The End of America
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Tuesday, July 14, 2009
The End of America
1. invoke an internal and external threat
People who are afraid are willing to do things that they wouldn’t otherwise do.2. establish secret (unaccountable) prisons where torture takes place
In a secret system, the government does not have to provide any proof of wrongdoing by those it holds, so it can incarcerate anyone it wants.3. develop a paramilitary force
A private military force — under the exclusive direction of the “commander in chief” with no accountability to Congress, the courts, or the public — blurs the line between a civilian police force and a militarized police state.4. surveil ordinary citizens
People who believe they are being watched are less likely to voice opposition. To scare a population into silence, the government need only monitor the activities of a few to make everyone fear that they are being surveilled. Every closed society keeps a “list” of so-called opponents it tracks.5. infiltrate citizen’s groups
Spies in activist groups put psychological pressure on genuine activists by undermining their trust in one another. They may also disrupt legal activities, undermining the effectiveness of group efforts.6. detain and release ordinary citizens
Detention intimidates or psychologically damages those arrested and also lets everyone know that anyone could be labeled an “enemy combatant” and “disappeared.”7. target key individuals
People are less likely to speak out when those who are highly visible, like journalists, scholars, artists, or celebrities, are intimidated or have the livelihoods threatened. Targeting those who are especially visible makes it less likely that people will speak out and robs society of leaders and others who might inspire opposition.8. restrict the press
The public is less likely to fi nd out about government wrongdoing if the government can threaten to prosecute anyone who publishes or broadcasts reports that are critical of the government.9. recast criticism as espionage and dissent as treason
People who protest can be charged with terrorism or treason when laws criminalize or limit free speech rather than protect it.10. subvert the rule of law
The disappearance of checks and balances makes it easier to declare martial law, especially if the judiciary branch continues to exercise authority over individuals but has no authority over the Executive branch.Feingold
Troubled by Obama Assertion of "State Secrets"http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/feingold_i_am_troubled_by_obamas_state_secrets_cla.php
By Zachary Roth - April 10, 2009,
Add the name of Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) to the growing list of observers who are deeply concerned by the Obama administration's invocation of the state secrets privilege in the Jewel v. NSA case.Statement of Sen. Russ Feingold on the Obama DOJ's brief in Jewel: Beyond the particular case at issue here, it is clear that there is an urgent need for legislation to give better guidance to the courts on how to handle assertions of the state secrets privilege. The American people must be able to have confidence that the privilege is not being used to shield government misconduct. That is why I am working with Senators Leahy, Specter, and others to pass the State Secrets Protection Act as soon as possible. Return
I am troubled that once again the Obama administration has decided to invoke the state secrets privilege in a case challenging the previous administration's alleged misconduct. The Obama administration's action, on top of Congress's mistaken decision last year to give immunity to the telecommunications companies that allegedly participated in the warrantless wiretapping program, will make it even harder for courts to rule on the legality of that program. In February, I asked for a classified briefing so that I can understand the reasons for the Department's decision to invoke the privilege in another case, and I intend to seek information on this new case as well. I also encourage the greatest possible public accounting of the use of the state secrets privilege and welcome the Attorney General's statement that he hopes to share his review with the American people.
Here we see Janet Napolitano continue the practices of criminalization of our communities. She, who has seen the devastating effects of such policies in Maricopa County on local communities, has no excuse for this. This is shameful and inexcusable, and should be denounced by all! http://www.derechoshumanosaz.net/
Secretary Napolitano Announces New Agreement for State and Local Immigration Enforcement Partnerships Adds 11 New Agreements
Release Date: July 10, 2009
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano announced today that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has standardized the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) used to enter into 287(g) partnerships improving public safety by removing criminal aliens who are a threat to local communities and providing uniform policies for partner state and local immigration enforcement efforts throughout the United States. Additionally, today ICE announced eleven new 287(g) agreements with law enforcement agencies from around the country.
