What's next with the NSA , the CIA
and the telecoms?
If it weren't enough that average American citizens were being spied on by the government, and their personal phone records and calling patterns were being sold, shared, or otherwise handed over to the NSA by major telecommunications companies, and that Gen. Michael V. Hayden, (the man who once headed the National Security Agency, and by most reports played a large role in the creation of the government's controversial domestic eavesdropping program) is about to become the next director of the CIA, we now find out that President Bush has "bestowed upon his intelligence czar, John Negroponte, broad authority, in the name of national security, to excuse publicly traded companies from their usual accounting and securities-disclosure obligations." (Business Week Online, 5/24/06).
Yesterday, in a diary entitled "Negroponte Can Waive SEC Rules for "National Security"(www.dailykos.com) frequent poster SusanG cites an article from Business Week Online which tells us that publicly traded companies such as AT&T and Verizon and those implicated in the Fourth Amendment privacy rights controversy can be shielded from SEC reporting requirements, all in the name of national security.
SusanG suggests that this latest legal mandate is another maneuver designed for the benefit of Bush's cronies "or to cover up (the) administration's illegal and unconstitutional acts." I would have to agree with her. There seems no end to the systematic stripping of our civil liberties and constitutional rights that is being perpetrated by the current administration. Not only are our rights being violated, but now steps are being taken to protect those who are allegedly participating in the crimes.
It is interesting to note that although Verizon recently publicly denied having turned over phone records to the NSA (including what numbers its' customers had dialed and when), it did not deny that MCI Inc., the company Verizon acquired in January, had provided such data. Further, AT&T reportedly had also not, as of 5/17/06, denied having released customer calling records (L.A. Times, 5/17/06).
Essentially, the government continues to take steps to monitor our daily lives and activities, while we average citizens are losing recourse to information about such monitoring. The flow of information is increasingly becoming one way. The corporations who are the de facto policy makers of this country, and increasingly the world, do not have to answer to us or anyone.
Of course this recent development with Bush granting Negroponte the power to issue reporting waivers to corporations is no surprise. It is another stone in the ever-growing wall of secrecy and deceit being erected around this countrys' social and political power structure. The CIA and the NSA also continually prove themselves to be more than adequate masons. Indeed, the aforementioned Business Week article cites Security-law experts who suggest that the waving of reporting requirements for companies could be used to mask the funding of secret CIA or Pentagon assignments.
For his part, during his recent confirmation hearing Gen. Hayden defended the NSA spying program but refused to provide details on the nature of the program, saying that he would address this in a closed session with senators later that day (L.A. Times, 5/19/06). His attitude seemed to be one of avoidance and retreat, stating that the "CIA needs to get out of the news - as a source or subject- and focus on protecting the American people by acquiring secrets and providing high-quality all source analysis." (Times, 5/19/06).
My questions are; a) how does acquiring data on the calling patterns of millions of Americans "protect" us? (whether acquired by the NSA or the CIA), and b) how does providing corporations protection from reporting their involvement in such activities "protect" us? I think these questions need to be answered.
National Security is becoming a multi-purpose fire blanket for the executive branch and the CIA when they are called to task for inappropriate or even illegal actions, and the so-called Rule of Law is no longer immune to being smothered and extinguished. Therein resides the real danger-- when the very system designed to ensure our freedoms is turned against us, where are we left to turn?
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