White House Reacts to ABC News

Tony’s whole career from speechwriter to Fox stooge to Press Secretary has been all about dissembling and spinning the pieces…..Tony wouldn’t know how to add up and assemble a Fisher-Price puzzle.

The phone companies have re-merged with one another and gotten mega-rich during the latest Bush presidency. And they seem hell-bent on refusing to put any of that profit into improving services for their customers or giving back to their employees.
So I find it very interesting that Verizon, BellSouth/AT&T and the Bush administration are practially laughing these allegations off as media hype. Their obvious smoke screen was to get into a bunch of mumbo-jumbo about local calls vs. long-distance calls, foreign vs. domestic calls; this and that being OK to trace. The phone companies and the administration are all in each other’s pockets—and THANK YOU to all the media outlets that are the eyes, ears and voice of the public. I hope you use all your journalistic skills to unearth real evidence that reporters are being unlawfully stalked by Big Brother.
And shame on the corporate and political pigs who think they know everything and they know what’s best for everybody. Because you don’t. OK, fat cats?
It DOES add up Mr. Snow, it adds up to another contradiction of the real freedoms our great country was founded upon; moreover (and hopefully) it adds up to more people seeing the light and calling to task President Bush and his dwindling, bumbling cronies.

The UK has MUCH more intrusive eavesdropping laws than we do – a result of the IRA. We need MORE surveillance – not less!
Until someone can show up and factually claim that this program is being used against domestic persons outside the scope of terrorist activities, we should be thankful for the work of our intelligence services!

so, by “NSF” did Tony Snow mean FISA, or NSA, or NSL, or?
National Security Letters are NOT “strictly concerned with foreign international counterterrorism.”
from 11/6/05 story in the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/05/AR2005110501366.html
“The Patriot Act, and Bush administration guidelines for its use, transformed those letters by permitting clandestine scrutiny of U.S. residents and visitors who are not alleged to be terrorists or spies.
“The FBI now issues more than 30,000 national security letters a year, according to government sources, a hundredfold increase over historic norms. The letters — one of which can be used to sweep up the records of many people — are extending the bureau’s reach as never before into the telephone calls, correspondence and financial lives of ordinary Americans.
“Issued by FBI field supervisors, national security letters do not need the imprimatur of a prosecutor, grand jury or judge. They receive no review after the fact by the Justice Department or Congress. The executive branch maintains only statistics, which are incomplete and confined to classified reports. The Bush administration defeated legislation and a lawsuit to require a public accounting, and has offered no example in which the use of a national security letter helped disrupt a terrorist plot.”
Mr. Ross, congratulations on this venture, The Blotter is a great read, and thanks.
(a Preview function would be nice)

Right – the Bush administration ignores the law. How did you feel when Elian Gonzalez was picked up and deported by Janet Reno in definace of a judges ruling that he was to stay in the US? That was pretty good obeying the law hmm…
The only fascists around here are the people that are trying to make you think the Bush administration has ulterior motives. The same people that passed the laws in the first place that allow for these activities. If you read Tony SNows response you would see that this had nothing to do with the Patriot Act – it was an unsubstantiated report, with no facts, just allegations, with no facts on how it was being done. The NSA is subject to oversight, just like all the other intelligence agencies are, and the vast majority of their activities are fully reported to properly cleared Congressmen (that cover both sides of the political spectrum). Do you honestly believe that if something was being done that was against the law, these guys wouldn’t be out front and center pointing their fingers? Jay Rockefeller is the head of the judges on the “secret” court that gives the ok on these operations – he has been in that position for years, and he is one of these cleared individuals. You don’t think he would have filed suit against the government if he thought they were breaking the law?
Think people.

“The FBI now issues more than 30,000 national security letters a year, according to government sources,” WaPo story in comments
“Justice Department officials say 3,501 people in the U.S. were targets of the National Security Letters, a special provision of the Patriot Act, last year.
The official said few, if any, were journalists.” The Blotter 37 minutes ago
Somebody has lame sources. Who is it? I’m gonna go with the assumption that 30,000 NSL’s would retrieve more information than the J Dept could actually read and sort through without jepordizing it’s enormous workload. Short story – don’t believe everything you read, especially if it’s an unnamed source using large round numbers in the Washington Post.
And Tony’s right Brian, Justice has better things to do than dig through your trash. Unless you’ve been taking calls from or making calls to international terror suspects. And if you have, in pursuit of a story, why shouldn’t they be using every tool available, by law, to track them? They certainly aren’t going to charge you for anything. You’re not the terrorist.
And if you’re aiding and abetting govt. employees in leaking classified info, doesn’t Justice have a duty to protect state secrets by enforcing Federal law? Isn’t that their job?
I guess what I’m asking is, aren’t you guys really just complaining that Justice is making your attempt to gather and print classified information difficult? Shouldn’t they?
I think this stuff is kind of lame on journalists’ part. The FBI isn’t interested in you. It’s interested in your law breaking sources and contacts, whether they be terrorists (unlikely) or leakers (bread and butter). You guys take this stuff too personally.

You can’t claim your rights have been violated until your rights have been violated, right?
You boys play nice….

