Home | About | Donate

Judge Argues NSA Spy Program So Secret He Can't Explain Why Lawsuit Against It Thrown Out

#1

Judge Argues NSA Spy Program So Secret He Can't Explain Why Lawsuit Against It Thrown Out

Nadia Prupis, staff writer

A federal judge ruled in favor of the National Security Agency in a key surveillance case on Tuesday, dismissing a challenge which claimed the government's spying operations were groundless and unconstitutional.

Filed in 2008 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the lawsuit, Jewel v. NSA, aimed to end the agency's unwarranted surveillance of U.S. citizens, which the consumer advocacy group said violated the 4th Amendment.

#2

This country was founded on the idea of a government open to public scrutiny and citizens with the right to personal privacy. This article proves that today it's the reverse: It's the government that has the right to privacy and the public is exposed to government spying without any legal recourse.

Today I went to the Federal Building in SF to pick up a tax form I needed. I had to strip off my belt and shoes, empty my pockets, and go through a metal detector. It took me longer to get past the guards than to pick up my forms. On the street outside was a line of SUVs with Department of Homeland Security emblazoned on the side. I couldn't help thinking that a government that needs to guard itself from its people is a government without legitimacy.

#3

Obfuscation, subterfuge, and legal spider webs were built into the NSA and Department of Homeland Security.at their inceptions/creation. FDR warned about "shadow government" and today's spying operations (masked as surveillance to "combat terrorism" and ensure national security) are indicative of the very existence of massive "shadow government."

Not a surprise.

#4

Heres a riddle: Does a 'sitting' judge have 'standing' ?
When the military industrial complex has everyone dancing around 'on their knees' because they know that all those who are 'floored' by the arrogance have to do is 'stand up' and be counted its enough to really turn your head.
The disease of rummyism rules the day. Those who who know that they know what they know don't know that what they don't 'know' is that they don't know sitting from standing from all the dancing as the mic fires weapons at the very ground on which all of us stand.

#5

Like I have said so many times in the past, "95% of all amerikan classified material is to protect the US Government, the US Military, US and foreign multinational corporations and the wealthy elite from their own illegal and/or immoral activities around the world!
Any US judge or magistrate that can not give the amerikan people a full and concise explanation as to why a program needs to be so secret that no amerikan citizen could ever prove standing to a court, should be immediately declared unconstitutional and a ten day stay put on the verdict so that US Intelligence agencies will have sufficient time to extract any agents that might be compromised! Just as with too big to fail banks, any intelligence program that does not allow a citizen to seek redress for government wrongdoing is too dangerous to be allowed to survive!

#6

Primo Levi: They count you like gold but they treat you like dirt.

#7

Its kind of like the joke if I tell you I'll have to kill you. Only its not funny and its not a joke anymore.

#8

If a program is so secret that a federal judge can't explain why it can't be challenged, one has to ask what place that program has in a free society? In answer to that, I believe that the US IS no longer a free society, if it ever was! It certainly is NOT a democratic form of government. I liken it to a dictatorship, where there are, in fact, political prisoners and summary executions!

#9

Contracts are the rage
Mercenaries get the most.
Who really profits?

And who pays them all?
From sweat of your brow you eat.
Who squeezes that sweat?

Patriotism
Is now what was before call'd
Obvious treason.

Patriotism
Is now being exploited
For full bull markets.

Patriotism
Has now become a prison
For each patriot.

#11

I guess that they are torturing American citizens with Neuroweaponry is so secret they can't talk about that either. I wouldn't bother bringing the subject up if it wasn't for National Security:

#12

Other words , this nation has become a complete dictatorship.
We the people NO longer have any say in what they do.
Everything is done in complete secret and Screw the whistle blowers
because they will be punish and jail.
While the real criminals like Bush , Cheney , Rove , Rice and NOW
Obama do as they are d... well are told. This is done by whoever is really running the show and putting their strings.
The corruption and crimes being committed today could not happen
unless it was organized from a group of persons which are really
in power and running the show.

#13

This tells me it's time for revolution!

#14

What a total load of Orwellian BS from the judge. and Fuk the en sss A to hell.
I cannot help but wonder what 'goods' the powers that be have on him...
What the hell ever happened to effing common sense? or is the legal game and the attendant 'language' so effing above us common folk that it renders us mute and having no cause or case???