Judge rules Bush illegally wiretapped Americans
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that government investigators illegally wiretapped the phone conversations of an Islamic charity and two American lawyers without a search warrant.
U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker said the plaintiffs have provided enough evidence to show "they were subjected to warrantless electronic surveillance."
The judge ordered more legal arguments before deciding damages. Lawyers were seeking $1 million for each plaintiff plus attorney fees. The ruling also stands as repudiation of the now-defunct Bush administration's Terrorist Surveillance Program.
At issue was a 2006 lawsuit filed by the Ashland, Ore., branch of the Saudi-based Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation and two American lawyers Wendell Belew and Asim Ghafoor.
Belew and Ghafoor claimed their 2004 phone conversations with foundation official Soliman al-Buthi were wiretapped without warrants soon after the Treasury Department had declared the Oregon branch a supporter of terrorism. They argued that wiretaps installed without a judge's authorization are illegal.
Jon Eisenberg, lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the complicated 45-page ruling holds the Bush administration program was unconstitutional.
mcjoan has a little more.
No problem , they've got their plants sitting on the Supreme court .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
and they're all laughing at us. Disgusting.
Maybe so, but seeing Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and the rest of the Regime in a perp walk would be salve on my tortured soul.
A banana palm has more intellect than Thomas and Alito.
Yep. Definitely more wit anyway.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Exactly. They don't call this an opinion for nothing. It's meaningless. This judge is not one of the five we have entrusted to make the law of the land.
Any relation?:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xfNxs_jf9o&fe...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
But in this case, I doubt Bush, Cheney, etc. will never see the inside of a court of law.
That was settled with the FISA 'update'.
Retroactive immunity was the phrase.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
"Retroactive immunity", I kinda liked Dodd's stand on that particular issue.
Amended:
Introduced Sep 29, 2009 S. 1725:Retroactive Immunity Repeal Act
Study the symptoms not the virus...
Ha! The phone companies and common carriers would spend hundreds of millions of dollars trying to kill that act if only to keep their head ringleaders out of prison.
... they've got a big part to play in net neutrality, too.
I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn 'we'll help you with wiretaps, you spike net neutrality' is a deal that was cut on Bush's watch and agreed to on Obama's.
I am finding fewer and fewer reasons to waste my vote on them.
Kusinish and Grayson
They could take on an army of Republican dicks.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
ummm....as soon as all the paperwork can be "cooked up"?
Afterall, Obama was "against" illegal wiretaps before he was "for" them, right?
Wha?
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
President Obama's treason against America is, if anything, worse than the Republicans' since President Obama has some intelligence and isn't a fucking insane Christian extremist.
voting for him next time?
... the lesser of two evils okie-doke again.
I still reserve the right to change my mind. And I will if he ever decides to pursue the war criminals in our midst. Short of that, it won't be okie-dokie with me.
Is carnival slang for the gimmick, the pitch the stall vendor uses to get you to play the ring toss, bottle knockdown, etc.
It's the shiny object, the giant stuffed toy that you can't possibly win on a single play. But you smile and nod and put your money down.
He was simply dyslexic, incurious and illiterate.
He was very good at following orders, and making sure that his rich cronies got what they wanted.
Obama's treason only appears worse because he claimed to be better than the last guy. And he might be (only slightly) better than the last guy. Hard to tell.
Bush was dumb as a stump. Every business he touched he ran into the ground. The U.S. included.
Maybe we should impeach Bush.
Oh wait.....too late. Off the table and such. In fact the table's gone.
Can we still have him arrested and thrown in jail with his whole cabal? I'd love to see what would happen if that went down.....actually maybe not.
Who would care about bush or cheney. They must be sacrificed for the sake of law, justice and the American way.
Nobody cares about them anymore and the Republicants. People want real justice back, and the accountability.
Republicans are like the bad guy wrestlers that wear the leotards. you know, the kind like you don't see no more, for good reason.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
.
This is a no-brainer. The bush mis-Administration knew this was illegal and got away with it. They basically said screw the Constitution we will do anything we desire and F..K the American People. The republicans simply rubber stamped it all even going so far as to pass an illegal law claiming it really is legal retroactively, which according to the Constitution is not. In other words the Constitution expressly prohibts making illegal actions legal retroactively. So much for what the founding fathers, the republicans claim to admire so much, truly matters. Anyway what do I know. Peace
The love you take is equal to the love you make. John Lennon Paul Mc Cartney
They were defying American law, and loving it.
