Drudge: Spy satellites watch Americans from space

Scott Hedrick ) wrote:

: "jonathan" wrote in message
: . ..
:
: "Scott Hedrick" wrote in message
: .. .
:
: "jonathan" wrote in message
: news : That really isn't the issue. It's that these are secret agencies
:
: If they were *secret*, you wouldn't know about them.
:
:
: The nickname for the NSA is 'No Such Agency'~

: Can't be very secret if you are so intimate you know the nickname.

You're being simple minded here. Think of a message. Now think of an
encrypted message. The existence of both messages is not a secret. The
contents of the former is not secret but the latter is. The NSA is an
encrypted agency. Get it now, Hedrick?

Eric

"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
...
Would you explain that to Ambassador Wilson? He openly went to
the papers

And lied. At least according to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Which doesn't justify the Plame leak though.

"Fred J. McCall" wrote in message
...
(Henry Spencer) wrote:

:In article ,
:Fred J. McCall wrote:
::...Seems to me that the records of who you called don't belong to you.
::Uh, so? That doesn't mean they are public information. The people who
do
:wn them can still have a legal obligation to keep them confidential...
:
:They can, but can you point to a piece of law that says that they do?
:
:Others have already identified specific laws requiring warrants for the
:release of records of calls. It's obscure but established law.

You're confusing things. The law requires a warrant for the
government to USE a 'pen trap'. However, I don't see how this
prohibits the purchase of commercially available data.

....
But it's still commercially available. Nobody has said the government
collected this data.

If I private citizen illegally enters and find evidence of a crime,
the government is allowed to act and the evidence, even though
collected in a way that would be illegal for the government to use, is
legally admissible.

Same thing here. The government didn't request the data be collected.
They merely asked for existing data.
....
However, it appears that it is illegal for the phone company to release the
record of calls, possibly even to the government (unless forced to with a
search warrent). Therefor it is not commercially available.

In article ,
Fred J. McCall wrote:
:Others have already identified specific laws requiring warrants for the
:release of records of calls. It's obscure but established law.

You're confusing things. The law requires a warrant for the
government to USE a 'pen trap'. However, I don't see how this
prohibits the purchase of commercially available data.

It would be a pretty poor law that could be gotten around just by
contracting out the dirty work.

Nobody has said the government collected this data.

Installing a pen register, back in the days when that was the means of
collecting such data, normally wasn't done by the government either --
your local cop or FBI agent didn't know how to wire such a thing into the
phone system. It was typically done by a Ma Bell technician at government
request. Which made him an "agent of the government", subject to the same
rules. I doubt very much that the courts would find otherwise here; it is
acting on government instructions to obtain such data for them that counts,
and the details of the technology and procedures are irrelevant.

::...It's quite legal for your
::employer to monitor conversations on your office phone... but a cop who
::does it without a warrant is in big trouble if he's found out. (And if he
::asks your employer to, and the employer does, *both* are in big trouble --
::acting at his request makes the employer an "agent of the government" and
::subject to the same rules.)
:
:...Note the second part of what I said -- even though he owns the
hones, there are some legal limits on what he can do with that power.

Like what?

I already told you; see above quote.
--
spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer
mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. |

"jonathan" wrote in message
. ..
Don't get too upset, Bush managed to push it off the front page with
his 'emergency' deployment of National Guard troops to the
Mexican border. Whew! I sure hope they get there in time.

It's about time.

I wonder what he'll do with the troops just before the next election?

Whatever he deems necessary as Commander in Chief. Thank God the voters were
intelligent enough to not let Kerry be President.

"jonathan" wrote in message
. ..
I'll hold my tongue here

Highly unlikely.

The way things are going for Bush, that shouldn't be more than another
week or so.

They couldn't be going better. Being popular is not necessary to be a good
President.

"Scott Hedrick" wrote in message
news

"jonathan" wrote in message
. ..
Don't get too upset, Bush managed to push it off the front page with
his 'emergency' deployment of National Guard troops to the
Mexican border. Whew! I sure hope they get there in time.

It's about time.

I wonder what he'll do with the troops just before the next election?

Whatever he deems necessary as Commander in Chief. Thank God the voters
were
intelligent enough to not let Kerry be President.


Well I'm all for the wall too. But the National Guard is just to
put pressure on Sensenbrenner to compromise with the
Senate on the immigration bill. Nothing else.

And it's a bit much to take from this President. As since day one
since taking office he's let it be known he wants as many
immigrants as possible. Creating a huge surge in illegal
immigration since he took office to help keep wages low
and big business happy.

"Scott Hedrick" wrote in message
. ..

"jonathan" wrote in message
. ..
I'll hold my tongue here

Highly unlikely.


Ya you're right about that.


The way things are going for Bush, that shouldn't be more than another
week or so.

They couldn't be going better. Being popular is not necessary to be a good
President.


That's what Truman, Nixon and Carter said.

In article , says...
It would be a pretty poor law that could be gotten around just by
contracting out the dirty work.

Yet it appears to be happening. The Total Information Awareness program
was a plan to build a government owned mega-database of personal
information. It was considered too invasive and killed. So the
government seems to be doing a TIA-variant by letting private companies
like Choice Point build the mega-database, and the the government pays
for the privilege of querying the data.
--
Kevin Willoughby lid

In this country, we produce more students with university degrees
in sports management than we do in engineering. - Dean Kamen

Spy satellites watch Americans from space
You know, compared to a satellite watching, not from space...?

-#2pencil-