Something Shady's Going On

But then, we know that, don't we?

It's been my experience that honest people look you in the eye and take responsibility for their actions. Only racketeers and those living on the shady side of honest hide behind secrecy. When people are not straight-forward and up front about their activities, they are immediately associated with the Mafia, the Gestapo or the Bush Administration.

The secrecy of the National Security Agency (NSA) could easily be labeled gestapo skullduggery. Their latest scam? When confronted with their latest illegal activities, NSA told the Justice Department ethics investigating committee to bug off.

"We'll police ourselves," the NSA culprits told Justice Department ethics investigators. "Stay out of it. So. We violate a few laws and eavesdrop on the American populace without warrants. We're above the law and without security clearances for access to information about our agency, there's nothing you can do about it. Clearances denied."

Sadly, the Justice Department ethics office, represented by H. Marshall Jarrett, said: "OK". He said nothing more, nothing less. Just: "OK. Investigation closed."

Which brings us round to today's headline in the USA Today publication which first broke news of the most recent skullduggery: "NSA Has Massive Database of Americans' Phone Calls".

The NSA has collected data on tens of millions of Americans' phone calls. That means the NSA has been investigating YOUR private communications and if you are not a terrorist associated with al Qaeda ― they are acting illegally.

There's more.

If your telephone company is AT&T, Bell South or Verizon, you are being victimized by companies that are aiding and abetting illegal activities by supplying NSA with your personnel data. There's a law against that.

Specifically, that law is found under Section 22 of the Communications Act.

The hero of the day? Qwest.

They, alone, refused to be intimidated by Bush's Bullies. The Denver-based telecommunications company knew it was illegal to divulge customer information and they refused to break the law.

When NSA pushed, bullied, threatened and tried to intimidate Qwest, this honorable telephone company suggested going through proper channels and taking the proposal to the FISA court.

But NSA nixed that idea. Said the courts might not agree with what they were doing!

The White House response to all this?

No domestic surveillance is conducted without court approval. C'mon Dana Perino, deputy White House press secretary, tell us another whopper. Right after you finish telling us that: "the intelligence activities are lawful, necessary and required to protect Americans from terrorist attacks". ( Ha! They're protecting me from terrorists by using data that my 6-year-old grandchild called?)

Does anyone "out there" actually believe that?

As Vermont's Sen. Patrick Leahy, when appraised of this latest report, said: "Are you telling me that tens of millions of Americans are involved with al Qaeda? These are tens of millions of Americans who are not suspected of anything . . . Where does it stop?"

Leahy held up a copy of the USA Today and added: "Shame on us for being so willing to rubber stamp anything this administration does. We ought to fold our tents."
Something Shady's Going On © 2006 Chaeli Lee Sullivan