This new agreement supports local efforts to protect public safety by giving law enforcement the tools to identify and remove dangerous criminal aliens, said Secretary Napolitano. It also promotes consistency across the board to ensure that all of our state and local law enforcement partners are using the same standards in implementing the 287(g) program.
The new MOA aligns 287(g) local operations with major ICE enforcement priorities specifically, the identification and removal of criminal aliens. To address concerns that individuals may be arrested for minor offenses as a guise to initiate removal proceedings, the new agreement explains that participating local law enforcement agencies are required to pursue all criminal charges that originally caused the offender to be taken into custody.
The new MOA also defines the objectives of the 287(g) program, outlines the immigration enforcement authorities granted by the agreement and provides guidelines for ICEs supervision of local agency officer operations, information reporting and tracking, complaint procedures and implementation measures.
The 287(g) program is an essential component of DHS comprehensive immigration enforcement strategy, said ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton. The new agreement strengthens ICEs oversight of the program and allows us to better utilize the resources and capabilities of our law enforcement partners across the nation.
DHS and ICE will begin working with their current 287(g) partner agencies to re-sign the standardized agreements ultimately, only those agencies with newly signed agreements will be permitted to continue enforcing immigration law. A sunset clause will keep the MOA in effect for three years from the date of signing unless terminated by either party.
To date, ICE has trained more than 1,000 officers operating under 66 local 287(g) agreements between DHS and law enforcement agencies nationwide. Since January 2006, these 287(g)-trained officers are credited with identifying more than 120,000 individuals, predominantly in jails, who are suspected of being in the country illegally.
The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) of 1996 added Section 287(g) to the Immigration and Nationality Act, which authorizes the DHS Secretary to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies to perform immigration officer functions. Pursuant to these MOAs, designated officers who receive appropriate training and function under the supervision of sworn ICE officers are permitted to perform immigration law enforcement duties.
The eleven new agreements are with the following jurisdictions: Gwinnett (GA) County Sheriffs Department.; Monmouth (NJ) County Sheriffs Office; Rhode Island Department of Corrections; Delaware Department of Corrections Sussex Correctional Institution; Houston Police Department; City of Mesquite (NV) Police Department;
Morristown (NJ) Police Department; City of Mesa (AZ) Police Department; Florence (AZ) Police Department; Guilford County (NC) Sheriff's Office; Charleston County (SC) Sheriff's Office.
http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/06/feingold_asking_obama_to_reject_bush.php
Feingold Urges Obama To Repudiate Wireless Wiretapping
Feingold: Asking Obama To Reject Bush
Since his election, President Obama has angered some opponents of his predecessor's use of executive power in the arena of national security. His administration's invocation of the state secrets privilege, his decision not to release detainee abuse photos, and his use of military tribunals to try terrorism suspects have all sparked the ire of the civil liberties community.
Today, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) resurrected an issue that posed the same problem for Obama during the 2008 campaign: government wiretapping
After public outcry over President Bush's warrantless surveillance program, Obama backed a measure to address executive wiretapping powers in Congress last summer--a bill (which passed and was signed into law) that broadened government authority and granted immunity to telecommunications companies that participated in Bush's program. This had the same liberals and civil libertarians upset with Obama back then.
Today, Feingold, troubled by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair's comment last week that Bush's program "wasn't illegal," has asked Obama to repudiate the legal rationale behind Bush's wiretapping program--a bit like he did with interrogations, when, in an initial act in January, Obama issued a memo declaring null the Bush-era opinions supporting harsh interrogation.
This is less about current wiretapping activities--the legalities of wiretapping were codified in the 2008 law--and more about the interpretation of executive power. Feingold wants Obama to reject the theory that executive power allowed Bush to carry out warrantless wiretapping, without consultation of Congress or the courts.
