[Silver]

The more they stay the same:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/01/fbi-att-verizon-violated-wiretapping-laws/

Retroactive legalization of snooping.

Black Jimmy Carter.

 

[Pesqueeb]

:facepalm:

 

[syadasti]

Retroactive immunity for telcos is really old news, it was granted under the Bush administrator by Congress in 2008:

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:Govtrack-h2008-437.png" class="image"><img alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/92/Govtrack-h2008-437.png/350px-Govtrack-h2008-437.png"@@AMEPARAM@@en/thumb/9/92/Govtrack-h2008-437.png/350px-Govtrack-h2008-437.png

 

[Silver]

This is a new ruling that came down two weeks ago.

Can't blame that on Bush...

 

[syadasti]

You can blame it on Congress though...

 

[rockofullr]

What's Obama's other option.

Start arresting FBI agents?

 

[Silver]

What's Obama's other option.

Start arresting FBI agents?

Yes. And prosecuting them.

 

[stoney]

They broke the law, plain and simple. If they want to not prosecute the agents, then go up the chain to the person that authorized it. If that person is a former president, so be it. Constitutional rights exist for a reason.

 

[BurlyShirley]

Well, as president you have to play politics and pick your battles. Obama is even losing the ones he is picking, and I doubt taking something like this on would win him any more public support.

 

[stoney]

If you tout yourself as a devout believer and follower of the constitution, them man up to your words.

 

[BurlyShirley]

If you tout yourself as a devout believer and follower of the constitution, them man up to your words.

So you'd rather he bask in the glory of self-righteousness and accomplish nothing, rather than be pragmatic and actually try and make a difference?

 

[Silver]

So you'd rather he bask in the glory of self-righteousness and accomplish nothing, rather than be pragmatic and actually try and make a difference?

How's he being pragmatic? It appears that Obama isn't willing to do much unless he can get some bipartisan cover for every action he proposes. I'm surprised he can wipe his own ass without asking the GOP if that is going to be ok with them.

If he did, the GOP would of course answer that affirmative action Kenyan communist fascist atheist muslims shouldn't be allowed to use toilet paper like red blooded (white) Americans.

 

[MikeD]

Actually, there's nothing anti-Constitutional here...the information sought was given voluntarily to the third party (the telecom) thus there's no Constitutional right-to-privacy (4th amendment) issue with this. What there IS is apparently a violation of the ECPA, a statute I'm not particularly familiar with other than the extreme basics.

Since the phone records in question aren't Constitutionally protected, but are protected by a federal statute, I don't think improperly/illegally obtaining them results in a "fruit of the poisonous tree" situation as the article states. But I suppose it's possible.

Gonna sit down and have a read of this report now, though...interesting stuff...

 

[Silver]

Actually, there's nothing anti-Constitutional here...the information sought was given voluntarily to the third party (the telecom) thus there's no Constitutional right-to-privacy (4th amendment) issue with this. What there IS is apparently a violation of the ECPA, a statute I'm not particularly familiar with other than the extreme basics.

Since the phone records in question aren't Constitutionally protected, but are protected by a federal statute, I don't think improperly/illegally obtaining them results in a "fruit of the poisonous tree" situation as the article states. But I suppose it's possible.

Gonna sit down and have a read of this report now, though...interesting stuff...

How about this part:

The companies then set up remote terminals inside the FBI’s offices, staffing them with telecom employees who quickly became friendly with the agents requesting phone records. The telecom employees had FBI e-mail addresses, access to shared drives and invitations to happy hours, according to the report.


Try doing that with employees and classifying them as "independent contractors" and the IRS will slap you silly, oddly enough...