More Government Spying?
Submitted by Wes Clark on June 22, 2006 - 12:53pm.
Call to Action | Civil Liberties
More Government Spying?
Tell the Bush Administration to respect our privacy!
When John Aravosis purchased my cell phone records from an online data broker in January and then wrote about it on his AMERICAblog, he demonstrated to me and millions of other Americans how vulnerable our personal information is to thieves and hackers.
Well this week we learned the problem is even worse than we first thought.
On Tuesday, the Associated Press revealed that federal and local law enforcement agencies "bypassed subpoenas and warrants designed to protect civil liberties and gathered Americans' personal telephone records from private-sector data brokers" -- the same data brokers who sold my personal cell phone records to John for less than a hundred dollars in January.
Unscrupulous data vendors are bad enough. But the government using these brokers to access our personal telephone records without getting necessary warrants? Government can't make laws and then break them. That constitutes a real abuse of power, and it's illegal.
These actions remind me of the actions taken by other governments that would cynically make laws that they knew they would break. We called such governments undemocratic and anti-American. We said that they didn't respect freedom and dignity of every individual.
I need your help to stop this abuse.
In January, I was proud to join Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) to endorse a bipartisan bill to protect our private phone records.
Their bill, "The Consumer Telephone Records Act of 2006" (S. 2178), would make the stealing and selling of telephone records a criminal offense -- punishing individuals who impersonate customers or fraudulently access online accounts, as well as the employees of phone companies who sell this private information.
This is common sense legislation that is desperately needed; yet Majority Leader Frist has refused to move the bill forward.
After this week's shocking revelation, it's clearly time for Congress to act.
Email your Senators and urge them to support S. 2178, the Schumer/Specter bill, today!
Thanks to the Associated Press, now we've discovered that the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and the US Marshal's Service used these unscrupulous data brokers to bypass subpoenas and warrants and circumvent the Constitution.
According to the AP, the "U.S. government spent $30 million last year buying personal data from private brokers. But that number likely understates the breadth of transactions, since brokers said they rarely charge law enforcement agencies any price.
"Every American should be outraged.If governmental agencies need this data for their law enforcement efforts, there is a process to obtain these records. It's the U.S. court system. And by patronizing these companies, the government is not only condoning but encouraging illegal behavior.
Congress can't let the Bush Administration abuse the constitutional rights of American citizens. It is time for Congress to fulfill its constitutional role as a co-equal branch of government and tell the Bush Administration, "Enough is Enough!"
Urge your Senators to restore the privacy of our phone records -- forward them an email today!
Thank you for acting today on this urgent matter.
>Sincerely,
Wes Clark
Is there a way to edit it so it sends to just one of my Senators? Sending it to Chuck Schumer would be redundant.
and taking a stand on this, General. Sent on to my entire email list, requesting them to send it far and wide. So many things to fight, and it's going to take ALL of us, together. Thank you for taking the position of "gathering the troops," once again!
Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right. - Hunter/Garcia
Wes, you're really making a difference.
View my blog.
We definitely need people like Chuck Schumer & Wes Clark who believe that with proper checks & balances, government it IS possible for our government to safeguard the interests of the people while balancing business interests.
The latest headlines about the Bush admin ITSELF using these nefarious services is yet another in a long, seemingly infinite line of scandals that should have already resulted in this sorry crew (Bush admin) being shown the door.
Thanks for "getting it," General Clark. We really appreciate your efforts & it is sincerely "cool" of you- in my book- that you instantly understood this issue when Aravosis singled you out.
We're also quite beside ourselves regarding this recent mess of the security breech at the VA! My heart just re-broke (why is my heart still breaking every couple of days six years into this mess!!!???) upon hearing part of the proposed solution- credit monitoring - for a year.
"ugh."
I'm really glad your asking for action on this. I know we can't get any oversight unless we win back some power in Nov. elections. I have already been working on this issue but will keep it up. I did have question on a similar subject.
We recieved the letter from the V.A. concerning the misshandling and theft of personal information. I'm sorry to say I don't have any trust or confidence in the Government with my personal information. They are offering to pay for credit reports if we sign up. Do you think we should just do it independently or does it even matter?
I'm just not sure what all I will be signing up for. I really hate feeling this way. I don't know who I'm more leery of, theives or big brother.
Dear General Wes,
Thank you for alerting on this and giving us the background info on it.
It was particularly shocking to see that our government is getting such big lists from exploitive brokers.
Because of your message here, and armed with the info from it, I wrote today to my Senators, Vitter, R-LA and Landrieu, D-LA and urged them to support s.2178, and to do whatever else they could to further protection of our right to privacy.
I got so carried away by your words, I even reminded them that our New Orleans French colonial ancestors were noted for being so emphatic about privacy that they were considered snobs. So surely, we, their descendants, could at least muster up strong support for the privacy guarantees of our precious U.S. Bill of Rights.
(so good to see your fingerprints here, General Wes. Before long, and when you and his grandmother and his parents consider it okay, we'd love, you know, to see a certain little boy's signature typed in here --- by him.)
As ever,
Clearsky
Although we're fortunate to have Sentors Murray and Cantwell who most always do the right thing, doesn't hurt to remind them now and again. Washington is a diverse state and I know their job can't be easy sometimes. But, Patty with her tireless efforts for the military and veterans issues and Maria's equally tireless efforts with environmental issues makes us very lucky to have them represent us.
Wish I could say the same about my rubber-stamp congress critter....but Im sure she never tires of hearing from me. ;)
Thank you for bringing this issue to the forefront, General Wes.
Pat Roberts of KS says he is a co-sponsor of the Schumer bill, so you can count on his support. At least that's what he wrote to me. I believe this is the first time he has written something to me that didn't say more or less, tough luck. He must like you Wes, he mentions you in his e-mail.
The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance and force makers of networking gear to build in backdoors for eavesdropping, CNET News.com has learned.
FBI Agent Barry Smith distributed the proposal at a private meeting last Friday with industry representatives and indicated it would be introduced by Sen. Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican, according to two sources familiar with the meeting.
The draft bill would place the FBI's Net-surveillance push on solid legal footing. At the moment, it's ensnared in a legal challenge from universities and some technology companies that claim the Federal Communications Commission's broadband surveillance directives exceed what Congress has authorized.
"You can't read a newspaper if you can't read" - George W. Bush
Just curious,
Should the Schumer/Specter Bill now be amended to include government (HS, FBI, etc) and law enforcement officials who identified themselves as such, yet who still acquired phone records without a court warrant? Or under the constitutional law, this is already deemed to be illegal. Unfortunately, there's no liability against government, law enforcement (somewhat ) political officials who continue to violate the constitution, so what's stopping them now?
Also, according to the AP article;
Given there's clearly paper trail, citizens and advocacy groups, like the ACLU, should determine whether they've been illegally and politically "targeted" by our agencies through the FOIA.
Lastly, I believe that Democrats should especially be pushing hard for a Congressional investigation into this illegal practice by our own federal goverment, and raise concerns whether its practice was politically driven as well, even if through this so-called Justice Department under Gonzales.