It is becoming clearer by the day that Congress does not fully comprehend what they are authorizing under the FISA Amendment Act.  Emblematic of this misunderstanding is this statement from Rep. Joe Sestak (PA-D):

The Act provides standards and procedures for liability protection for electronic communication service providers who assisted the Government between September 11, 2001 and January 17, 2007, when the surveillance program was brought under the FISA Court.

While Rep. Sestak's statement reflects the conventional wisdom surrounding retroactive immunity, it is a fundamental misreading of the Act.  The Act does not limit the time period of assistance from electronic communication service providers (ECSP) and does not restrict the government from continuing to ask for that assistance in the future.  It effectively allows ECSPs to continue complying with the illegal surveillance requests into perpetuity.

This immunity provision along with other aspects of the Act put the final pieces together for the restoration of the Total Information Awareness program.

On May 15th, 2007, a little more than a year ago, PBS Frontline aired it's documentary "Spying on the Homefront", which you can watch at your leisure by following that link. You can also give to PBS by clicking here to support their efforts and to continue a tradition of excellent journalism that is all too rare in the new millennium.

I give you these links because I believe in PBS and in particular the excellent brand of documentary film making that is consistently produced by the people at Frontline. That and the fact that I'm providing you with the complete 60 minutes via somebody's YouTube upload after the fold:

"The problem is," Scheppele said, "The overall memo was rescinded, but based on the behavior of the administration, you wonder if only certain parts were rescinded." Scheppele, who has studied constitutional courts in Russia, said, "As a kid of the Cold War, I would never have imagined that a Russian judge would come up to me and say, 'Can you get your country to stop torturing people because we're trying to get our police to stop doing that here. As long as you guys are doing it and doing it publically, we can't stop them.' "

That paragraph jumped out at me when I read Derrick Jackson's Boston Globe op ed this morning, which has the same title as this diary.  I apologize for not posting about it until now, but my laptop was being repaired.

You need to read the Jackson.  But let me offer a few more thoughts.

This diary was originally published with a title that immediately blinded people to the greater message. What's more, I believe the reaction illustrated the precisely the point that I trying to make.

If Dems actually had a reaction on an equivalent level to Bush's defecation on "everything-that-is-America" that was half as virulent as the reaction my original diary received because of a WORD then maybe, just maybe, America wouldn't be in the hellhole it finds itself....

Please note that I have written a separate diary with some commentary about how Obama's calls for empathy can help guide us into the future. Seeing how I cannot post two diaries in one day, I will post this sanitized diary first, and then post the commentary tomorrow.

(See below the fold for the "sanitized" version of the diary.)

It's a drama-dy going on right now.  First, we learn there was a breach of passport files on Barack Obama.  Then we learn this morning that Hillary Clinton's were too.  Literally 2 minutes later, we learned John McCain's were too.

Well, I got news - I'm sure there are plenty of people who wanted to peak into my files too.  If they did, I don't know.  But having worked in politics for a long time, there's no doubt people have tried to find any dirt on me (thankfully, I have no dirt).

What do we know of the so-called Total Information Awareness program, so flatteringly described in today's Wall Street Journal?

Though it is much in the news of late, what we read and hear generates much noise, but sheds little light. We glean that it is so secret and vital to our minute-to-minute survival that everyone with knowledge of its details has already been killed. We know it gives Dick Cheney a woody. (Can that be good?) We know that it is favored by the clear-eyed and crew cut patriots at Denny's restaurants across the country, for unlike those effete eastern homosexuals and dope smokers, they have nothing to hide. And we know that the democrats, in a display of the infinite cowardice for which they are justly renowned, have just pumped it full of amphetamines, soaked it in gasoline, and given it the keys to the hummer, much liked a stunned football player staggering triumphantly towards his own end zone, elated by the roar of the crowd, unable to hear the words they scream:

"You're running the wrong way!"

This is from TPM with a great summary from Wall Street Journal.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmem...

Here's the way the whole thing works, according to Gorman: into the NSA's massive database goes data collected by the Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Treasury. This information includes data about email (recipient and sender address, subject, time sent), internet searches (sites visited and searches conducted), phone calls (incoming and outgoing numbers, length of call, location), financial information (wire transfers, credit-card use, information about bank accounts), and information from the DHS about airline passengers.

Contact Congress

https://forms.house.gov/...
http://www.senate.gov/...

The recent debacle of Alberto Gonzales testifying before Congress just illustrates the lengths to which the Bush Administration will go to protect it’s newly gained fascist powers. Daniel Schorr had it right in his NPR Commentary yesterday (7-30-07), Selective 'Leaks' from the Bush Administration, when he said:

In an investigation of a major leak the first question asked is, "who benefited?"

Who benefitted, indeed...

