Why do talk shows like Cavuto and the like keep saying our economy is doing great when our dollar does not show it. China and Japan are cashing in their chips. We are on our way back to the thirties. Thanks George!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/10/16/bcnchina116.xml
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Top Air Force Official Dies in Apparent Suicide
Coincidentally he has ties to the famed Nuke carrying B-52's. hmmmmmm......
New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 — The second-highest ranking member of the Air Force’s procurement office was found dead of an apparent suicide at his Virginia home Sunday, Air Force and police officials said today.
The official, Charles D. Riechers, 47, came under scrutiny by the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month after the Air Force arranged for him to be paid $13,400 a month by a private contractor, Commonwealth Research Institute, while he awaited review from the White House of his appointment as principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition. He was appointed to the job in January.
The Washington Post reported on Oct. 1 that the contractor, Commonwealth Research, registered as a nonprofit organization in Johnstown, Pa., paid Mr. Riechers for two months as a senior technical adviser, though he did no work for the company.
“I really didn’t do anything for C.R.I.” Mr. Riechers told The Post. “I got a paycheck from them.”
The Air Force has disputed The Post’s portrayal of Mr. Riechers’s role and said in a statement today that he was “employed in a scientific and engineering technical assistance capacity to the Air Force and made recommendations that were instrumental in engineering our acquisition transformation and continuing the Air Force’s modernization of our aging fleet.”
Specifically, the Air Force said that Mr. Riechers, a retired Air Force officer and master navigator, provided technical advice on several programs including converting commercial aircraft to military using and modernizing the C-130 transport plane. Loren Thompson, an expert on the military at The Lexington Institute said it was unclear whether Mr. Riechers’s suicide had anything to do with the inquiry. However, he said that Mr. Riechers’s death would cast a further shadow over the Pentagon’s beleaguered procurement system.
Commonwealth Research and its parent company, Concurrent Technologies, have extensive contracts with the Pentagon, intelligence agencies and other Federal departments.
A year before Mr. Riechers’s appointment, the Air Force was mired in scandal. The Pentagon canceled a $23 billion deal to lease 767 tankers from Boeing after the disclosure that a former Air Force procurement officer, Darleen Druyun, was found to have favored Boeing in contracts before being hired by the company.
At a hearing by the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month, Senator Carl M. Levin of Michigan said far too many weapons acquisitions had been plagued by “cost increases, late deliveries to the war fighters and performance shortfalls.”
Senator Levin added that 25 of the Pentagon’s major defense acquisition programs had overruns of at least 50 percent. And he expressed concern about an “alarming lack of acquisition planning across the department.”
“The root cause of these and other problems in the defense acquisition system is our failure to maintain an acquisition work force with the resources and skills needed to manage the department’s acquisition system,” Mr. Levin said. “The Pentagon and Justice Department are currently conducting criminal investigations into some $6 billion in contracts to supply essential supplies to American troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait.”
In May, Mr. Riechers told the Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Association’s Northern Virginia Chapter that restoring credibility to the Air Force was a priority for the Air Force. He said the Darleen Druyun scandal was an “aberration,” that was not representative of the Air Force’s acquisition system.
Mr. Reichers was a retired Air Force officer and master navigator specializing in electronic warfare, with 20 years of operational, acquisition and staff experience, according to the Air Force. He flew more than 1,900 flight hours, with 90 hours of combat and combat support time in B-52G and EC-130H aircraft.
New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 — The second-highest ranking member of the Air Force’s procurement office was found dead of an apparent suicide at his Virginia home Sunday, Air Force and police officials said today.
The official, Charles D. Riechers, 47, came under scrutiny by the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month after the Air Force arranged for him to be paid $13,400 a month by a private contractor, Commonwealth Research Institute, while he awaited review from the White House of his appointment as principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition. He was appointed to the job in January.
The Washington Post reported on Oct. 1 that the contractor, Commonwealth Research, registered as a nonprofit organization in Johnstown, Pa., paid Mr. Riechers for two months as a senior technical adviser, though he did no work for the company.
“I really didn’t do anything for C.R.I.” Mr. Riechers told The Post. “I got a paycheck from them.”
