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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (741192)	5/19/2006 10:42:59 AM
From: cirrus	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

What wrong is that the administration is creating new programs of questionable constitutional validity without holding anyone accountable for past failures. FBI Director Mueller personally awarded Marion (Spike) Bowman with a presidential citation and cash bonus of approximately 25 percent of his salary. [Salon, 4/3/2003] Bowman, head of the FBI’s National Security Law Unit and the person who refused to seek a special warrant for a search of Zacarias Moussaoui’s belongings before the 9/11 attacks, is among nine recipients of bureau awards for “exceptional performance.” The award comes shortly after a 9/11 Congressional Inquiry report saying Bowman’s unit gave Minneapolis FBI agents “inexcusably confused and inaccurate information” that was “patently false.” [Star-Tribune (Minneapolis), 1/22/2003] Bowman’s unit also blocked an urgent request by FBI agents to begin searching for Khalid Almihdhar after his name was put on a watch list. In early 2000, the FBI acknowledged serious blunders in surveillance Bowman’s unit conducted during sensitive terrorism and espionage investigations, including agents who illegally videotaped suspects, intercepted e-mails without court permission, and recorded the wrong phone conversations. [Associated Press, 2/10/2003] As Senator Charles Grassley (R) and others have pointed out, not only has no one in government been fired or punished for 9/11, but several others have been promoted: Pasquale D’Amuro, the FBI’s counterterrorism chief in New York City before 9/11, is promoted to the bureau’s top counterterrorism post. [Time, 1/30/2003] FBI Supervisory special agent Michael Maltbie, who removed information from the Minnesota FBI’s application to get the search warrant for Moussaoui, is promoted to field supervisor. [Salon, 4/3/2003] David Frasca, head of the FBI’s Radical Fundamentalist Unit, is “still at headquarters,” Grassley notes. [Salon, 4/3/2003] Frasca received the Phoenix memo warning al-Qaeda terrorists could use flight schools inside the US, and then a few weeks later he received the request for Moussaoui’s search warrant. “The Phoenix memo was buried; the Moussaoui warrant request was denied.” [Time, 6/27/2002] Even after 9/11, Frasca continued to “[throw] up roadblocks” in the Moussaoui case. [New York Times, 6/27/2002]

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (741192)	5/19/2006 3:36:42 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

AT&T Loses First Round in EFF Snooping Case By Robin Arnfield May 18, 2006 2:35PM newsfactor.com "Over the years, there have been many allegations that the NSA spies on telephone conversations and on e-mails, but our case is the first that actually has concrete evidence," said Rebecca Jeschke, an EFF spokesperson. In a San Francisco court battle involving allegations that AT&T allowed the National Security Agency to snoop on customers' e-mails and phone calls, the telecommunications giant has lost the first round to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. However, the victory for the EFF, a San Francisco, California-based privacy advocacy group, is partial. U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled on Wednesday that the EFF can use certain leaked AT&T documents in its class-action lawsuit against the telco. These documents reportedly include information about AT&T giving its customers' telephone and Internet records to the NSA. But the judge also ruled that certain parts of the documents will remain under wraps for now, with only a sanitized version released to the public. Also, the judge refused to issue a preliminary injunction barring AT&T from releasing customer information to the U.S. government. 'Concrete Evidence' "Over the years, there have been many allegations that the NSA spies on telephone conversations and on e-mails, but our case is the first that actually has concrete evidence," said Rebecca Jeschke, an EFF spokesperson. The papers were reportedly handed to the EFF by a former AT&T employee. AT&T had tried to get the judge to strike them from the court case and have them returned to the telco. "The judge has told AT&T to work with us to produce what he calls a 'narrowly redacted' version of the documents which can be released to the public," Jeschke said. "The date of publication of the documents will depend on the agreement that we are able to reach with AT&T." With a motion filed on May 15, the U.S. government is seeking to have the leaked documents deleted from the case. In the filing, the government said that the case against AT&T should be immediately terminated because any judicial inquiry into whether AT&T broke the law could reveal state secrets and harm national security. "The government is citing state secrets and 9-11 in its bid to squash the lawsuit," said Jeschke. "We can't even read much of the U.S. government's motion as a lot of it is classified." Without Warrant The EFF launched its class-action lawsuit against AT&T in January on behalf of the telco's customers. "We believe that this monitoring of AT&T customers began in 2001," Jeschke said. "Our argument is that it is illegal." News of the NSA spying program broke in December, when the New York Times and other publications revealed that millions of Americans had had their phone calls and e-mails bugged without a warrant. President George W. Bush has confirmed that he had authorized government agencies to monitor e-mail and telephone communications in the aftermath of 9-11. In a small victory for the freedom of information, the judge refused to clear the court on May 17, as AT&T had requested the previous day.