I'm sure most everyone here is familiar with the Total Information Awareness program originally proposed by Adm. John Poindexter, partially implemented by the Defense Intelligence Agency's Information Awareness Office and allegedly terminated after it came to light in 2003.  I'm also sure most here know that various parts of the program weren't really terminated, only moved to assorted black programs in other agencies.

But what you may not have known is that the whole thing was outsourced to Singapore and they have now rolled out an even bigger badder program than the original TIA.

It's baaaaaaack....

Homeland Security officials are testing a supersnoop computer system that sifts through personal information on U.S. citizens to detect possible terrorist attacks, prompting concerns from lawmakers who have called for investigations.

The system uses the same data-mining process that was developed by the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness (TIA) project that was banned by Congress in 2003 because of vast privacy violations.

This evening I was able to confirm on recent intrusions into my play-time computer. I have noticed an increase in activity particularly in the Norton applications, and Webroot followed by sudden popping open of files in the My Documents folders.  Some of these intrusions are so ham-handed that even 64 bit true multi-tasking CPU's get bogged down.  A recent report from the well-known "East Side C.U.G." in Syracuse, NY confirms that probes are taking place and the sources appear to be from the Maryland area, at least around here, and that these probes are extremely difficult to track.  Speculation has it that this is Federal snooping.

Another computer using C.A. products and Windows Defender was similarly probed without triggering any alerts.  There appears to be no commercially available system that aside from some hardware firewalls,  that stymie these probes. Another computer in the E.S.C.U.G. stable using the Apple system was also probed without triggering any alerts, but was clearly seen on a performance monitor hooked to the computer.

There appears to be NO malicious attempt to stop the system or leave a trojan or worm in the computer that is detectable.  This is hit and run probing.  More below.

(x-posted from TexasKAOS, where we're taking Texas back!)

CNet is reporting that some disturbing information about the NSA's data collection techniques was revealed at last Friday's "Search & Seizure in the Digital Age" symposium at Stanford.

Paul Ohm, a former employee of the Justice Department who worked in their Computer Crime and Intellectual Property division, explained how data-gathering has changed since the federal government abandoned it's Carnivore program a few years ago.  While Carnivore was set up to only collect data which matched certain filters, the full pipe technique (aka "the vacuum cleaner method") is highly invasive and puts our privacy rights at risk:

"What they're doing is even worse than Carnivore," said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who attended the Stanford event. "What they're doing is intercepting everyone and then choosing their targets."

We all have credit ratings that follow us around like digital shadows. Now, starting this Monday, Dec. 4, every time you leave or enter the United States by air, land, or sea, your own government’s computers will officially judge the probability that you are a terrorist, make that judgement widely available, and keep your terror score on file for 40 years.  By assigning you a computer-generated risk assessment based upon your travel pattern, your companions, your method of payment and even the kind of food you eat -- among other, as yet unknown tidbits of data -- the U.S. Department of Homeland security thinks it can make you safer.

"When some unknown government computer, using unknown sources of information, tags you as a ‘security risk’ and begins circulating that label around the government, you will have no meaningful way of finding out why you were given that label, let alone challenging its validity," says Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Project. "

Feel safer? More after the link....

Wonkette has a series of interesting/disturbing links today to stories about a fire....

"Late Friday, a crazy six-alarm fire gutted the three-story Building 54, where the 902nd Military Intelligence Group did its special work...includ[ing the] allegedly-banned Total Information Awareness and TALON surveillance monstrosities that DARPA was forced to hide...and conducting "counterintelligence activities in support of Army commanders and to protect Army forces, secrets and technologies by detecting, identifying, neutralizing and exploiting foreign intelligence services and international terrorist threats."

http://wonkette.com/...

In the New America privacy is a masterfully crafted illusion. We think that what we check out at our neighborhood library, buy at our local mom and pop's grocery, and watch on television is not important and is only known by a few people. This is false! It is very important, governmental agencies are funded to create psychological profiles to determine whether we are with Al-Qaeda or political subversives.

If we are with Al Qaeda or so-called subversives we will be taken to the closest detention center; Halliburton is making sure that there are these centers very close by so that we may be tortured and/or possibly killed. The methods that you have heard about on the tele by the Ministry of Truth does not scratch the surface. How about electrodes taped to your testicles or acid being poured in the orifices of your choice? I for one do not want to be with Al-Qaeda!

Aw, shucks

Democrats are always under attack for being "weak" on "national security." The premise is that we can't fight the "war on terror" as well as the Republicans. But Republicans are silent about the real war, the war for Democracy. That's because they are the mouthpiece for neo-conservatives. And, it is the neocons that are waging war on democracy. They are well on their way to winning it.

That's why we need to reaffirm our democratic principles and institutions and fight our own war, the War for Democracy.