Welcome to tortureland

Mark my words. We pass this torture bill, we will rue this day...

Last Tango In Paris (Hilton)

An attempt to end Senate debate and proceed with a vote to repeal the estate tax failed 57-41, with a few Republicans joining their Democratic colleagues to start looking at where they are going to get the money to pay for George Bush's endless War on Terra.
According to the Washington Post, this tax effects only 1.17% of the taxpaying wealthiest, but according to Bill Frist it's really Mom and Pop, Inc.:

"The 'death tax' is an unfair burden inflicted upon America's small businesses, farmers, and families during a time of grieving and pain," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a leading proponent of repeal. "This won't be the last time this year the Senate votes on this important issue."
Frist and other leading Republicans argued that the estate tax forced closely held and privately owned businesses to sell out to public corporations, depriving family members of the benefits derived from the hard work of their elder relatives. As a result, they said, rich people wasted billions of dollars trying to avoid the tax, money that might better have been used to expand the businesses and create jobs.

Cry me a river, Bill. There is not one documented case of someone losing their estate because of this tax, but Frist has tried to convince us that he and the rest of millionaire's club on the Hill are only looking out for the Waltons, when in reality they're just trying to keep the IRS from prying the hard-inherited cash from their cold, dead hands.

Suitable for framing

While I know that getting rid of al-Zarqawi was supposedly a huge military victory that sadly will have no real effect on ending the violence over there, what's up with showing off the giant picture of his dead head?
Is this a crazy psyop that some genius at the Pentagon thought would reduce the insurgents and their supporters to quivering bowls of jelly, ya know because that's how you send a message to that kind of people.
I got news for you, they already know that if they aren't careful we'll shoot at them or drop bombs on their houses; they got that message loud and clear. Probably is the reason why there's an insurgency.
I'm just sayin'.

I'm back

Sorry for the lack of postings. I got kinda busy, and evidently Blogger has been up and down a lot.
More tomorrow.

"birth control is selfish"

So says this year's student commencement speaker at St. Thomas University. The speaker, a recipient of the "Tommy of the Year" award, picked his moment to lead a tirade on "selfishness," apparently in reference to a controversial school policy forbidding unmarried employees from rooming together on student trips.

If you want to hear the speech (and get an idea of the crowd reaction):

A portion of the controversial speech has been posted online at YouTube (be forewarned that several loud expletives from audience members are also audible). The speaker is Ben Kessler, who was elected by students and faculty members as “Tommie of the Year,” earning the right to address his fellow graduates. Kessler was a 4.0 student and a star on the football team. He is moving to Rome to study for the priesthood.

It's probably out of line for me to say this, but a boy that righteous has had own share of "selfishness," and Rome may not be far enough for him to get away from it.

Attorney general thinks we are idiots

Abu Gonzales has an answer for all of you who think you have some expectation of privacy when it comes to your phone records: shut up:

But Gonzales told reporters that, under the Smith v. Maryland ruling, "those kinds of records do not enjoy Fourth Amendment protection. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in those kinds of records."

He seems to think we are idiots, because the FISA statutes were passed in direct response to Smith and include a provision specifically intended to address the nature of business records (50 U.S.C. § 1861):

Section 1861. Access to certain business records for foreign intelligence 
and international terrorism investigations

  (a) Application for order; conduct of investigation generally
    (1) The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation or a
  designee of the Director (whose rank shall be no lower than
  Assistant Special Agent in Charge) may make an application for an
  order requiring the production of any tangible things (including
  books, records, papers, documents, and other items) for an
  investigation to obtain foreign intelligence information not
  concerning a United States person or to protect against
    international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities,
  provided that such investigation of a United States person is not
  conducted solely upon the basis of activities protected by the
  first amendment to the Constitution.
    (2) An investigation conducted under this section shall -
      (A) be conducted under guidelines approved by the Attorney
    General under Executive Order 12333 (or a successor order); and
      (B) not be conducted of a United States person solely upon the
    basis of activities protected by the first amendment to the
    Constitution of the United States.
  (b) Recipient and contents of application
      Each application under this section -
        (1) shall be made to -
          (A) a judge of the court established by section 1803(a) of
        this title; or
          (B) a United States Magistrate Judge under chapter 43 of
        title 28, who is publicly designated by the Chief Justice of
        the United States to have the power to hear applications and
        grant orders for the production of tangible things under this
        section on behalf of a judge of that court; and

