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Junkie
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Originally Posted by Mojo_PeiPei
Ridiculously overstated fears about the (soon to be) Commander-in-Chief.... hrmmm haven't heard any of that around here 
I was wondering if somebody could clear this up for me btw... Did Shrub execute (another) a domestic terrorist attack in a coup to circumvent the constitution to retain power? |
Why would he need to do that? Bush is still using 9/11 to circumvent the constitution.
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US President George W. Bush is proposing a new law which allows local and state police to spy on American citizens with no evidence.
The law proposed by the Department of Justice would permit local and state cops to gather intelligence on police suspicion, not evidence, keep it secret for up to 10 years, and share it with the federal government.
The draft has mounted fears among American activists as it gives the US police the go-ahead to stake out antiwar groups or people who the cops might deem as threats.
The police will be free to use public records, the Internet, undercover surveillance and other techniques to spy on threat groups and listen in on Americans' communications, even when no crime has been committed and the likelihood of a crime is low.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) criticized the proposal by the Department of Justice, saying the US state police have already launched spying programs against those opposing the Iraq war.
The Bush-proposed law gives local police the authority to violate the constitutional rights of thousands of Americans.
“The federal government has increasingly encouraged state non-enforcement agencies to become basically intelligence gatherers and we have seen problems as a result,” Mike German, an ACLU lawyer, told Press TV.
Referring to the use of undercover agents against peace activists in California and protest groups in New York, Colorado and most recently in Maryland, German said, “It's indicative of what happens when we start playing not by the rules."
The new Justice Department/FBI guidelines for police operations supposedly contain procedures to protect people's constitutional rights.
But critics say the history of rights enforcement by the Justice Department over local law enforcement has been less than stringent and abuses are likely to happen.
Some members of the Congress have called the new rules troubling, but the White House which gives only $2 billion to local law enforcement is eager now to lift restrictions on local police to spy on whomever they 'think' is acting suspiciously.
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Bush pushes for easier spying at home // Current
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With these Bush guys, you’ve got to read the fine print.
On July 31, they published in the Federal Register a proposed change to Title 28, Section 23, of the Code of Federal Regulations.
This is the section that governs domestic spying.
The existing language said that information gathered in an intelligence case could be disseminated only “where there is a need to know and a right to know the information in the performance of a law enforcement activity.”
This limitation was designed to protect “the privacy and constitutional rights of individuals,” the statute behind this section states.
Well, that limitation would be null and void.
The new regulations would allow dissemination “when the information falls within the law enforcement, counterterrorism, or national security responsibility of the receiving agency or may assist in preventing crime or the use of violence or any conduct dangerous to human life or property.”
Boy, you can’t get much broader than that.
Wait, you can.
Because the existing language said you could share this intelligence info with “a government official or any other individual, when necessary to avoid imminent danger to life or liberty.”
Now, the Bushies have deleted the word “imminent.”
In these subtle ways, the Bush Administration keeps chiseling away at our freedoms.
This isn’t just an idle exercise.
The ACLU cited Title 28, Section 23, when it raised hell about the Maryland State Troopers who were spying on peace activists.
The troopers were sharing information about nonviolent protesters with at least seven federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, including the National Security Agency.
Under the old regulations, this appears to have been blatantly illegal.
Under the new ones, it would be fine and dandy.
The Maryland snooping was part of a fusion center effort, and the ACLU has been drawing attention to the problems of these fusion centers.
But the changes in these regulations are explicitly aimed at facilitating fusion center snooping.
“The intent of the propose revisions to part 23 is to . . . not create unreasonable impediments to information sharing,” the notice says, citing the work of fusion centers and Joint Terrorism Task Forces.
The ACLU condemns the proposed revisions.
They represent “another incremental shift away from law enforcement acting within the law,” says Mike German, the ACLU’s policy counsel for national security. Since local law enforcement would now be obliged to share information all the way up the NSA and CIA, German says they would be “acting as intelligence agents instead of law enforcement agents.”
This concerns him, as does the way this radical change is coming about.
“If we want them to be spies,” he says, “we should have that debate in public rather than make the change in incremental adjustments to the law.”
The public can send written comments about these proposed revisions to the Office of Justice Programs until September 2.
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Exclusive! Bush Proposes Regulatory Change to Ease Spying
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"The theory of a free press is that truth will emerge from free discussion, not that it will be presented perfectly and instantly in any one account." -- Walter Lippmann
"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists." -- Abbie Hoffman
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