South by Southwest: Civil liberties remain at risk

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Civil liberties remain at risk

photo credit to "equis 77" @ StockXCHNG
Conflict in the Middle East now holds our attention. But it is important to remember that, in the so-called war on terror, American civil liberties remain at high risk. Under the pretense of protection of the nation, the current administration sometimes puts our constitutional rights as citizens at risk. (Note: here I put on my tinfoil hat.) Following are a few current stories that exemplify this push that eventually could threaten me, and even you.

Federal prosecutors and grand juries - NYT reporter Judith Miller was jailed in the case of Valerie Plame. Josh Wolf is a blogger like me. I write about issues that are controversial and could be considered inflammatory or even seditious. The way I choose to help this government is by providing information to its citizens that bears on the constitutional protection of American free speech, including a free press. This blogger does not want to be an arm of the government, says his lawyer.
Feds Lock Up Blogger is the headline. Hat tip to Kos for this link to "cato-at-liberty," from which I quote (their links),

Item: Josh Wolf, 24, is a freelance journalist and blogger. He wanted to be left alone, but the feds have locked him up because he will not help them investigate the crimes of other people. We generally have the freedom to help the police or to decline. It is up to us to decide. Not so with grand juries. Cooperate–or go to jail.
As Mr. Wolf was escorted to his jail cell, the judge intoned that he was not being punished. Rather, the government was merely housing Mr. Wolf with suspected criminals so that he might “change his mind.” Mr. Wolf cannot even challenge the legality of this “procedure” before a real jury because he is not being “punished.” Mr. Wolf is in grandjuryland.
NYT - Item: Federal prosecutors are now perusing the phone records of reporters for the New York Times. There was no search warrant that was approved by a federal judge. The records were acquired by a grand jury subpoena, which does not require the approval of a judge. Indeed, prosecutors can issue such subpoenas without even notifying the grand jurors.

Phone companies turning over records to NSA - I did not approve of my phone company, ATT, turning over my internet and phone records to the National Security Agency, so that it could spy on me without the approval of a court. Mainers, usually fiercely independent, are testing this out right now through their PUC. From "walking around," comes this 8/4/06 mainetoday headline "U.S. threatens suit if Maine probes Verizon ties to NSA," by Kevin Wack. To quote,

The Bush administration is threatening to sue if Maine regulators decide to investigate whether Verizon Communications illegally turned over customer information to the National Security Agency.
Verizon customers in Maine have asked the state's Public Utilities Commission to investigate whether the telecom giant violated privacy laws by cooperating with a domestic surveillance program. The PUC is expected to decide Monday whether to open such a probe.

A Fed judge sided with the government in a recent similar case. So it does not look good for Maine's PUC. First, a hat tip to Josh Marshall for this link to BusinessWeek headlined, Judge dismisses phone records suit. Mike Robinson wrote the article. Quote,

AP. JUL. 25. Citing national security, a federal judge Tuesday threw out a lawsuit aimed at blocking AT&T Inc. from giving telephone records to the government for use in the war on terror.
"The court is persuaded that requiring AT&T to confirm or deny whether it has disclosed large quantities of telephone records to the federal government could give
adversaries of this country valuable insight into the government's intelligence activities," U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly said.

President Bush is subject to obeying the rule of law said the recent SCOTUS "Hamdan" ruling. So there is occasional very good news. But the following story illustrates the frame of mind in the government that so often gets the nation into trouble, rather than protecting it. "avila" from unbossed.com , on 8/5/06 posted "The Torture School." To quote,

Human rights advocates have long suspected a link between interrogations in the "war on terror" and a secretive military survival school that trains elite U.S.
Jane Mayer explored the evidence of a connection between the Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape school at Fort Bragg, N. C., and real-world interrogators in a July 2005 piece for the New Yorker.

Citizens must remain vigilant - Today's post puts up a few stories that illustrate the reality of a continuing rist to us. And the subject matter has long been on my mind, as my regular readers know. (I have linked to a number of my previous posts on the same or similar subjects at several "uncited" points above.) And I am including other long articles -

Academics' references (criticism-longer articles):

From indianpad.com: "Terrorism and American Foreign Policy," by Robert Elias September 25, 2001. Professor of sociology at University of San Francisco, California
Coup d'Etat in Washington and "The Dollar Paper Tiger", Fiery Dragon in Asia and the Pacific." Hat tip to moeen yaseen for this - Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 11:10 am Post subject: WHEN LOVE OF PROFITS CLASHES WITH THE LOVE OF THE PROPHET by Andre Gunder Frank www.globalresearch.ca. The URL of this article is: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/FRA406A.html
"noisefilter" posted "Seats of Power," from the University of Chicago, about the effects of who owns the media.