My reading of Sec. 1861 seems to include a judge, but hey, I'm not the attorney general, so I don't get to interpret the rules how I please, nor do I get to break them whenever it seems expedient.

Update: ThinkProgress adds not only a violation of FISA, but also the SCA.

NSA update

I haven't had much to add in the last few days, mostly because I keep running across other blogs covering NSA issues as well. As I'm still new to this whole blog scene, it's sometimes hard for me to see what I could possibly add. Nonetheless, I plunge on.

I've found a treasure trove of information on the NSA wiretap controversy over at DefenseTech.org. It's going to take me a little while to sort it all out, but as I delve more deeply into this, I find some common themes emerging:

1. This program is bad from the legal perspective. The program flies in the face of the separation of powers, violates a whole host of laws, and has exposed several large corporations to legal liability.
2. This program is bad from the PR perspective. Recent polls show that people are quite skeptical of the program, and are concerned potential invasions of privacy.
3. This program is bad from the security perspective. It is counterproductive, and is diverting resources from more effective means to track, thwart, and capture terrorists.
   

Iranian elephant interceptors planned for Poland

According to a recent article in the New York Times, the U.S. is offering a couple of very special European countries their very own interceptor missiles, designed to prevent Iranian elephant strikes. I myself have one of my own, sitting on my desk. I also have one that is designed to prevent North Korean tiger attacks. I got it back when I lived in Hawai`i, because I heard that soon the North Koreans would have the ability to launch ferocious, man-eating predators halfway across the Pacific Any Day Now. So far, I'm happy to report they've performed flawlessly.

In seriousness, I'm supposed to believe we are going to launch an untested but nonetheless operational theatre missile defense system in Eastern Europe, presumably to defend them against non-existent Iran ballistic missiles. And yet, for some mysterious reason, the Russians are not so thrilled about it.

Huh.

They have got to be kidding:

To improve the coverage against a potential Iranian threat, the Pentagon is upgrading a radar complex at Fylingdales, a British air base, and plans to begin similar work at the American Thule Air Base in Greenland. By building an antimissile base in Europe, the Pentagon is seeking to position the interceptors close to the projected flight path of Iranian missiles that would be aimed toward Europe or continue on a polar route to the United States.

I seem to remember that Saddam had nuclear-tipped drone aircraft poised to destroy us with poisoned tree frogs contaminated with anthrax or something, but I don't recall any attempt to beef up radar installations at the North Pole. Now suddenly the Iranians are building missiles that could hit us Any Day Now:

As far as we can tell, Iran is many years away from having the capability to deliver a military strike against the U.S.," said Gary Samore, vice president of the MacArthur Foundation and a former aide at the National Security Council. "If they made a political decision to seriously pursue a space launch vehicle it would take them a decade or more to develop the capability to launch against the U.S."

So what is this really about?

Iranian urban legends

Journalist Amir Taheri in Thursday's National Post claimed that a recent updates to Iranian dress codes will include the following "Nazi" identifiers for non-Muslims:

Religious minorities would have their own color schemes. They will also have to wear special insignia, known as zonnar, to indicate their non-Islamic faiths. Jews would be marked out with a yellow strip of cloth sewn in front of their clothes, while Christians will be assigned the color red. Zoroastrians end up with Persian blue as the color of their zonnar.

Juan Cole says this is completely bogus and cites a number of official Iranian sources denying the existence of any such legislation.

Maurice Motamed, the representative of the Iranian Jewish community in Iran's parliament, has strongly denied the rumors started by Canada's National Post that the Iranian legislature has passed a law requiring members of religious communities to wear identifying badges.

