you without a warrant? Can they speak to your acquaintances in regards to your happenings or whereabouts without one?

So, while these actions are equally offensive to the innocent and guilty alike, they just aren't illegal. Want to make it that way? Then petition your legislators to do so. Until then, bask in your anger I guess.

[Nathans_Dad]

Yes, if the President were collecting this data on reporters without a warrant it would be a crime.

Please post proof that this info was obtained without a warrant.

That is my issue here Rodeo, you take a completely different topic and try and link it with the NSA program when there is no link to be found even in the source article.

Do you just expect us to take your word for it??

[Jim Richards]

Rodeo, this hasn't been widely reported by the liberal media conglomerate, from what I can see.

[Rodeo]

Originally posted by Nathans_Dad
Yes, if the President were collecting this data on reporters without a warrant it would be a crime.

Please post proof that this info was obtained without a warrant.

I have no proof either way. The whole program is shrouded in secrecy, remember? With presumably criminal penalties for disclosing its existence!

We will eventually find out. I seriously doubt that a federal judge has granted warrants for pen registers on numerous reporters and CIA officials and others. It's possible, but that would be a BIG BIG deal. Tracking reporter's movements is not something a federal judge would do lightly.

As the story said, "ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls.

Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.."

Those activities, if true, would be blindingly simple to accomplish using the warrantless data base we now know was compiled by the administration. While in theory they could do the same thing getting warrants from federal judges tracking each of those reporter's and government agents' phone calls, I think it highly unlikely.

Time will tell.

[lendaddy]

Originally posted by Jim Richards
Rodeo, this hasn't been widely reported by the liberal media conglomerate, from what I can see.

I heard about it earlier today. At first they made it sound like they were eavesdropping on the reporters. Then they said it was just phone records. Big difference.

Even at that, the whole story is via one "unnamed source".

[Nathans_Dad]

Originally posted by Rodeo
I have no proof either way.

If you have no proof then perhaps you might consider changing the title of the thread since you specifically say that this is "another shoe" dropping on the NSA eavesdropping program.

That is either an outright lie or a gross misrepresentation on your part since you "have no proof either way".

If any obtaining of evidence is going to be suspect to you, will you be posting next about the police getting information to try and track a drug dealer to his supplier?? What if THAT was done without a warrant? What about a search of a murder suspects house? What if THAT was done without a warrant? It's ALL LINKED TO THE NSA!!

Give me a break.

Either put up facts or shut up, you are getting tiresome.

[hunter914]

Originally posted by lendaddy


Even at that, the whole story is via one "unnamed source".

Wasn't Deep Throat one "unnamed source"?

[Jim Richards]

come on Rick, Mul says way more offbeat and predictably vitriolic stuff and he never gets tiresome. Give Rodeo a break.

[Rodeo]

Originally posted by Nathans_Dad
Either put up facts or shut up, you are getting tiresome.

Maybe I can get Karl to get Dick to get Scooter to "declassify" the information for me, so I can pass it along to you and the rest of the Pelicans.

Until then, I'll use deductive reasoning.

Couldn't resist the verbal slam, could you? I guess you gotta shoot what's in the quiver. And yours is pretty empty right now.