Watchdog Groups File Motion To End Bush Spying Tactic

The FBI now may access any U.S. citizens’ private communications records without securing court approval. Watchdog Groups File Motion To End Bush Spying TacticBy Cliff Montgomery – April 1st, 2008Though it barely made a blip in the corporate press, two watchdog groups last month asked a federal appeals court to rule unconstitutional an element of a 22-year-old spying law, at least in part because of its expansion under Bush’s Anti-PATRIOT Act.Under the current expanded law, the FBI may access any U.S. citizens’ private communications records without the time-consuming mess of securing court approval–or of ensuring Americans’ Natural Rights. All the Bureau has to do is claim that the information may further a ‘terrorism or spy investigation’.And as the mess of Iraq has shown us, the last thing the Bush Administration needs is oversight of its flawless perception of intelligence data and methods…A judge already has declared the national security letter law unconstitutional; but that didn’t keep the Bush White House from appealing the ruling.The National Security Archive, a private organization, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, stating that lack of judicial oversight on the Bush subpoenas may allow for misuses of unchecked power.The filing comes just days after the Department of Justice (DOJ) released an update to a damning 2007 study which discovered misuses of FBI National Security Letters (NSLs) which were flawed at best and potentially illegal at worst.Glenn Fine, the DOJ Inspector General, this time uncovered such violations as distributions of NSLs without authorization, questionable requests and apparently illegal data collections. The Bureau insists they are all the results of innocent mistakes.The Democratic-run Congress isn’t buying the Republican administration’s argument that the whole thing is a matter of of ‘simple errors’–though one may argue that is predictable.Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), has declared that he may push for some legislative action on this matter.House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) appears to be taking a harder tone, saying at an April oversight hearing that he will “continue to hold the administration accountable for its [Bureau’s] actions.”One Senate bill and two House measures were introduced in 2007 calling for changes in the handling of NSLs.The controversial losses of American civil rights apparently ushered in by Bush’s ill-conceived Anti-PATRIOT Act gave the Bureau a power to place NSL recipients “under indefinite gag orders,” according to CongressDaily news service.Such changes were soon declared illegal by our democratic government’s Judicial Branch–a fact which singularly reveals why Balance of Power is so essential to any working democracy.U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero declared in a 2004 rejection of the Bush mandate that “democracy abhors undue secrecy” and made a point of adding that “[a]n unlimited government warrant to conceal, effectively a form of secrecy per se, has no place in our open society.”That case was jointly filed “by the American Civil Liberties Union and an anonymous Internet service provider in April 2004,” according to CongressDaily.The Bush Administration’s reply brief is expected this month; oral arguments are set to begin sometime in the next several weeks.Like what you’re reading so far? Then why not order a full year (52 issues) of thee-newsletter for only $15? A major article covering an story not being told in the Corporate Press will be delivered to your email every Monday morning for a full year, for less than 30 cents an issue. Order Now!