The report was also denied on Montreal radio by Meir Javedanfar, Middle East Analyst and the Director for the Middle East Economic and Political Analysis Company.

According to Cole:

There is nothing in this legislation that prescribes a dress code or badges for Iranian religious minorities, and Maurice Motamed was present during its drafting and says nothing like that was even discussed.

to which he adds, "the whole thing is a steaming crock."

Interestingly enough, even the National Post is backpedalling from the story somewhat. Nonetheless, they're still trying to say they have their information on good authority:

According to the reports, Jews were to wear yellow cloth strips, called zonnar, while Christians were to wear red and Zoroastrians blue. The Simon Wiesenthal Center and Iranian expatriates living in Canada had confirmed the order had been passed, although it still had to be approved by Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenehi before being put into effect.

The Wiesenthal center has sent a letter to Kofi Annan, demanding he investigate:

Given President Ahmadinejad’s record of labeling the Holocaust a myth and calling for the obliteration of the State of Israel, we must urgently take action. Now is the time for the United Nations and the international community to launch an immediate investigation, to seek clarification from the Iranians themselves on whether or not the new “National Uniform Law” would single out non-Moslems and require them to wear a color-coded identification patch. If that is not their intention, then let President Ahmadinejad tell the world it is not so.

Journalist Taheri is listed as a member of Benador Associates, a PR firm that outcalls virtually every neo-con in the wingnut phone book. This is starting to look like the the latest salvo in the PR campaign to demonize the Iranians in preparation for the eventual war for regime change, followed by the arrival (to sweets and flowers, no less) of the exiled Iranian community to take over.

McCain gets Colberted

Jean Rohe, singer and student speaker for Friday's New School graduation, used her moment to give follow-on John McCain a piece of her mind. She tells her side of the story at the Huffington Post.
Brave kid. If she is our future, we might just make it.

AT&T dealt court blow

AP is reporting that the judge has denied AT&T's motion to have its documents returned.

(AP) SAN FRANCISCO Secret documents that allegedly detail the surveillance of AT&T phone lines under the Bush administration's domestic spying program can be used in a lawsuit against the telephone giant, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, but the records will remain sealed.

The docs will remain under seal until the judge can decide whether they would expose trade secrets.

The judge had earlier blocked a motion from AT&T to seal the courtroom during this morning's hearings.

More on Verizon-NSA

Think Progress has been tracking this story. They suggest that under a recently-issued Presidental memorandum DNI John Negreponte, Verizon may now be authorized to deny everything, regardless of their actual relationship to the NSA:

Ordinarily, a company that conceals their transactions and activities from the public would violate securities law. But an presidential memorandum signed by the President on May 5 allows the Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, to authorize a company to conceal activities related to national security. (See 15 U.S.C. 78m(b)(3)(A))

Mitchell estate yours for $7000/night

Or you happen to be a Congressman with an interest in defense contractors.

Sources close to the widening probe of official corruption in Washington tell ABC News that investigators are studying travel records of expensive trips to Hawaii and Europe taken by top CIA official Dusty Foggo and San Diego defense contractor Brent Wilkes.

Prosecutors want to know who paid for the lavish trips to European castles and top end Hawaiian resorts, including this $7,000 a night Honolulu beachfront mansion, owned at one time by hair stylist super-star Paul Mitchell.

For those of you from Hawai`i, they are referring to this Mitchell estate in Lanikai.
(From ABC The Blotter via Raw Story)

Verizon bamboozlement

TPM's Josh Marshall is having a little trouble trying to jibe the Verizon/Bell South denials with the USAToday's backing of their story:

I think I've got the answer: they're lying.
[...]
Now, I don't know that they're lying in a precise, semantic sense. In fact, I suspect they're not. There must be some way in which what they're saying is technically true. But if it were more than technically true, they would have said it and said it more emphatically last week, before a bunch of lawsuits got filed.
[...]
My hunch is that there's some third party involved here, a subcontractor, a private vendor, perhaps another government agency. And because of that their claims are technically true. Or, maybe, they allowed the NSA to take the data (a variety of technical means suggest themselves) rather than 'providing' it to them. Who knows.

