Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Blogged without comment (speechless)
From Farber's IP List [source]:
From: Tim Finin [mailto:finin@cs.umbc.edu]
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 9:13 PM
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: More on Hayden on NSA program
I was puzzled when I heard this exchange on the radio.
General Hayden was clearly denying that "probable cause" was
the standard for what is allowed in the fourth amendment.
But the Constitution seems to say otherwise. It turns out that
there's a trick involved, so pay close attention.
Here's the exchange:
Q: Jonathan Landay with Knight Ridder. I'd like to stay on
the same issue, and that had to do with the standard by
which you use to target your wiretaps. I'm no lawyer, but my
understanding is that the Fourth Amendment of the
Constitution specifies that you must have probable cause to
be able to do a search that does not violate an American's
right against unlawful searches and seizures. Do you use --
HAYDEN: No, actually -- the Fourth Amendment actually
protects all of us against unreasonable search and
seizure. That's what it says.
Q: But the measure is probable cause, I believe.
HAYDEN: The amendment says unreasonable search and seizure.
Q: But does it not say probable ...
HAYDEN: No. The amendment says unreasonable search and
seizure... Just to be very clear -- and believe me, if
there's any amendment to the Constitution that employees of
the National Security Agency are familiar with, it's the
Fourth. And it is a reasonableness standard in the Fourth
Amendment. And so what you've raised to me -- and I'm not a
lawyer, and don't want to become one -- what you've raised
to me is, in terms of quoting the Fourth Amendment, is an
issue of the Constitution. The constitutional standard is
"reasonable." And we believe -- I am convinced that we are
lawful because what it is we're doing is reasonable."
And here is the fourth amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons,
houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches
and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall
issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or
affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be
searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The trick is this -- "probable cause" is only needed to get
a warrant for a search, so if you forgo asking for a
warrant to be issued, you are home free. Slam dunk. This
Law stuff is pretty neat.
Technorati Tags: Constitution, Freedom
Comments:
According to constitutional scholar Akhil Reed Amar, this is because at the time of the founding a victim of an unlawful search could bring suit against the officer conducting the search. However, when the government got a warrant it insulated the officer conducting the search from any suit the victim of an unlawful search might bring against him. Thus the different standards. A warrantless search needed only be reasonable. If not, the victim could sue. But a warrant had to be based on the higher standard of probably cause because the victim of an illegal search would have no legal recourse.
As this exchange about the requirement of "probable cause" demonstrates, the most dangerous and ingenious trait of the Bush administration and officials who tow its line is their constant deception of gullible and undiscerning members of the public with deliberate misrepresentation of U.S. laws, the U.S. Constitution and its amendments, in order to deny their clear, incontrovertible intent.
Tens of millions of objective, fair-minded U.S. citizens recognize that much of what the Bushies say in their media blitzes consists of outright lies. But it makes no difference because the GOP is in control of the levers of power in Washington, and their intent is not to change the minds of those of us who know they are lying but to keep the gullible and undiscerning members of their electoral base pacified so they can stay in power. That's why they conduct these media junkets around the country flooding the airwaves with outright lies. They want to make sure the gullible and undiscerning don't start asking too many questions in response to the overwhelming number of respected critics and icons like Walter Kronkite (of all people!) who are cropping up all over the place to condemn the Bushies' serial fiascoes.
What is so remarkable is that it only took 30 years for a determined group of neoconservatives to take over the world's most extraordinary democracy and transform it into a neoconservative single party state ruled by a cabal operating out of the of White House. This is the BIG PICTURE. So the challenge is for us to avoid getting bogged down in trying to refute lie after lie but to figure out a strategy to boot them out of office altogether once and for all. The main hurdles in meeting this challenge are to a) make it impossible for the GOP to rig the e-voting machines and 2) give the American people who are not gullible and undiscerning awesome candidates and platforms that drive them to the polls in unprecedented numbers to cast votes that THEY KNOW FOR SURE WILL BE COUNTED.
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Tens of millions of objective, fair-minded U.S. citizens recognize that much of what the Bushies say in their media blitzes consists of outright lies. But it makes no difference because the GOP is in control of the levers of power in Washington, and their intent is not to change the minds of those of us who know they are lying but to keep the gullible and undiscerning members of their electoral base pacified so they can stay in power. That's why they conduct these media junkets around the country flooding the airwaves with outright lies. They want to make sure the gullible and undiscerning don't start asking too many questions in response to the overwhelming number of respected critics and icons like Walter Kronkite (of all people!) who are cropping up all over the place to condemn the Bushies' serial fiascoes.
What is so remarkable is that it only took 30 years for a determined group of neoconservatives to take over the world's most extraordinary democracy and transform it into a neoconservative single party state ruled by a cabal operating out of the of White House. This is the BIG PICTURE. So the challenge is for us to avoid getting bogged down in trying to refute lie after lie but to figure out a strategy to boot them out of office altogether once and for all. The main hurdles in meeting this challenge are to a) make it impossible for the GOP to rig the e-voting machines and 2) give the American people who are not gullible and undiscerning awesome candidates and platforms that drive them to the polls in unprecedented numbers to cast votes that THEY KNOW FOR SURE WILL BE COUNTED.
