The New York Times reports that the Pentagon and CIA have been spying on us:
The Pentagon has been using a little-known power to obtain banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage inside the United States, part of an aggressive expansion by the military into domestic intelligence gathering.I'm not a lawyer, so would someone who is please explain to me and the rest of the class how this does not violate the Posse Comitatus Act?
The C.I.A. has also been issuing what are known as national security letters to gain access to financial records from American companies, though it has done so only rarely, intelligence officials say.
Banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions receiving the letters usually have turned over documents voluntarily, allowing investigators to examine the financial assets and transactions of American military personnel and civilians, officials say.
The F.B.I., the lead agency on domestic counterterrorism and espionage, has issued thousands of national security letters since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, provoking criticism and court challenges from civil liberties advocates who see them as unjustified intrusions into Americans’ private lives.
But it was not previously known, even to some senior counterterrorism officials, that the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency have been using their own “noncompulsory” versions of the letters. Congress has rejected several attempts by the two agencies since 2001 for authority to issue mandatory letters, in part because of concerns about the dangers of expanding their role in domestic spying.
The military and the C.I.A. have long been restricted in their domestic intelligence operations, and both are barred from conducting traditional domestic law enforcement work. The C.I.A.’s role within the United States has been largely limited to recruiting people to spy on foreign countries.
[...]
Government lawyers say the legal authority for the Pentagon and the C.I.A. to use national security letters in gathering domestic records dates back nearly three decades and, by their reading, was strengthened by the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act.
And would someone please explain to me how much further this administration will have to go to violate the spirit and the letter of the United States Constitution and just about everything we hold sacred as Americans before we all stand up and with one voice, cry "Enough!"
I am sure that the right-wing orcosphere will go nuts screaming that the New York Times has once again proven to be traitors to the nation by disclosing this information, completely ignoring the fact that any terrorist worth that label would be blindingly aware of the fact that the government would try something like this and long ago switched to other forms of communication or banking, and have always avoided using standard Western banking resources for just such a reason.
It also strikes me as odd that the right wing would be so willing to let the government snoop into private records since, after all, they are the people who claim to distrust Big Government the most and look with dark suspicion on any attempt by the feds to pry into their lives. But that only seems to apply when it's the Democrats are in the White House, so it really has nothing to do with life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, or the sanctity of the Bill of Rights. As long as they are dedicated to the proposition that George W. Bush is never wrong, they will allow anything -- including the destruction of the America we grew up with -- to be done to achieve that end.
This must stop. I want my country back.