The Air Force has disputed The Post’s portrayal of Mr. Riechers’s role and said in a statement today that he was “employed in a scientific and engineering technical assistance capacity to the Air Force and made recommendations that were instrumental in engineering our acquisition transformation and continuing the Air Force’s modernization of our aging fleet.”
Specifically, the Air Force said that Mr. Riechers, a retired Air Force officer and master navigator, provided technical advice on several programs including converting commercial aircraft to military using and modernizing the C-130 transport plane. Loren Thompson, an expert on the military at The Lexington Institute said it was unclear whether Mr. Riechers’s suicide had anything to do with the inquiry. However, he said that Mr. Riechers’s death would cast a further shadow over the Pentagon’s beleaguered procurement system.
Commonwealth Research and its parent company, Concurrent Technologies, have extensive contracts with the Pentagon, intelligence agencies and other Federal departments.
A year before Mr. Riechers’s appointment, the Air Force was mired in scandal. The Pentagon canceled a $23 billion deal to lease 767 tankers from Boeing after the disclosure that a former Air Force procurement officer, Darleen Druyun, was found to have favored Boeing in contracts before being hired by the company.
At a hearing by the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month, Senator Carl M. Levin of Michigan said far too many weapons acquisitions had been plagued by “cost increases, late deliveries to the war fighters and performance shortfalls.”
Senator Levin added that 25 of the Pentagon’s major defense acquisition programs had overruns of at least 50 percent. And he expressed concern about an “alarming lack of acquisition planning across the department.”
“The root cause of these and other problems in the defense acquisition system is our failure to maintain an acquisition work force with the resources and skills needed to manage the department’s acquisition system,” Mr. Levin said. “The Pentagon and Justice Department are currently conducting criminal investigations into some $6 billion in contracts to supply essential supplies to American troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait.”
In May, Mr. Riechers told the Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Association’s Northern Virginia Chapter that restoring credibility to the Air Force was a priority for the Air Force. He said the Darleen Druyun scandal was an “aberration,” that was not representative of the Air Force’s acquisition system.
Mr. Reichers was a retired Air Force officer and master navigator specializing in electronic warfare, with 20 years of operational, acquisition and staff experience, according to the Air Force. He flew more than 1,900 flight hours, with 90 hours of combat and combat support time in B-52G and EC-130H aircraft.
Three weeks of war or one year of health coverage for kids?
Three Weeks of War or One Year of Health Coverage for Kids?
(Rep. Xavier Becerra) October 15th, 2007
Of all the reasons President Bush could use to oppose providing basic health coverage to the children of America’s working families, fiscal restraint raises the most eyebrows.
This has been perhaps the most fiscally irresponsible White House in American history, aided for six years by a Republican Congress. As the Wall Street Journal recently pointed out, many fiscal conservatives, including such prominent figures as Alan Greenspan and Bruce Bartlett, have become disillusioned with the reckless spending and tax cutting of the previous Bush administration-led Congresses. Given all this and coupled with the war in Iraq, it’s hard to take the president’s veto rationale seriously.
In the short amount of time between the day the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) reauthorization bill was sent to the president (September 27) and the date the House will vote on overturning the president’s veto (October 18) — three weeks — we will have spent $7 billion for Iraq. That is the exact amount of funding we need to provide health insurance to 10 million American children for one year.
It deserves repeating: covering America’s 10 million uninsured children for a year costs the same amount as waging three weeks of war in Iraq.
This is the president’s idea of fiscal responsibility: he borrows as many billions of dollars as he likes for a war in Iraq that has no clear plan for success and hands the bill over to the next generation. He then refuses to provide that same generation with basic health insurance, which would cost a miniscule fraction of the cost of the war. And then he tells them to just go to the emergency room if they get sick, which, ironically enough, is more costly to government in the long run than simply insuring the kids.
The president’s supporters don’t stop there. Radical right-wing blogs and columnists have tried to paint the Frost family, whose son Graeme recorded the September 29 Democratic radio address supporting SCHIP reauthorization, as fraudulently receiving aid. Yet they unquestionably support Blackwater and Halliburton even as the evidence mounts of the waste, fraud and abuse that has resulted from their work in Iraq. Attacking working families while defending war profiteers has become an unfortunate habit in some Republican circles.