I think that’s exactly why the Fourth Estate does the job they do-they don’t believe everything they read on watered-down, government-issued press releases and handouts.
And I thank God for that every day. A simpleton viewpoint is to assume that there are enough checks and balances in place in our three branches of governemnt.
In this day and age, and moreover because one party essentially has a lock on all three of those branches, we need the public press more than ever.

In response to the comment by The Apologist, the only reason the FBI is worried about leaks of classified information is because the executive branch wants make sure IT doesn’t get caught leaking the information, not because they care about national security. If they cared about national security, they would not have leaked Valerie Plame’s identity. Ms. Plame’s job at the CIA was monitoring nuclear proliferation in Iran (you know, the country Mr. bush plans to drop a nuke on in the not-so-distant future, irregardless of the facts or opinions of anyone).
So many people in the U.S. are being monitored that one FBI agent was quoted as saying it has made it more, not less, difficult to decipher those communications possibly connected to terrorism.
The most troubling thing about all this domestic surveillance is what this administration defines as being connected to terrorism. Any group or association that is anti-war and any group that openly dissents this administration fall under the category of possibly being connected to terrorism. So, groups as diverse as The Sierra Club, MoveOn, and the NRA all fall under their definition of possibly being connected to terrorism and are being monitored.

“the only reason the FBI is worried about leaks of classified information is because the executive branch wants make sure IT doesn’t get caught leaking the information, not because they care about national security.” Tina Lee
The problem here is that Justice is pursuing a leak investigation against the Executive branch in court right now. So your entire premise is misinformed. The FBI is not directed to pursue unauthorized leaks of classified information from the Executive branch alone. ANY unauthorized leaks of CLASSIFIED information are ILLEGAL. The only person with the authority to declassify info is the President and under certain circumstances the Vice President.
“(you know, the country Mr. bush plans to drop a nuke on in the not-so-distant future, irregardless of the facts or opinions of anyone)”
This isn’t true. There is no evidence to back this assertion. There are no known sources which have testified to this assertion in any forum I am aware of to date. This is a product of Seymor Hershe’s imagination. It was in an article that was, as usual, full of factual errors, including meetings which could not have taken place in which the principles were on opposite sides of the globe at the time.
“So many people in the U.S. are being monitored that one FBI agent was quoted as saying it has made it more, not less, difficult to decipher those communications possibly connected to terrorism.”
Again, you strain credulity. A single unnamed source asserts that the FBI isn’t pursuing terrorists or other criminals but is engaged in large scale political subversion in secret. This isn’t even plausible. Spying on The Sierra Club? the NRA? MoveOn.org? the single greatest fundraising asset for the Republican Party? All the Repubs have to do is send out an email detailing all the crazy things MoveOn has published in the last month and they get flooded with cash. Why would they want to undermine crazy people?
Moreover, and lastly, just because a group CAN “fall under the category of possibly being connected to terrorism” doesn’t mean it actually DOES nor does it mean they are actively being investigated or monitored.
Don’t believe everything you read in the newspaper. It isn’t all true.

Pretty short answer to a pretty serious question. Tony is obviously a Dodger.

Think about it!
If you are concerned about a bank being robbed you don’t tap and follow everyone in town. You secure the dang bank!
This is an excuse to control thought and information. If the objective was truly security there are many other things we should be doing, and we aren’t!
BE SMART FOLKS!

It is not what the Bush adminstration is doing, but rather how they are doing it. I don’t doubt that obtaining certain phone records is a very plausible tool, but my understanding is that there is a procedure, a legal procedure, for doing so. Why does the Bush administration insist on not following established procedures?

Of course the government is tapping the Americans phones. How else can they keep tabs on those who might wise up and see the truth. Or worse yet try to do something about it. The truth is that the USA is under major invasion by several countries. Some are here to destroy and/or to conquer taking over this country. Why would the government want to hide that from us…or to water it down as hype? Because the government is lining their pockets. They know that we are under invasion and what are they doing to save America? ZERO

Wow. I thought this was Aljazeer.
What do you people have to hide? FBI/NSA can listen in on my phone conversations (BTW: read Puzzle Palace. They been doing it since the 60s) . I’m not doing anything illegal do anything I need to be ashamed of. If soneone at the house of worship down the road from me is planning something I want the FBI/NSA to know. But wait… Isn’t that Profiling. We can’t do that; better “listen in on everyone” or ACLU will complain.
But wait. we can’t do that either.
You have a choice:
1) Loose what you believe to be a right to use a cell phone.
2) Loose your life so someone can talk on the cell phone while planning the next 911. Rights can be “recovered”. (For those of you who remember WWII you know that German’s and Japanese could not speak up againt US goverment after we entered the war) Your Life can’t (except in certain religions).
BTW: Last night I ran into a police “sobriety checkpoint”. Good thing I had my “Papers” with me. Stats: 305 cars pulled over: 1 OUI , and 10 people with seatbelt/no-drivers license/no insurance papers. Reminded me of Mother Russia… “Where are your Papers, where have you been, where are you going… and pull over for Inspection.”