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Home Front: WoT
ACLU Sues to Stop Domestic Spying Program
2006-01-17
Surprise, surprise, surprise...
NEW YORK - Civil liberties groups filed lawsuits in two cities Tuesday seeking to block President Bush's domestic eavesdropping program, arguing the electronic surveillance of American citizens was unconstitutional. The U.S. District Court lawsuits were filed in New York by the Center for Constitutional Rights and in Detroit by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The New York suit, filed on behalf of the center and individuals, names President Bush, the head of the National Security Agency, and the heads of the other major security agencies, challenging the NSA's surveillance of persons within the United States without judicial approval or statutory authorization. It seeks an injunction that would prohibit the government from conducting surveillance of communications in the United States without warrants.
Even FISA allows them to do this if the person in the US isn't a 'US person'. Now they want to go beyond the law.
The Detroit suit, which also names the NSA, was filed with the ACLU along with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Greenpeace and several individuals.
The usual suspects.
Messages seeking comment were left Tuesday morning with the National Security Agency and the Justice Department.
You can just call up the NSA?
Bush, who said the wiretapping is legal and necessary, has pointed to a congressional resolution passed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that authorized him to use force in the fight against terrorism as allowing him to order the program. The program authorized eavesdropping of international phone calls and e-mails of people deemed a terror risk.
The Detroit lawsuit says the plaintiffs, who frequently communicate by telephone and e-mail with people in the Middle East and Asia, have a "well-founded belief" that their communications are being intercepted by the government.
Hmmmmmmm...wonder why that is?
So it's an international call/e-mail, not a 'domestic' one. FISA allows those to be reviewed without warrants if the party in the US isn't a 'US person'. There are other warrant exceptions as well. And the people participating in the suit are going to have to demonstrate 'standing', which won't be met by claiming a 'well-founded belief': unless the judge is a Clinton appointee, of course.
"By seriously compromising the free speech and privacy rights of the plaintiffs and others, the program violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the United States Constitution," the lawsuit states.
Posted by:tu3031

#18  

Since the ACLU only does it to get some cash (lawyer fees), I imagine Greenpeace felt they needed to get some of the action.

Davemac
Posted by: Claviter Omuque3310   2006-01-17 20:45  

#17  The good thing is the ACLU is now finally going over a cliff in such a way that even a non-impartial observer can see they are on the side ofthe terrorists. This is NOT DOMESTIC surveillance- its surveillence of communications with foreign agest from within the US. The ACLU is going ot get its head handed to it by the coruts onthis one. Apparently they never bothered to read the initial articles of the constitution and th powers of the cheif executive in his role as Commander in Cheif in time of war.

Thank you ACLU - you can now truly be said to be the organization that protects TERRORISTS who woudl kill thousands more Amaricans if not constrained.

Posted by: Oldspook   2006-01-17 20:04  

#16  Actually, it is too bad that these scumbags were not around in WWII. The Roosevelt Admin would have arrested, tried, convicted, and imprisoned them back then. And the filth would have spent a few decades in prison, until Jimmy Carter would have pardoned them, like he did with Tokyo Rose.
Posted by: Shieldwolf   2006-01-17 19:02  

#15  Aren't you glad that these ass-clowns weren't around during WWII.
Posted by: DMFD   2006-01-17 18:17  

#14  Mark Levin just traced the origins of these groups back to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
Posted by: doc   2006-01-17 18:15  

#13  I wish there were someone in our government with big enough cojones to declare outfits like CAIR and the ACLU as "sponsors of terrorism". It's dead simple to prove the case, but the political fallout would be astounding. How many thousands of contributers would be surprised at the hidden agendas of these agencies? How many people who have tried to get help from one of these, or from other agencies similar to them, would be shocked to learn the true agenda of these organizations? We need to clean house in the United States, and the organizations listed in this article are as good a place to start as any.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2006-01-17 17:33  

#12  Thank goodness the ACLU has straighted this out. Now there is now doubt what so ever that the ACLU are traitors working for Muslim terrorist.

Because that is their right, as traitors. Can any of you imagine what would have happened during WWII if they had tried to pull this crap with German sabotours?
Posted by: IceRigger   2006-01-17 17:01  

#11  ...and now it's time to play "Shopping for Judges".
Posted by: tu3031   2006-01-17 16:20  

#10  Follow the money. The people behind this want to destroy this Republic and the "west." Isn't it time we destroyed them?

Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom   2006-01-17 15:35  

#9  Something tells me some names will be conveniently excluded from the lawsuit. Yaknow like... Pelosi, Harman, Reid, Rockefeller...just a guess.
Posted by: DepotGuy   2006-01-17 15:09  

#8  The Center for Communist Constitutional Rights got some nice sound bites on news radio in DC this AM...
Posted by: Seafarious   2006-01-17 13:40  

#7  The same can be said with CAIR. Both are part of international terrorist organizations (some might make the same case the the ACLU is as well - but I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader).

And does the program involve actual evesdropping (i.e. listening in to your boring 2-hour spiel about your mother's cyst) or simply identification of call patterns (i.e. knowing you call you mommy every day...) from known foreign terrorists?
Posted by: CrazyFool   2006-01-17 13:10  

#6  You CAN sink a Rainbow! The frogs certainly got that one right.
Posted by: Besoeker   2006-01-17 13:08  

#5  A suspicious mind might ask why Greenpeace feels a need to insert itself in this case.

Because they're in communication with overseas terrorists, and want to put an end to any intelligence program that might result in them being caught.
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2006-01-17 12:32  

#4  A suspicious mind might ask why Greenpeace feels a need to insert itself in this case. Surely using the phones is less taxing on the environment than jetting back and forth for meetings?
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-01-17 11:59  

#3  "well-founded belief"
Posted by: crazyhorse   2006-01-17 11:34  

#2  
No need to call the NSA. In Amerika, NSA calls you!
Posted by: Master of Obvious   2006-01-17 11:31  

#1  Institute a loser pays system. That'll stop this sort of crap.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2006-01-17 11:10  

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