I wish I could take comfort in the fact that 72 percent of Americans support the SCHIP reauthorization package that has passed in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, or that a large minority of Republicans in Congress support it (45 in the House, 18 in the Senate), or that over 270 independent health organizations were supporting our efforts. But this is no time to take comfort. My colleagues (on both sides of the aisle) and I are working hard right now to overturn the president’s veto. Please join us. Call your Representative and Senators. Tell your friends and family to do the same. The vote to overturn the veto is this Thursday, October 18. Together we can do this. Ten million children are depending on us.
(Rep. Xavier Becerra) October 15th, 2007
Of all the reasons President Bush could use to oppose providing basic health coverage to the children of America’s working families, fiscal restraint raises the most eyebrows.
This has been perhaps the most fiscally irresponsible White House in American history, aided for six years by a Republican Congress. As the Wall Street Journal recently pointed out, many fiscal conservatives, including such prominent figures as Alan Greenspan and Bruce Bartlett, have become disillusioned with the reckless spending and tax cutting of the previous Bush administration-led Congresses. Given all this and coupled with the war in Iraq, it’s hard to take the president’s veto rationale seriously.
In the short amount of time between the day the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) reauthorization bill was sent to the president (September 27) and the date the House will vote on overturning the president’s veto (October 18) — three weeks — we will have spent $7 billion for Iraq. That is the exact amount of funding we need to provide health insurance to 10 million American children for one year.
It deserves repeating: covering America’s 10 million uninsured children for a year costs the same amount as waging three weeks of war in Iraq.
This is the president’s idea of fiscal responsibility: he borrows as many billions of dollars as he likes for a war in Iraq that has no clear plan for success and hands the bill over to the next generation. He then refuses to provide that same generation with basic health insurance, which would cost a miniscule fraction of the cost of the war. And then he tells them to just go to the emergency room if they get sick, which, ironically enough, is more costly to government in the long run than simply insuring the kids.
The president’s supporters don’t stop there. Radical right-wing blogs and columnists have tried to paint the Frost family, whose son Graeme recorded the September 29 Democratic radio address supporting SCHIP reauthorization, as fraudulently receiving aid. Yet they unquestionably support Blackwater and Halliburton even as the evidence mounts of the waste, fraud and abuse that has resulted from their work in Iraq. Attacking working families while defending war profiteers has become an unfortunate habit in some Republican circles.
I wish I could take comfort in the fact that 72 percent of Americans support the SCHIP reauthorization package that has passed in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, or that a large minority of Republicans in Congress support it (45 in the House, 18 in the Senate), or that over 270 independent health organizations were supporting our efforts. But this is no time to take comfort. My colleagues (on both sides of the aisle) and I are working hard right now to overturn the president’s veto. Please join us. Call your Representative and Senators. Tell your friends and family to do the same. The vote to overturn the veto is this Thursday, October 18. Together we can do this. Ten million children are depending on us.
New Cold War: Simultaneously, Russia and America Conduct Major War Games
There has been a virtual media blackout on the conduct of major military exercises by both Russia and the US. . Reminiscent of the Cold War, Russia and America are conducting major war games simultaneously.
The Russian Air Force will be conducting major military exercises over a large part of its territory from the 16th to the 30th of October. These Russian exercises coincide chronologically with the conduct of major US sponsored war games under Vigilant Shield 08, which are slated to take place from the 15th to the 20th of October. VS-08 was preceded by major naval exercises under Pacific Shield 07 hosted by Japan, involving the participation of Australia, France, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK, and the US.
President Vladimir Putin announced in August that Russia would be resuming long-range bomber flights over the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans for the first time since the breakup of the Soviet Union. (Associated Press, October 1, 2007). Moscow's resolve was in response to US-NATO threats directed against Russia including the militarization of Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
The US exercise code named Vigilant Shield 2008 (VS-08) is casually presented as an "anti-terrorist drill". While under the joint auspices of the Pentagon and the Department of Defense, US Northern Command in liaison with NORAD is in charge of the operation.
VS-08 includes a massive deployment of the US Air Force and Canada's Air Force. It resembles a war-time scenario with the deployment of bombers and fighter jets over the entire North American continent extending into the Arctic.
Meanwhile in the Pacific, military exercises are being held in Guam under the VS-08 imitative. Parallel US-Philippines sponsored war games are slated to commence in the Philippines archipelago on the 16th of October, "involving nearly 3,500 troops from specialized forces from the two countries."
