The same logic could be applied to pre-civil war slavery in the southern
states where the national leadership claimed that having Negroes living
under the oppression of slavery on plantations was necessary to ensure a
strong economy and industry of the nation in the Antebellum South. The
logic at the time was that the South produced the raw materials which
they shipped to the North for the factories in the North to produce into
goods which benefited the nation when the good where sold in other
nations. The North got strong, but the South got stronger as the North
became more dependant on the South for raw goods. The federal government
stepped in to impose controls on the trade of goods and the proverbial
wheels came off the cart. It wasn't until the Lincoln Administration
realized that they could cripple the then strong Southern economy by
freeing the slaves thus stripping out the nearly free labor force, but
the efforts backfired and made the Southern States just that much more
rebellious toward the North. On a historical note, until that time
Lincoln and his family were actually proponents of slavery (grade school
text books notwithstanding). The freeing of the slaves (both Black,
White, Yellow, or Brown) in the South had everything to do with economic
control, and little to do with humanity of the leadership.
The Constitution is a absolute protection against the Executive,
Legislative, or Judicial branch run amuck. The Constitution can not be
ignored, can not be set aside, can not be suspended, and it can not be
legally be abused. You can not protect a civil right by abusing it, any
more then you can claim that you love your spouse at the same time you
are punching them in the face. Our civil rights are sacred, and a
politician, court, judge, military, cop, or even President can only get
away with abusing our civil rights or breaking the law if we permit them
to get away with it.
The bottom line is that the court today said that the President, the NSA,
and others seriously broke the law, and violated the civil rights of the
citizens he/they was/were sworn to protect. The White House knows what
they did was illegal, the Puzzle Palace knows it was illegal, anybody who
has attended any federal eavesdropping/SIGINT training knows it was
illegal, but so long as the government could claim that it was being done
in the name of "Counter-Terrorism" that it could violate the
law and the civil rights of the public with impunity... and we let them
do it.
If you choose to be a sheep, then be a sheep, and take pride is being a
sheep... just don't start complaining when they come to take you away to
the slaughterhouse at dinnertime. In our professional we must be vigilant
against any eavesdropper, and it doesn't matter who is doing the
eavesdropping or why they are doing it, but merely that they are actually
doing eavesdropping. If it is obviously a case of legal eavesdropping,
then it is a simple case of giving the client his money back and excusing
yourself from the project. But on the other hand, if it is a case of
illicit, quasi-legal, gray area legal, illegal, somebody tells you its
legal, etc and you chose to standby and do nothing... well then,
you are a sheep and you should not be in our profession as you lack the
desire to defend anything.
A sheepdog on the other hand is ever vigilant against the wolves, and
when a wolf puts on sheeps clothing the sheepdog will catch the wolf long
before he can be a problem. TSCM professionals are like the proverbial
sheep dog, we are on watch, and we must be every vigilant against the
wolves, on behalf of the sheep who are unable to protect themselves. The
wolves may come in many forces, and the sheep dog must always know who is
a sheep, who is a wolf, and who is another sheep dog.
I am a sheep dog, and any wolf that approaches the sheep that I stand
watch over will have a formidable adversary to deal with... ditto if you
screw around with the civil rights of the sheep.
Several words that still ring in my ears from when I was first sworn is
"to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign AND
domestic", the Court has just formally defined who is the
Wolf.
So endth the sermon,
-jma
At 09:21 PM 8/17/2006, John Young wrote:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2006/August/06_ag_550.html
Statement from the Department of Justice on Today’s Ruling on the
Terrorist
Surveillance Program
The Terrorist Surveillance Program is a critical tool that ensures we
have
in place
an early warning system to detect and prevent a terrorist attack. In
the
ongoing conflict
with al-Qaeda and its allies, the President has the primary duty under
the
Constitution
to protect the American people. The Constitution gives the President
the
full authority
necessary to carry out that solemn duty, and we believe the program
is
lawful and protects
civil liberties. Because the Terrorist Surveillance Program is an
essential
tool for the
intelligence community in the War on Terror, the Department of Justice
has
appealed the
District Court's order. The parties have also agreed to a stay of
the
injunction until
the District Court can hear the Department's motion for a stay pending
appeal.
We Hunt Spies, We Stop Espionage, We Ki=
ll
Bugs, and We Plug Leaks.
James M. Atkinson, President and Sr. Engineer
Granite Island Group
127 Eastern Avenue #291
Gloucester, MA 01930-8008
Phone: (978) 546-3803
Fax: (978) 546-9467
Web:
http://www.tscm.com/
E-Mail:
jm..._at_tscm.com
Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:22 CST