See the letter Feingold sent to Obama below:
June 13, 2009
The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President,
I am writing to reiterate my request for you to formally and promptly renounce the assertions of executive authority made by the Bush Administration with regard to warrantless wiretapping. As a United States Senator, you stated clearly and correctly that the warrantless wiretapping program was illegal. Your Attorney General expressed the same view, both as a private citizen and at his confirmation hearing.
It is my hope that you will formally confirm this position as president, which is why I sent you a letter on April 29, 2009, urging your administration to withdraw the unclassified and highly flawed January 19, 2006, Department of Justice Legal Authorities Supporting the Activities of the National Security Agency Described by the President ("NSA Legal Authorities White Paper"), as well as to withdraw and declassify any other memoranda providing legal justifications for the program. Particularly in light of two recent events, I am concerned that failure to take these steps may be construed by those who work for you as an indication that these justifications were and remain valid.
On June 8, Director of National Intelligence Blair asserted in a speech and in response to a question from a reporter that the warrantless wiretapping program "wasn't illegal." His office subsequently clarified that he did not intend to make a legal judgment and that he had meant to convey only that the program was authorized by the president and the Department of Justice. Nonetheless, Director Blair's remarks - which directly contravene your earlier position, as well as the position of Attorney General Holder - risk conveying to the Intelligence Community, whose job it is to explore legally available surveillance options, that not complying with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act may be such an option. Moreover, his "clarification" highlights the need to formally renounce the legal justification that the "White Paper" provides.
In addition, I asked your nominee to be General Counsel for the Director of National Intelligence, whether, based on the "White Paper" and other public sources, he believed that the warrantless wiretapping program was legal. His written response to my question, which was presumably vetted by your administration, indicated that, because the program was classified, he could not offer an opinion. Should he be confirmed, this position, too, risks conveying to the Intelligence Community that there may be classified justifications for not complying with FISA. As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee who has seen all of the legal justifications, classified and unclassified, that were offered in defense of the warrantless wiretapping program, I strongly disagree with this implication.
As president, you have spoken clearly on the importance of the rule of law and have taken action in a number of areas, such as torture, that have reassured the American people and provided much-needed clarity to the Intelligence Community and the rest of the executive branch. For these reasons, I strongly urge you to formally renounce the legal arguments behind the previous administration's warrantless wiretapping and to demonstrate again your clear commitment to the rule of law in this area.
Thank you for considering my views on this important matter.
Sincerely,
Russell D. Feingold
UNITED STATES SENATOR
CC: The Honorable Dennis C. Blair
Director of National Intelligence
The Honorable Eric Holder
Attorney General
Return
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2009/04/05
EFF Sues NSA Over Wireless Wiretapping
April 6th, 2009
Obama Administration Embraces Bush Position on Warrantless Wiretapping and Secrecy
Says Court Must Dismiss Jewel v. NSA to Protect 'State Secrets'
San Francisco - The Obama administration formally adopted the Bush administration's position that the courts cannot judge the legality of the National Security Agency's (NSA's) warrantless wiretapping program, filing a motion to dismiss Jewel v. NSA late Friday.
In Jewel v. NSA, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is challenging the agency's dragnet surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans. The Obama Justice Department claims in its motion that litigation over the wiretapping program would require the government to disclose privileged "state secrets." These are essentially the same arguments made by the Bush administration three years ago in Hepting v. AT&T, EFF's lawsuit against one of the telecom giants complicit in the NSA spying.
"President Obama promised the American people a new era of transparency, accountability, and respect for civil liberties," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "But with the Obama Justice Department continuing the Bush administration's cover-up of the National Security Agency's dragnet surveillance of millions of Americans, and insisting that the much-publicized warrantless wiretapping program is still a 'secret' that cannot be reviewed by the courts, it feels like deja vu all over again."Return
Obama CTO Finally Named: 'Rock Star' Aneesh Chopra
Obama Names Aneesh Chopra US's First CTO [UPDATED]
Micah L. Sifry | April 17, 2009 - 10:27pm |Email This!