In what visibly appears to be a confrontational scenario, the Russian war games commence one day after the launching of the US sponsored VS-08.
Russian strategic bombers Tu-160, Tu-95 and Tu-22M3, and Il-78 aerial tankers "will conduct flights over the Arctic region, the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, and the Black Sea, with simulated bombing raids and firing of cruise missiles at testing grounds in northern and southern Russia," Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky said." (RIA Novosti).
Part of these Russian war games will be conducted in the Arctic, within proximity of US and Canadian territory (Alaska and Canada's Arctic).
"Moscow announced in mid-August that regular patrol flights by strategic bombers had been resumed, and would continue on a permanent basis, with patrol areas including commercial shipping and economic production zones.
The U.S. administration expressed concern about the resumption of patrol flights by Russian strategic bombers.
"I think the rapid growth in Russian military spending definitely bears watching," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview with ABC News on October 14.
"And frankly, some of the efforts - for instance, Bear flights in areas that we haven't seen for a while - are really not helpful to security." (RIA Novosti)
Over the last several months, Russia has been conducting warplane exercises around Alaska. In the course of last Summer, Russian bombers staged a number of exercises in what is described as "a buffer zone outside U.S. air space", within proximity of Alaska. According to a NORAd spokesman,
"U.S. and Canadian fighter jets, including F-15s, were dispatched each time to escort the Russian planes in the exercises, which ranged from two to six aircraft,...
VS-8 is based on a scenario of confrontation with Russia and China. In August, under the auspices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Russia and China joined hands in the conduct of major war games. Code-named "Peace-Mission 2007", the exercises were held in the Volga region of Russia as well as in the Urumqi region of Western China.
Global Research Articles by Michel Chossudovsky
The Russian Air Force will be conducting major military exercises over a large part of its territory from the 16th to the 30th of October. These Russian exercises coincide chronologically with the conduct of major US sponsored war games under Vigilant Shield 08, which are slated to take place from the 15th to the 20th of October. VS-08 was preceded by major naval exercises under Pacific Shield 07 hosted by Japan, involving the participation of Australia, France, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK, and the US.
President Vladimir Putin announced in August that Russia would be resuming long-range bomber flights over the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans for the first time since the breakup of the Soviet Union. (Associated Press, October 1, 2007). Moscow's resolve was in response to US-NATO threats directed against Russia including the militarization of Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
The US exercise code named Vigilant Shield 2008 (VS-08) is casually presented as an "anti-terrorist drill". While under the joint auspices of the Pentagon and the Department of Defense, US Northern Command in liaison with NORAD is in charge of the operation.
VS-08 includes a massive deployment of the US Air Force and Canada's Air Force. It resembles a war-time scenario with the deployment of bombers and fighter jets over the entire North American continent extending into the Arctic.
Meanwhile in the Pacific, military exercises are being held in Guam under the VS-08 imitative. Parallel US-Philippines sponsored war games are slated to commence in the Philippines archipelago on the 16th of October, "involving nearly 3,500 troops from specialized forces from the two countries."
In what visibly appears to be a confrontational scenario, the Russian war games commence one day after the launching of the US sponsored VS-08.
Russian strategic bombers Tu-160, Tu-95 and Tu-22M3, and Il-78 aerial tankers "will conduct flights over the Arctic region, the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, and the Black Sea, with simulated bombing raids and firing of cruise missiles at testing grounds in northern and southern Russia," Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky said." (RIA Novosti).
Part of these Russian war games will be conducted in the Arctic, within proximity of US and Canadian territory (Alaska and Canada's Arctic).
"Moscow announced in mid-August that regular patrol flights by strategic bombers had been resumed, and would continue on a permanent basis, with patrol areas including commercial shipping and economic production zones.
The U.S. administration expressed concern about the resumption of patrol flights by Russian strategic bombers.
"I think the rapid growth in Russian military spending definitely bears watching," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview with ABC News on October 14.
"And frankly, some of the efforts - for instance, Bear flights in areas that we haven't seen for a while - are really not helpful to security." (RIA Novosti)
Over the last several months, Russia has been conducting warplane exercises around Alaska. In the course of last Summer, Russian bombers staged a number of exercises in what is described as "a buffer zone outside U.S. air space", within proximity of Alaska. According to a NORAd spokesman,
"U.S. and Canadian fighter jets, including F-15s, were dispatched each time to escort the Russian planes in the exercises, which ranged from two to six aircraft,...