BTW - they still are loving it, here, now, within the US.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
... but it's a tad late coming after nearly eight years of an asleep-at-the-wheel media and both sides of the aisle playing 'But what if the terrorists descend upon America while riding magical winged ponies?!?!' and guarding us against ... um ... nothing.
There hasn't been a terrorist attack in eight years because the real enemy has been here among us all along, in the guise of the Bush Administration. Their mission to destroy America has been a rousing success.
We won't ever do away with this horseshit of wiretaps and detention camps and waterboarding. We're too fucking weak and scared. We sold our liberties and our souls, and, just as Ben Franklin warned, we got neither liberty or security. Imagine that.
What you describe is the America Cheney and Bush are counting on...
What America will be is no longer up to them.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
I couldn't even get an intelligent response out of the ObamaNation FISA group. Facebook, wheeeee! But actually READ ABOUT THE ISSUES? Nothing but crickets.
The media? Couldn't even manage the phrase "ILLEGAL, WARRANTLESS WIRETAPS". It's like their love affair with 'moral clarity.'
Washington, D.C.? More crickets. Obama made lots of promises, but suddenly it's all sooooo complex, and we're doing the close-it/no-we-can't, try them/no-we-can't dance here, too.
America can't BE anything because it doesn't have the BRAINS to be anything but afraid.
...who are we kidding? It's not like this will ever lead to any criminal charges against Bush and Co. Maybe this country was broken long ago but to me, the Bush administration demonstrated to me how irreparable it is. I'm cynicial sure but I'd like see someone prove me wrong.
it was irreparable. Not to sound too cynical but it may be beyond fixing.
As for Bush, I think he and Laura should take a European vacation. I'm sure there is some country that would like to detain and try him for war crimes.
Indeed. I want to see a snowball effect ending with Nuremberg like trials of the neoconservatives, complicit media, and the entire bushco team of criminals.
Is it the 21st century yet?
Eric Holders "justice department" will ever...
"oblige you"
Obama appointed a piece of crap to head the justice department.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
Apparently, there is no longer any attempt made even for the pretense of any obligation to abide by Oaths of Office, for the rule of law, or for upholding the US Constitution -- in spite of this President formerly being a Constitutional Scholar.
Barack Obama reminds me more of a Mobster who studied both accounting and the law, not to be a better citizen but to be better equipped to skirt the margins of the law and be a better crook. I don't see where anyone else in the Obama administration's "upper echelon" is any better, including AG Eric Holder. In this matter alone, it makes the Obama administration no better than the George W. Bush administration.
And that is before considering the differences, or lack thereof, in foreign and domestic policies between the two administrations. Failure to prosecute a prior administration's criminal behavior is the same as condoning that behavior -- condoning that behavior and continuing the same policies is exactly the same as committing those same crimes.
The rule of law no longer applies in this country. Criminals are stealing this country blind, including a rather large portion of the Congress in both parties. Even the Supreme Court is corrupt beyond redemption. The Constitution and Bill of Rights are no longer relevant. The treasonous seed of fascism planted by Prescott Bush took the nurturing of 2 subsequent Bush generations to take hold.
This country needs a viable 3rd political party, for some real hope and change we can truly believe in ... failing that outcome, perhaps a new populist revolution ...
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
It's up to the DOJ. perhaps he could appoint a new DOJ.
don't even bother with bush. He's a Republican political neophyte.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
So you think that simply replacing AG Eric Holder would "fix" this failure to prosecute a previous administration for war crimes ?? Or to prosecute the previous administration for high crimes against the Constitution ?? As if the office of AG has not now become completely politicized -- that the AG doesn't follow the dictates and wishes of the party leadership ??
This kind of BS party politics before the rule of law, or the Constitution, has been going on and getting worse for the past 40+ years -- ever since Richard M. Nixon. The very last semblance of judicial independence within the DoJ went out the window with the Dubya regime -- his crop of Attorneys swore a separate oath of fealty to Dubya, beyond that archaic Oath of Office. And they are all still there in positions of power within the Obama administration's DoJ.
The war crimes of the Dubya regime have become the war crimes of the Obama administration. The high crimes against the Constitution of the Dubya administration have become the high crimes against the Constitution of the Obama administration. The miniscule changes of the Obama administration, found like pennies on the pavement, have killed both "change you can believe in" and "hope". This country has shifted from one tyrant of the Republican Party persuasion to yet another tyrant of the Democratic Party persuasion ...