Looks like instead of mocking Nancy Scola, we owe her kudos for predicting all the way back in November that Obama's pick for the nation's first Chief Technology Officer would be "someone out of the small but vibrant government CTO world, like Virginia's able Secretary of Technology Aneesh Chopra." Well, Nancy gets the cake, as word has leaked that indeed Chopra is stepping into the post. Here's what President Obama says about the decision in his Saturday radio address:
Aneesh Chopra, who is currently the Secretary of Technology for Governor Kaine of Virginia, has agreed to serve as America’s Chief Technology Officer. In this role, Aneesh will promote technological innovation to help achieve our most urgent priorities – from creating jobs and reducing health care costs to keeping our nation secure.
Aneesh [...] will work closely with our Chief Information Officer, Vivek Kundra, who is responsible for setting technology policy across the government, and using technology to improve security, ensure transparency, and lower costs. The goal is to give all Americans a voice in their government and ensure that they know exactly how we’re spending their money – and can hold us accountable for the results.
A few quick observations about this choice. First, it looks like very good news for the transparency movement, as well as those of us looking for an open-minded leader willing to experiment with new forms of collaborative governance. For example, back in early 2007, under Chopra's leadership, Virginia was one of the first states to move, with Google's help, to make its state websites more searchable and thus more accessible to ordinary citizens. The state has also been in the forefront of efforts to create robust web services tracking the giant government stimulus spending package enacted by Obama, and as fed-watcher
Christopher Dorobek points out, Chopra is well aware of and supportive of citizen-led watchdog efforts like Jerry Brito's StimulusWatch.org. (Give points to Dorobek for also noting Chopra's potential as CTO.)
Under Chopra (and it must be mentioned, his boss Governor Tim Kaine), the state also launched a highly interactive website that collected more than 9000 suggestions from residents on how the stimulus monies might be spent. "Relative to calls and letters, it's fairly safe to say this is probably a tenfold increase in civic participation by allowing people to click on a button, submit their ideas and engage with their governor," Chopra told a local paper back in March.
Finally, like his soon-to-again-be-colleague Vivek Kundra, Obama's Chief Information Officer, who also came out of Virginia before serving as DC's
CTO, Chopra is willing to try new ways to innovate government processes, inspired
by the open and lateral networking development culture of the internet. Governing
Magazine calls him a "Venture
Governmentalist," specifically citing "a small but intriguing experiment
in Virginia that aims to bring the high-risk, high-reward ethic of venture
investing to state government." Last year, Chopra invested $2 million in about
a dozen small internal agency tech projects with potential to pay big returns
in terms of productivity. "More important, and more unusual for the bureaucrats,"
says Governing, "he gives them permission to fail. You can't innovate, Chopra
tells them, without taking a gamble every now and then." He adds, "We need
to fundamentally change the culture of government in which change is measured
in budget cycles to one in which change is measured in weeks or months." Who
can argue with that?
UPDATED: Go read Tim O'Reilly's detailed take on Chopra's chops (ha, had to do that). His conclusion: "Aneesh Chopra
is a rock star. He's a brilliant, thoughtful change-maker. He knows technology,
he knows government, and he knows how to put the two together to solve real
problems. We couldn't do better.
ReturnSan
Diego County Sheriff's Office Raids Private Home
ACLU
Launches ACCOUNTABILITY FOR TORTURE Website
Watch
Senate Hearings on Torture LIVE:
Transcript
of Naomi's Washington Post Q&A
June
Conference: PdF
This site is prepared by the End of America staff. We are following topics raised in the movie THE END OF AMERICA in order to maintain the information in the film up to date and in order to support discussion on these questions. In presenting this information, please note that the opinions in this site do not -- and are not intended to -- reflect the opinions of Ms. Wolf, the filmmakers and producers associated with this film, and the distributor of the film. The opinions of the writers of each of these posts are their own.
http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/today-june-30-is-national-holiday-in.html
http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/barack-obama-naked-emperor.html
http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/obama-without-fear-of-mind-police.html
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