VS-8 is based on a scenario of confrontation with Russia and China. In August, under the auspices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Russia and China joined hands in the conduct of major war games. Code-named "Peace-Mission 2007", the exercises were held in the Volga region of Russia as well as in the Urumqi region of Western China.
Global Research Articles by Michel Chossudovsky
Verizon says it turned over Data withoout court orders
Verizon Says It Turned Over Data Without Court Orders
By Ellen Nakashima The Washington Post
Tuesday 16 October 2007
Firm's letter to lawmakers details government requests.
Verizon Communications, the nation's second-largest telecom company, told congressional investigators that it has provided customers' telephone records to federal authorities in emergency cases without court orders hundreds of times since 2005.
The company said it does not determine the requests' legality or necessity because to do so would slow efforts to save lives in criminal investigations.
In an Oct. 12 letter replying to Democratic lawmakers, Verizon offered a rare glimpse into the way telecommunications companies cooperate with government requests for information on U.S. citizens.
Verizon also disclosed that the FBI, using administrative subpoenas, sought information identifying not just a person making a call, but all the people that customer called, as well as the people those people called. Verizon does not keep data on this "two-generation community of interest" for customers, but the request highlights the broad reach of the government's quest for data.
The disclosures, in a letter from Verizon to three Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee investigating the carriers' participation in government surveillance programs, demonstrated the willingness of telecom companies to comply with government requests for data, even, at times, without traditional legal supporting documents. The committee members also got letters from AT&T and Qwest Communications International, but those letters did not provide details on customer data given to the government. None of the three carriers gave details on any classified government surveillance program.
From January 2005 to September 2007, Verizon provided data to federal authorities on an emergency basis 720 times, it said in the letter. The records included Internet protocol addresses as well as phone data. In that period, Verizon turned over information a total of 94,000 times to federal authorities armed with a subpoena or court order, the letter said. The information was used for a range of criminal investigations, including kidnapping and child-predator cases and counter-terrorism investigations.
Verizon and AT&T said it was not their role to second-guess the legitimacy of emergency government requests.
The letters were released yesterday by the lawmakers as Congress debates whether to grant telecom carriers immunity in cases in which they are sued for disclosing customers' phone records and other data as part of the government's post-September 11 surveillance program, even if they did not have court authorization. House Democrats have said that they cannot contemplate such immunity without first understanding the nature of the carriers' cooperation with the government.
"The responses from these telecommunications companies highlight the need of Congress to continue pressing the Bush administration for answers. The water is as murky as ever on this issue, and it's past time for the administration to come clean," said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who launched the investigation with panel Chairman John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.).
Congressional Democrats have been largely stymied in their efforts to have the Bush administration disclose the scope and nature of its surveillance and data-gathering efforts after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Revelations have come through press reports, advocacy groups' Freedom of Information Act lawsuits and Justice Department inspector general reports.
In May 2006, USA Today reported that the National Security Agency had been secretly collecting the phone-call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by major telecom firms. Qwest, it reported, declined to participate because of fears that the program lacked legal standing.
Last month, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy group in San Francisco, obtained records through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit showing that the FBI sought data from telecom companies about the calling habits of suspects and their associates, the New York Times reported. Neither Qwest nor AT&T answered the lawmakers' question as to whether they had received such requests for information.
Yesterday's 13-page Verizon letter indicated that the requests went further than previously known. Verizon said it had received FBI administrative subpoenas, called national security letters, requesting data that would "identify a calling circle" for subscribers' telephone numbers, including people contacted by the people contacted by the subscriber. Verizon said it does not keep such information.
"The privacy concerns are exponential each generation you go away from the suspect's number," said Kurt Opsahl, senior staff attorney with the EFF. "This shows that further investigation by Congress and the inspector general is critical."
Earlier this year, the Justice Department's inspector general found that the FBI may have improperly obtained phone, bank and other records of thousands of people inside the United States since 2003 by using national security letters and exigent letters, or emergency demands for records.
Michael Kortan, an FBI spokesman, said the bureau has suspended use of community-of-interest data "while an appropriate oversight and approval policy" is developed. He added that the inspector general is reviewing the use of those data.