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
Of course damages will be over turned by the Bush whores and right wing nut jobs on the Supreme Court. But a precedent for the eventual investigations, charges, trials , convictions, sentences and imprisonment or execution of the Bush traitors will be set.
Eric Holders justice department doesn't like the decision and is going to appeal it...!
Obama's own frikkin justice department is trying to get it overturned!!!
(after all) ...who needs the Bush whores and right wing nut jobs on the Supreme Court? (when) you got Eric Holder himself leading the charge!
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
Bush or Cheney?
or the government? Which means us.
Pay $1 million now, or pay big time $$$ later.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
We pay for their wars, their tax cuts, for their crimes, and we'll have to pay their fines. That's what's good about being part of the conservative ruling elite. You can get by with murder, literally and figuratively, and stick the taxpayer with the bill.
Study the symptoms not the virus...
The Obama DOJ claimed that even hearing this case would jeopardize national security.
Al Qaeda's really gonna get us now. Well, either that or the DOJ was lying.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
Look out, those terrorists might figure out we're spying on them if you hold us accountable for breaking the law!
It's like saying, "Gosh, I know the bus driver is a raging alcoholic, but we can't fire him - who'll drive the bus? You want your kids to go to school, don't you?"
nice analogy. let's get this thing right!
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
And yet the baby killing traitors are still walking around freely.
That c^nt Pelosi refused to instigate war crime trials of the Bush terrorist regime.
... I mean, you have the Pope covering up for pederasts, and the Democrats afraid to prosecute the war criminals that they booted out of office.
Because the Republicans could just as easily prosecute the Democrats (though for different crimes, obviously).
And then where would we be? Endless cycles of tit-for-tat prosecutions, judges being appointed in advance to get them off when their time came around to be prosecuted, tax money wasted on endless trials and tribunals.
It's not like you'd be able to jail all the politicians and have honest government for a change.
... why have the law in the first place? It's so inconvenient!
"We don't want to get caught up in prosecuting the previous administration ..." is a weak excuse for not enforcing the law.
Dishonest people are attracted to politics because of the conjoining of centralized power and a double standard that rarely gets questioned. You change that by imposing actual consequences.
Doh!
and billions short.
what a farce - it's not like this was an isolated incident, and who will pay the piper, if anyone?
not the architects nor the bosses.
Just in the nic of time, for these criminals to get away scott free. - just another sign that American justice is truely dead.
As they untangle the mess the cockroaches will scramble, one by one. That's when the authorities will nab them.
Bush may be escaping to an undisclosed location in the south Pacific as we discuss this. He could be half way there. Of coarse that's when Interpol chimes in as i recall...
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Well I am waiting for Armeggedon. I am scared shitless. Even I didnt think that health care could destroy a Constitution, a country and all the people living in it. I am moving to costa rica where single payer goverment run health care works
very nice this time of year.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Because the law does not apply to the elite ruling class. Laws are for the people. They do not apply to those who run the government. When we get that idea in our little heads, it will help you make sense of the nonsense we are dealing with. War crimes? oh, that's for leaders of other countries. Stealing billions from American's savings and retirement accounts and giving tax breaks to the wealthy few who need it least? Yeah, it all makes sense when your looking at the world through the eyes of slavery. It makes perfect sense.
They should put the whole cartel on ice and ask questions.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
supposed echelon keyword list
http://www.angelfire.com/wa/militia/echelon1....
and another
http://www.rense.com/general66/scgh.htm
article on echelon
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/05/31/what_...
NYT's crossword puzzle, could they come up with a few more words to fit in there?
It's ancient technology now. They have something better.
Nothing will come of it.
"I'm saying that when the president does it, it's not illegal."
R. Nixon
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
will they rip up the patriot act?
will rove be forced to hand over the profits of his book of lies?
will cheney be forced to tear out his own evil heart?
will the 30 percent that still support bush finally admit that he was and is a criminal?
no
this doesnt change a thing
It means more people will consider doing the right thing next time a jerk politician wants to ruin every one's decade.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Isn't government intrusion into the lives of private citizens at the top of their shit-list? I'm sure we will hear nary a peep about this from them.
" Re: Judge rules Bush illegally wiretapped Americans": That headline is not accurate. See
http://volokh.com/2010/04/01/what-al-haramain...
From that link:
The Bush administration had been using the state secrets privilege to get whole cases instead of specific evidence thrown out. The judge ruled against that. This could conceivably have some far-reaching consequences.
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