With Obama’s Jan. 17 speech on NSA Spy-Gate failing to quell civil unrest, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board today released its findings that NSA metadata collection is unlawful and should stop. Most revealing was Charlie Savage’s reporting that from May 2006 to August 2013 the FISC authorized Patriot Act Sec. 215 overriding the Electronic Communications Privacy Act without any legal opinion to support the clear violations of the ECPA, let alone the Fourth Amendment. Yes, secret law is an oxymoron – meaning lawlessness.
The torture memos by John Yoo, Jay Bybee, and Steven Bradbury were written because CIA criminality was exposed by leaks, so the Bush cabal felt they needed legal cover. Had Jane Mayer and Dana Priest not used leaked information to write about the outsourcing of torture and secret CIA-run prisons in Europe, no such twisted law, logic and morality as evinced by those memos would be needed. Likewise, but for Ed Snowden and Glenn Greenwald, the FISC would still be the secret handmaiden of the national security state.
Belief in the “trust us” rationale for secret law-making requires belief that the world is black and white, with clear good guys vs. bad guys. Thanks to transparency abetted by technology, we see that all powerful states are dirty. And so, when the Emperor claims that he is well-robed in his language of democracy and rule of law, we clearly see him naked.Counterpunch
Law as Farce
William A. Cohn
William A. Cohn
Has anyone mined the data?
ReplyDeleteCan we see that it exposes the banks? Does it expose one single bank?
If not, then the whole NSA Snowden thing is a SMOKESCREEN and Putin is playing along!
NSA headlines have effectively provided camoflage for the banks and fodder for the gold bugs.
It has outed Hollande as a creep socialist BUT now he goes public with the affair and embraces Austerity Supply Side!!!
Dimon gets a raise.
The NSA Leak material is a smoke screen for covering up the banks whether LIBOR rigging, CDOs, etc.
It will pave the way to higher interest rates which is possible due balanced budget , lower spending flows, austerity, and ..
El Erian the Bond Baron leaves Pimco on eve of bond nose dive.
India and Argentina will get hit since they are not sovereign with too many USDs.
The NSA leak is a rouse!!!!!
And Dimon gets scotch free
Putin plays along since all the resorts in Switzerland to Goa India are washing Russian monies 24/7/365.
ReplyDeleteSchneiderman NY AG is only taking fines/ fees and stops there ... no real justice.
ReplyDeleteThe banks just pay the fines with the TARP money they got in 2008 since it was the plan.
Banks 5 Obama 3
ReplyDeleteTom,
ReplyDeleteYou really should retitle this as "Farce as Law"