Both Verizon and AT&T suggested in their letters that they already enjoy legal immunity under existing laws. But AT&T said that when the lawsuits involve allegations of highly classified activity, the company cannot prove its immunity claims.
Carriers are facing a raft of lawsuits from individuals and privacy advocates, such as the EFF and the American Civil Liberties Union, for allegedly violating Americans' privacy by aiding the NSA's warrantless surveillance program.
The federal government has intervened, arguing that to continue the case would divulge "state secrets," jeopardizing national security.
The Senate Intelligence Committee could draft a bill this week that includes relief for the carriers. The administration is seeking blanket immunity, which would extend to anyone sued for assisting the government - not just telecom carriers - in its post-Sept. 11 surveillance programs.
"It's rare in these situations where there's agreement between the plaintiffs and the defendants - that there are plenty of protections for telecommunications providers in the existing laws," said the EFF's Opsahl, adding that no new immunity is necessary. "It appears that we both agree that the court should be able to look at the full situation, despite the state-secrets privilege."
In its letter, Verizon said that on occasion, it receives requests without correct authorizations. For instance, it said, it once received a request for stored voice mail without a warrant. The company does not respond until proper authorization is received, it said.
AT&T and Verizon both argued that the onus should not be on the companies to determine whether the government has lawfully requested customer records. To do so in emergency cases would "slow lawful efforts to protect the public," wrote Randal S. Milch, senior vice president of legal and external affairs for Verizon Business, a subsidiary of Verizon Communications.
"Public officials, not private businessmen, must ultimately be responsible for whether the legal judgments underlying authorized surveillance activities turn out to be right or wrong - legally or politically," wrote Wayne Watts, AT&T's senior executive vice president and general counsel. "Telecommunications carriers have a part to play in guarding against official abuses, but it is necessarily a modest one."
By Ellen Nakashima The Washington Post
Tuesday 16 October 2007
Firm's letter to lawmakers details government requests.
Verizon Communications, the nation's second-largest telecom company, told congressional investigators that it has provided customers' telephone records to federal authorities in emergency cases without court orders hundreds of times since 2005.
The company said it does not determine the requests' legality or necessity because to do so would slow efforts to save lives in criminal investigations.
In an Oct. 12 letter replying to Democratic lawmakers, Verizon offered a rare glimpse into the way telecommunications companies cooperate with government requests for information on U.S. citizens.
Verizon also disclosed that the FBI, using administrative subpoenas, sought information identifying not just a person making a call, but all the people that customer called, as well as the people those people called. Verizon does not keep data on this "two-generation community of interest" for customers, but the request highlights the broad reach of the government's quest for data.
The disclosures, in a letter from Verizon to three Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee investigating the carriers' participation in government surveillance programs, demonstrated the willingness of telecom companies to comply with government requests for data, even, at times, without traditional legal supporting documents. The committee members also got letters from AT&T and Qwest Communications International, but those letters did not provide details on customer data given to the government. None of the three carriers gave details on any classified government surveillance program.
From January 2005 to September 2007, Verizon provided data to federal authorities on an emergency basis 720 times, it said in the letter. The records included Internet protocol addresses as well as phone data. In that period, Verizon turned over information a total of 94,000 times to federal authorities armed with a subpoena or court order, the letter said. The information was used for a range of criminal investigations, including kidnapping and child-predator cases and counter-terrorism investigations.
Verizon and AT&T said it was not their role to second-guess the legitimacy of emergency government requests.
The letters were released yesterday by the lawmakers as Congress debates whether to grant telecom carriers immunity in cases in which they are sued for disclosing customers' phone records and other data as part of the government's post-September 11 surveillance program, even if they did not have court authorization. House Democrats have said that they cannot contemplate such immunity without first understanding the nature of the carriers' cooperation with the government.
"The responses from these telecommunications companies highlight the need of Congress to continue pressing the Bush administration for answers. The water is as murky as ever on this issue, and it's past time for the administration to come clean," said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who launched the investigation with panel Chairman John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.).
Congressional Democrats have been largely stymied in their efforts to have the Bush administration disclose the scope and nature of its surveillance and data-gathering efforts after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Revelations have come through press reports, advocacy groups' Freedom of Information Act lawsuits and Justice Department inspector general reports.
