Bush Violation of FISA Law a Felony
February 2nd, 2007I’m sick of all of the bullshit talk about “the law” and this regime. We’re WAY beyond “the law” now, and any possible remedies it affords us.
Since when did tyrants start paying attention to any laws but their own psychotic whims?
Lots of smart people flapping their gums and tickling their keyboards re: “the law” don’t seem to have much of a grasp on the history of tyranny.
Part of what makes Cryptogon interesting to people is how I seem to be weeks, months or years ahead of events. Want to know a secret? I’m able to do it because none of this is new. It has all happened before. It’s not difficult to see where we’re going when you know where we’ve been.
And this is what I know about tyrannical regimes: They don’t back down because of laws. They create an internal logic that drives policy, while excluding contrary perspectives. In other words, there are no alternatives, for them, because they don’t cognitively allow for the possibility of alternatives.
The latest iteration of this familiar scenario will involve mushroom clouds unless drastic and heroic action is taken right now.
Indeed, the chances of America altering course are slim to none. And the slim part of that grim equation would involve another military coup (I count JFK’s assassination as the most recent military coup in the U.S. The one before that failed initially). No, I’m not talking about a bunch of overweight Bubbas with their pickup trucks and militia patches massing at the local Dairy Queen. I mean an honest to god coup d’état, with a U.S. general showing up to the White House along with a bunch of guys in ninja outfits and Apache gunships, announcing to everyone inside, “COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR.” Navy SEAL teams taking over the aircraft carriers in or on their way to the Persian Gulf… The Air Force making sure China and Russia don’t get any funny ideas while America cleans house…
Now, once that ball starts rolling, there’s no way to know where it will wind up. It’s a gamble. Things could get better. Things could get worse. What’s for sure, though, is that this regime represents a clear and present danger to everyone, everywhere. What’s for sure is that there’s no way to alter the course of this regime within the political system.
THE WAR WITH IRAN MUST BE STOPPED BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
Where does that leave us?
The full weight of this burden now rests squarely on the shoulders of the men and women of the U.S. military. Attempt to save America and the world from the diabolical lunatics who have subverted power, or parish in oblivion with the rest of us: Those are the options that every member of the U.S. armed forces must now consider.
I can hear the collective * gasp * going up from many of you. I know you don’t like this kind of talk. You’re nuts if you think I do. But if this thing goes down with Iran, there’s a VERY good chance that you, me and a millions of other people are going to die in the immediate and follow-on effects of a nuclear war. For those of you who pride yourselves on holding hands in a circle and proudly wearing your Birkenstocks, does that compute?
We are in deep, deep shit. All of us. Nobody wants to admit this less than me, but either the U.S. military cleans house, now, or we’re dead.
Via: New York Times:
LAST August, a federal judge found that the president of the United States broke the law, committed a serious felony and violated the Constitution. Had the president been an ordinary citizen — someone charged with bank robbery or income tax evasion — the wheels of justice would have immediately begun to turn. The F.B.I. would have conducted an investigation, a United States attorney’s office would have impaneled a grand jury and charges would have been brought.
But under the Bush Justice Department, no F.B.I. agents were ever dispatched to padlock White House files or knock on doors and no federal prosecutors ever opened a case.
The ruling was the result of a suit, in which I am one of the plaintiffs, brought against the National Security Agency by the American Civil Liberties Union. It was a response to revelations by this newspaper in December 2005 that the agency had been monitoring the phone calls and e-mail messages of Americans for more than four years without first obtaining warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, as required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
In the past, even presidents were not above the law. When the F.B.I. turned up evidence during Watergate that Richard Nixon had obstructed justice by trying to cover up his involvement, a special prosecutor was named and a House committee recommended that the president be impeached.
And when an independent counsel found evidence that President Bill Clinton had committed perjury in the Monica Lewinsky case, the impeachment machinery again cranked into gear, with the spectacle of a Senate trial (which ended in acquittal).
Laws are broken, the federal government investigates, and the individuals involved — even if they’re presidents — are tried and, if found guilty, punished. That is the way it is supposed to work under our system of government. But not this time.
Last Aug. 17, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor of the United States District Court in Detroit issued her ruling in the A.C.L.U. case. The president, she wrote, had “undisputedly violated†not only the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, but also statutory law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Enacted by a bipartisan Congress in 1978, the FISA statute was a response to revelations that the National Security Agency had conducted warrantless eavesdropping on Americans. To deter future administrations from similar actions, the law made a violation a felony punishable by a $10,000 fine and five years in prison.
[…] This is a long but excellent article. It takes you inside the pathological decision making process that has brought us to this point. While it doesn’t give me much hope that the military will stop this, it confirms my analysis that this diabolical regime is not even considering alternatives to war with Iran. […]
Excellent commentary from cryptogon. This whole Hitlerian aggression from the Bush regime is no longer a conspiracy theory; it’s gone beyond that. I’m fast running out of energy to debate this with the stupid / wilfully blind; the time is simply too short now. I’m focussing instead on getting my wife and myself relocated somewhere much safer and much more free than Airstrip One.
[…] Recall what I said about a military coup being the only thing that could stop the war with Iran? […]
>The full weight of this burden now rests squarely on the shoulders of the men and women of the U.S. military.
Complications exist. Michael Donovan, a friend Kay Griggs:
http://www.midcoast.com/~michael1/webnukeletter.htm
” Joint Forces Command has the real function of making the command structure so complicated that at any given moment only a few insiders know what is really going on. Therein an army Lieutenant. could at some moment out-rank a naval Captain etc. All in awe of those ‘officers’ with some strange inside connections. And most of those officers who do seem ‘connected’ in that way are so unprintably strange I pity those who must salute them. Joint Forces Command, by hidden and convoluted command structure itself, has been turned into an SS sans jack boots.”
So what’s new? Preston Bush was a criminal. George H.W. was a criminal. Dubya is a criminal. Most of their administrations were criminals. George H.W. was in on the Kennedy assisnation and the Bay of Pigs, et. al. Our country is a disgrace. The World is run by criminals whose only thrill is to infringe on the Freemen and woman who just want to live their lives in peace. I’M ASHAMED TO BE AN AMERICAN. But it’s more disgraceful in England, Russia, China and/or practically every other country. Over half of the human beings on the face of this planet have never made a phone call. How many of ‘us’ realize that? What is one to do? Keep a gun within reach so that if a ‘pig’ tries to murder you – you can kill them first.