PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Pentagon Surveillance comes to Pittsburgh
by Abie Thursday, Dec. 15, 2005 at 1:15 PM

You may have heard about the secret database the Pentagon complied on anti-war and counter-recruiting activites. And guess what? Pittsburgh made the list!

pentagon.jpg, image/jpeg, 1024x768

You may have heard about the secret database the Pentagon complied on anti-war and counter-recruiting activites. Only an extremely limited portion of the 400 page database has been released (8 pages, and as a badly scanned pdf). Watch your back.

Good
by I am happy about this Thursday, Dec. 15, 2005 at 3:39 PM

Maybe they will have files on all of you, and take you out when the time and need comes. We don't need any dirty hippies, face it you are just a bunch of lossers.

Not too worried
by on file Thursday, Dec. 15, 2005 at 3:50 PM

Fortunately, these are the same idiots that ignored every pre-9/11 warning and blew off a few hijacked jetliners. Rumsfeld's penatgon is incompetent, I can't think about it without spitting coffee out of my nose.

YEAH!!!
by SG Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2005 at 4:04 PM

Take that, you "lossers"! Lost much lately?

progress?
by Fred Nieman Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2005 at 8:24 PM

I don't know how much progress low-lifes such as ourselves have made. Ask the geniuses who are spending millions spying on such worthless beings.

yes, you're worthless
by Betty Dawisha Friday, Dec. 23, 2005 at 11:55 AM

Qaeda Relocates to U.S. for Spy-Free Calling
by Scott Ott

(2005-12-21) — Al Qaeda announced today it would relocate its international headquarters to an unnamed U.S. city in order to take advantage of espionage-free local, and state-to-state, phone calls.

“Al Qaeda will thrive in the land of liberty,” said an unnamed spokesman on a 30-minute pre-recorded DVD. “We’re still shopping for a primary location with great access to transportation and, Allah be praised, good public schools.”

The al Qaeda source said Democrats in Congress recommended the move after the The New York Times revealed that the National Security Administration listens in on communications between international terrorists and some U.S. residents.

The source said no matter where al Qaeda plants its U.S. headquarters, it will incorporate in tax-free Nevada.

hypocritical unbathed
by Betty Dawisha Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2005 at 3:38 PM

Can Democratic presidents order wiretaps on U.S. soil without a court order, but not Republicans? We ask because that's the standard critics appear to be using against President Bush over National Security Agency surveillance of al Qaeda operatives. Every president, Democrat or Republican, has exercised this authority since the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act became law in October 1978. But it appears to be deemed problematical only for President Bush, whose wiretaps are said to have caught Iyman Faris, a naturalized U.S. citizen who wanted to bomb the Brooklyn Bridge.

The ink on FISA was barely dry when the first president to order extrajudicial surveillance -- a Democrat -- did so. Jimmy Carter exercised his authority on May 23, 1979 with Executive Order #12139, seven months after signing FISA into law, declaring that "the Attorney General is authorized to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign intelligence information without a court order," subject to the section's requirements. The order cites a FISA section helpfully titled "Electronic Surveillance Authorization Without Court Order."

The precedent was even more firmly established by President Clinton. Top Clinton administration officials are on record defending the practice. As Deputy Attorney General Jamie S. Gorelick testified before Congress in 1994: "The Department of Justice believes -- and the case law supports -- that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes and that the president may, as he has done, delegate this authority to the attorney general." She remarked that: "It's important to understand that the rules and methodology for criminal searches are inconsistent with the collection of foreign intelligence and would unduly frustrate the president in carrying out his foreign intelligence responsibilities."

Re: Betty Dawisha's comment
by Truthteller Saturday, Jan. 07, 2006 at 3:02 PM

It has been a popular GOP myth that "even Democrats" have ordered illegal spying on Americans. Or worse, Democrats started it! I couldn't care less about this partisan bickering.

However, in this case, the distortion of truth comes from the right side of the mainstream political spectrum. The meticulous (and meticulously partisan) Media Matters for America has documented in detail the falsehoods of these Republican talking points in "Top 12 media myths and falsehoods on the Bush administration's spying scandal", available at http://mediamatters.org/items/200512240002

Additionally, it is Betty who smells bad! Ha!

Unbathed linkers
by yeah, so? Saturday, Jan. 07, 2006 at 6:48 PM

And we should believe the partisanship from your link because?