In May 2006, USA Today reported that the National Security Agency had been secretly collecting the phone-call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by major telecom firms. Qwest, it reported, declined to participate because of fears that the program lacked legal standing.
Last month, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy group in San Francisco, obtained records through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit showing that the FBI sought data from telecom companies about the calling habits of suspects and their associates, the New York Times reported. Neither Qwest nor AT&T answered the lawmakers' question as to whether they had received such requests for information.
Yesterday's 13-page Verizon letter indicated that the requests went further than previously known. Verizon said it had received FBI administrative subpoenas, called national security letters, requesting data that would "identify a calling circle" for subscribers' telephone numbers, including people contacted by the people contacted by the subscriber. Verizon said it does not keep such information.
"The privacy concerns are exponential each generation you go away from the suspect's number," said Kurt Opsahl, senior staff attorney with the EFF. "This shows that further investigation by Congress and the inspector general is critical."
Earlier this year, the Justice Department's inspector general found that the FBI may have improperly obtained phone, bank and other records of thousands of people inside the United States since 2003 by using national security letters and exigent letters, or emergency demands for records.
Michael Kortan, an FBI spokesman, said the bureau has suspended use of community-of-interest data "while an appropriate oversight and approval policy" is developed. He added that the inspector general is reviewing the use of those data.
Both Verizon and AT&T suggested in their letters that they already enjoy legal immunity under existing laws. But AT&T said that when the lawsuits involve allegations of highly classified activity, the company cannot prove its immunity claims.
Carriers are facing a raft of lawsuits from individuals and privacy advocates, such as the EFF and the American Civil Liberties Union, for allegedly violating Americans' privacy by aiding the NSA's warrantless surveillance program.
The federal government has intervened, arguing that to continue the case would divulge "state secrets," jeopardizing national security.
The Senate Intelligence Committee could draft a bill this week that includes relief for the carriers. The administration is seeking blanket immunity, which would extend to anyone sued for assisting the government - not just telecom carriers - in its post-Sept. 11 surveillance programs.
"It's rare in these situations where there's agreement between the plaintiffs and the defendants - that there are plenty of protections for telecommunications providers in the existing laws," said the EFF's Opsahl, adding that no new immunity is necessary. "It appears that we both agree that the court should be able to look at the full situation, despite the state-secrets privilege."
In its letter, Verizon said that on occasion, it receives requests without correct authorizations. For instance, it said, it once received a request for stored voice mail without a warrant. The company does not respond until proper authorization is received, it said.
AT&T and Verizon both argued that the onus should not be on the companies to determine whether the government has lawfully requested customer records. To do so in emergency cases would "slow lawful efforts to protect the public," wrote Randal S. Milch, senior vice president of legal and external affairs for Verizon Business, a subsidiary of Verizon Communications.
"Public officials, not private businessmen, must ultimately be responsible for whether the legal judgments underlying authorized surveillance activities turn out to be right or wrong - legally or politically," wrote Wayne Watts, AT&T's senior executive vice president and general counsel. "Telecommunications carriers have a part to play in guarding against official abuses, but it is necessarily a modest one."
Army Tests Bio Weapons on US Citizens in NYC
Our honest government wouldn't kill 3,000 Americans on 9-11 right?
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Friday, October 5, 2007
Democratic Concessions Are Expected on Wiretapping
This just proves we can't trust Republicnas or Democrats. They both will take our individualy liberties.
NY TIMES
Democratic Concessions Are Expected on Wiretapping
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/washington/09cnd-nsa.html?ei=5065&en=5614405c7a9db3a5&ex=1192507200&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print
NY TIMES
Democratic Concessions Are Expected on Wiretapping
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/washington/09cnd-nsa.html?ei=5065&en=5614405c7a9db3a5&ex=1192507200&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print
Monday, October 1, 2007
Ron Paul Almost Tells The Whole Truth!
I say he tells the truth because I think he knows exactly what happened on 911 and is just afraid to admit it. I might vote for Ron.
Representative Peter DeFazio tells the truth
In this Clip he is referring to The bush executive order "presidential directive" essentially giving him complete power. He will be able to suspend congress indefinitely and cancel elections.
Looks like someone in the Government is watching out for us.
More Martial Law!
Do you think Katrina was a great excuse for Bush to practice imposing martial law and step all over the second ammendment?
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