A respectful cheer for Russell Tice, Mark Klein, Jesselyn Radack, Gen. Shinseki, Bunny Greenhouse, Sibel Edmonds and the other brave whistleblowers who have tried to keep the light of day shining in the dark places of our government.
Through Mr. Tice's actions, we might have another opening to fight back against illegal domestic spying. I'm not an attorney, so I ask pardon for this brief diary asking legal questions. But these affect all of us, so it seems worth the risk of asking a dumb question. Follow me below the fold...
We have been stuck in a Catch 22 situation where nobody can prove they have been illegally spied upon by the NSA or FBI, nor could anyone prove they had been damaged by that spying. Therefore courts have said they don't have legal standing to sue.
Now, Mr. Tice's (and others') revelations may provide an opening in that legal barrier, giving individuals and groups standing to sue the US Government and the telcoms for illegally spying on them. As far as I know, only one Arab-American group received hard evidence thru a government mistake, and are proceeding to sue.
With Tice's admission that the government, with the cooperation of the telcoms, is illegally spying on everyone, don't we all have standing to sue for multiple crimes committed against us?
In view of this new information, couldn't a court make a presumption that everyone was illegally spied upon? What if the 150 million telephone-and-computer-using plaintiffs in the United States joined in the largest class action suit in history against the US Government and the telcoms for illegally spying on us?
What a grand turnaround it would be if government and telcoms were required to prove that they did not illegally spy on us!
Update: Added a cheer for Mark Klein, who blew the whistle on AT&T for allowing an open governmnent tap into the Internet in San Francisco.