A COURT challenge to the Bush Administration’s warrantless wiretapping program has run squarely into a comic-book caricature of a monolithic government slapping aside all challenges to its power by invoking the Kafkaesque distortion of the legal system inherent in the concept of “state secrets.”
When secrets are secret
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-mcconnell24aug24,1,7754284.story?track=rss
Spy chief’s disclosures stun Congress
McConnell is criticized for offering once-classified details about the wiretapping program in an interview.
By Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 24, 2007
WASHINGTON — The nation’s top intelligence official drew sharp criticism from Capitol Hill and government watchdog groups Thursday for disclosing previously classified details about the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. In a newspaper interview last week, Director of National Intelligence J. Michael McConnell provided new details on the scope of the espionage program, saying that fewer than 100 people in the United States were under surveillance by the National Security Agency at any time, compared with thousands overseas. He also disclosed details about a previously secret decision by a special intelligence court that ruled that the program was in violation of U.S. law. The deliberations of the court are generally classified.
To understand the furor over President Bush’s nomination of Leslie Southwick to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, one should start with the Goode family of Mississippi. A propane heater exploded in their house, killing their granddaughter. The Goodes sued the manufacturer. After the trial, new evidence emerged demonstrating that the company had provided inaccurate information about servicing the heater. Yet, in a dissenting opinion, Southwick argued that the Goodes didn’t deserve a new trial.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/20/AR2007082001423.html
Want to start your private office arms race right now?
I just got my own USB rocket launcher :-) Awsome thing.
Plug into your computer and you got a remote controlled office missile launcher with 360 degrees horizontal and 45 degree vertival rotation with a range of more than 6 meters - which gives you a coverage of 113 square meters round your workplace.
You can get the gadget here: http://tinyurl.com/2qul3c
Check out the video they have on the page.
Cheers
Marko Fando