I think he's on the right track. My suspicion is that the "delay" was the result of two factors: an assumption that the crisis would blow over after the issuance of a standard pro forma denials, and unforseen financial risks presented by litigation filings and the S&P "hold" advisory.

I would also assume that they had to get with somebody at the White House to hammer out some language that sounded more definitive, in the hopes that USAToday would be knocked back on their heels. USAToday's response was less than resolute, which makes me wonder whether they have any hard evidence.

If I were to try to go through the parsing exercise, I would break it down this way:

When Verizon says:

in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Verizon was approached by NSA and entered into an arrangement to provide the NSA with data from its customers’ domestic calls.

It could be interpreted to mean:

1. It wasn't in the "aftermath," of 9/11, but some time after, or perhaps even prior to 9/11.
2. Verizon wasn't approached, but approached the NSA on their own, or the non-arrangement was brokered in some way by a third party.
3. The non-arrangement that never happened wasn't for tracking domestic calls, but the intent was to capture international calls. "Data" could mean almost anything. Maybe they are allowing NSA to trap call route headers or some other call tags that don't directly tie back to a "customer," especially if the calls just happen to be from other carriers traveling on their trunk lines.

Verizon says:

From the time of the 9/11 attacks until just four months ago, Verizon had three major businesses – its wireline phone business, its wireless company and its directory publishing business. It also had its own Internet Service Provider and long-distance businesses.

I find this an interesting construction. Why break it down, instead of saying you have 5 major businesses? Are the ISP and the LD acquisitions that don't count in some way?

Verizon say:

Contrary to the media reports, Verizon was not asked by NSA to provide, nor did Verizon provide, customer phone records from any of these businesses, or any call data from those records. None of these companies – wireless or wireline – provided customer records or call data.

Could mean:

1. "Asked" may be a term of art, for all I know. "Ordered" in some way, might be more accurate, and gives them the imprimateur of it all sounding involuntary.
2. "Provided" may also be another term with specific meaning. Again, if they were in some way ordered or otherwise compelled to turn over records, they can claim they didn't "provide" them.
3. Again with the delineation of "customer records" and "call data." If they are building a database out of call source and destination and time stamp, they may be able to claim that "customer phone records" refers to name/address and "call data" is the actual content. They're still up to their necks, but it sounds like they kept their pants zipped.

Verizon say:

Another error is the claim that data on local calls is being turned over to NSA and that simple "calls across town" are being "tracked." In fact, phone companies do not even make records of local calls in most cases because the vast majority of customers are not billed per call for local calls.

Could mean:

1. Again with the use of the term "turned over." Could it be they were compelled in some way, or perhaps the disclosures were inadvertant? They're looking for international calls, and they just happened to trap domestic calls.
2. As for the reference to "local calls," I think they are playing a game with semantics. With some telephone companies, you can choose to pay flat rate with unlimited calling, or buy your local calling by bulk. They have to track that somehow. Don't forget about toll calling? Technically, they may be correct in that purely local calls which could mean the same CO or the same area code aren't tracked, but I think USAToday is probably was just referring to the difference between regular calls and the ones you make by dialing a "1+".
   

I'm no expert on telecom stuff, but I would tend to agree with Marshall that they are deliberately misleading (if not outright lying) to try to bluff their way through this. It would behoove the EFF and likeminded civil rights guardians to not let them off the hook so easily.

3,501 targeted with FBI NSLs

ABC's Blotter has some stats on how many National Security Letters (NSLs) were issued. Presumably included in those numbers are their own reporters.

Assistant Attorney General William Moschella told Congress last month that 9,254 National Security Letters were issued in 2005 involving 3,501 people.

Verizon fights back

I'm listening to NPR All Things Considered, and they're talking about Verizon's latest denial of any complicity in the latest version of the NSA wiretapping scandal. On Thursday, USAToday accused them of being one of three companies (AT&T and Bell South the other two) cooperating with the NSA in compile a massive database of customer phone records.

Jim Zarroli was answering Nichelle Norris's question as to why they waited so long to issue the denial, and his speculation was that it might take a while for a big company such as Verizon. The thing is, they did issue a denial on Saturday:

The President has referred to an NSA program, which he authorized, directed against al-Qaeda. Because that program is highly classified, Verizon cannot comment on that program, nor can we confirm or deny whether we have had any relationship to it.

Having said that, there have been factual errors in press coverage about the way Verizon handles customer information in general. Verizon puts the interests of our customers first and has a longstanding commitment to vigorously safeguard our customers’ privacy -- a commitment we’ve highlighted in our privacy principles, which are available at www.verizon.com/privacy.

Verizon will provide customer information to a government agency only where authorized by law for appropriately-defined and focused purposes. When information is provided, Verizon seeks to ensure it is properly used for that purpose and is subject to appropriate safeguards against improper use. Verizon does not, and will not, provide any government agency unfettered access to our customer records or provide information to the government under circumstances that would allow a fishing expedition.

In January 2006, Verizon acquired MCI, and we are ensuring that Verizon’s policies are implemented at that entity and that all its activities fully comply with law.

Verizon hopes that the Administration and the Congress can come together and agree on a process in an appropriate setting, and with safeguards for protecting classified information, to examine any issues that have been raised about the program. Verizon is fully prepared to participate in such a process.

Needless to say, they aren't really denying anything. They claim to only give out that information when "authorized by law," and don't give them "unfettered access," which is just a lot of CYA that does little to reassure anybody with more than 2 brain cells to rub together that Verizon didn't turn over some customer records because the NSA asked them to.

So today, they issue (via email) another denial, this one more strongly worded.

As the President has made clear, the NSA program he acknowledged authorizing against al-Qaeda is highly-classified. Verizon cannot and will not comment on the program. Verizon cannot and will not confirm or deny whether it has any relationship to it.

That said, media reports made claims about Verizon that are simply false.

One of the most glaring and repeated falsehoods in the media reporting is the assertion that, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Verizon was approached by NSA and entered into an arrangement to provide the NSA with data from its customers’ domestic calls.

This is false. From the time of the 9/11 attacks until just four months ago, Verizon had three major businesses – its wireline phone business, its wireless company and its directory publishing business. It also had its own Internet Service Provider and long-distance businesses. Contrary to the media reports, Verizon was not asked by NSA to provide, nor did Verizon provide, customer phone records from any of these businesses, or any call data from those records. None of these companies – wireless or wireline – provided customer records or call data.

Another error is the claim that data on local calls is being turned over to NSA and that simple "calls across town" are being "tracked." In fact, phone companies do not even make records of local calls in most cases because the vast majority of customers are not billed per call for local calls. In any event, the claim is just wrong. As stated above, Verizon’s wireless and wireline companies did not provide to NSA customer records or call data, local or otherwise.

Again, Verizon cannot and will not confirm or deny whether it has any relationship to the classified NSA program. Verizon always stands ready, however, to help protect the country from terrorist attack. We owe this duty to our fellow citizens. We also have a duty, that we have always fulfilled, to protect the privacy of our customers. The two are not in conflict. When asked for help, we will always make sure that any assistance is authorized by law and that our customers’ privacy is safeguarded.

This time, they tried to be more specific about what they didn't do. But why bother with another denial? Perhaps, this is why:

Standard & Poor's Equity Research maintained a "hold" opinion on shares of Verizon Communications after a federal lawsuit was filed against the telecom provider alleging sharing of records with the National Security Agency.

CGI studio acquisitions in the news

Liberty Media Acquiring IDT Ent.
Since its inception in 2003, IDT Ent. has been on a shopping spree, buying
everything from animation studio Mainframe to home video distributor Anchor
Bay, vfx studio DKP Effects and anime specialist Manga Ent. Now it
more...

Digital Domain Sold to Michael Bay & Co.
Academy award-winning visual effects studio Digital Domain has been
acquired by South Florida-based Wyndcrest Holdings LLC, a group led by
action movie director Michael Bay (Pearl Harbor) and investor John Textor.
more...

New MacBook is here

Apple released their new Macbook. It comes in black or white, features a 13" "glossy" widescreen, and runs on the 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo processor. Prices start at $1099.

National Security Letters

In case you were wondering what the law states regarding the "National Security Letter" that has been cited as the legal basis for gathering phone records. Here's the text from 18 U.S.C 2709:

Section 2709. Counterintelligence access to telephone toll and transactional records

      (a) Duty to Provide. - A wire or electronic communication service
   provider shall comply with a request for subscriber information and
   toll billing records information, or electronic communication
   transactional records in its custody or possession made by the
   Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation under subsection
   (b) of this section.
     (b) Required Certification. - The Director of the Federal Bureau
   of Investigation, or his designee in a position not lower than
   Deputy Assistant Director at Bureau headquarters or a Special Agent
   in Charge in a Bureau field office designated by the Director, may
   -
       (1) request the name, address, length of service, and local and
     long distance toll billing records of a person or entity if the
     Director (or his designee) certifies in writing to the wire or
     electronic communication service provider to which the request is
     made that the name, address, length of service, and toll billing
     records sought are relevant to an authorized investigation to
     protect against international terrorism or clandestine
     intelligence activities, provided that such an investigation of a
     United States person is not conducted solely on the basis of
     activities protected by the first amendment to the Constitution
     of the United States; and
       (2) request the name, address, and length of service of a
     person or entity if the Director (or his designee) certifies in
     writing to the wire or electronic communication service provider
     to which the request is made that the information sought is
     relevant to an authorized investigation to protect against
     international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities,
     provided that such an investigation of a United States person is
      not conducted solely upon the basis of activities protected by
      the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
     (c) Prohibition of Certain Disclosure. - No wire or electronic
   communication service provider, or officer, employee, or agent
   thereof, shall disclose to any person that the Federal Bureau of
   Investigation has sought or obtained access to information or
   records under this section.
     (d) Dissemination by Bureau. - The Federal Bureau of
   Investigation may disseminate information and records obtained
   under this section only as provided in guidelines approved by the
   Attorney General for foreign intelligence collection and foreign
   counterintelligence investigations conducted by the Federal Bureau
   of Investigation, and, with respect to dissemination to an agency
   of the United States, only if such information is clearly relevant
   to the authorized responsibilities of such agency.
     (e) Requirement That Certain Congressional Bodies Be Informed. -
    On a semiannual basis the Director of the Federal Bureau of
    Investigation shall fully inform the Permanent Select Committee on
    Intelligence of the House of Representatives and the Select
    Committee on Intelligence of the Senate, and the Committee on the
    Judiciary of the House of Representatives and the Committee on the
    Judiciary of the Senate, concerning all requests made under
    subsection (b) of this section.

I've highlighted a couple of sections that may be of interest, namely the 1st Amendment exception, and the Congressional notification clause.
It seems to me that while the service provider may not divulge the results of an NSL, there's nothing that stops a member of Congress on the appropriate Committee from doing so. I also wonder if the personal disclosure prohibition precludes some a certain set a 2709(a) letter from mysteriously turning up on a cafe table at Starbucks, say.

I'm just sayin'...

The hoser threat

David Neiwert has a very good point:

Why, if post-9/11 border security is such a suddenly serious concern, aren't we sending the Guard to the Canadian border? -- It is, after all our longest and most porous border, and its many open spots do not entail dangerous and potentially lethal desert crossings. Perhaps more to the point, the one terrorist who did try to sneak into the USA with explosives as part of a plot to attack a major metropolitan area was caught on the Canadian border.