* ew:
"The Strategic Petroleum Reserve currently has 688 million barrels of stock. So if the world oil supply dried up tomorrow, and if we dedicated the SPR entirely to military uses, we'd be able to fly our planes for 78 days. And that's 78 days at our current low-intensity air war rates in Iraq, so it'd be far fewer days if were were Shocking and Awing."* "David Corn:
I've been trying not to be drawn into the (leopold/rove) rumor vortex. (A friend emailed to say that a lawyer involved in the leak case speculated that Rove would be indicted this coming Friday.)""(via here)
* EmptyWheel on spying on journalists:
"Well, anyway, the details are murky, but the larger picture is clear. These guys are nuts. They're either deliberately trying to destroy the democracy to save it ... or they're deliberately trying to destroy democracy to destroy it.
Hopefully, now that the Press is a target, we'll have some real pressure to stop this crap."
* James Risen (in Feb)
"Risen: Just to follow up on that - I think that this is one of those sleeper issues - you get the feeling that it's building up - and because we haven't put a human face on this crisis yet - like we have in other scandals - once there's some big, very human, tragedy that happens, I think that's what it will take for Congress and the American people to really begin to focus on this."is the acknowledgement that they are spying on journos a 'very human tragedy'? probably not, but at least we now have specific victims. and doesnt that mean that these specific people can actually take the case to the courts now?
* btw - as far as i can tell, the whole spying thing started 'shortly after 911' (although i'm tempted to believe it actually began before then) - my question of the day:
how long did it take to install the infrastructure to spy on americans? was the infrastructure already in place (with all the overseas spying) and it was simply a matter of flicking a switch to include (or stop excluding) domestic spying? or something else? and if it did require some new infrastructure, whether physical or programming, did that begin prior to 911?
11 comments:
how long did it take to install the infrastructure to spy on americans?
Hmmm. The reports I've read that give a time frame (most don't, go figure) seem to have settled on October 2001 as the go ahead. Palast's writings establish ChoicePoint as well-established by 2000 and I remember reading stuff on Echelon in '98; figure 5-15 years in the black before mention of it saw light.
Curious side note: '98 also saw the release of the Will Smith flick Enemy of the State. The IMDB plotline summary:
A successful lawyer finds himself the target of a treacherous NSA official and his goons after receiving evidence to a politically motivated murder, the only man that can help him is a former government operative turned surveillance expert.
Not a bad movie: Smith, Hackman, Voight, and the creepiest portrayals of surveillance tech I've ever seen, stuff ripped from the headlines 8 years early...
miaculpa is having a caption contest for a john howard photo
But can you say "twelve-stepping tetotalitarianists" 5 times fast with a few pints in you? ;)
don - nice catch. that's actually a lyric by a guy called Nick Cave.
"seem to have settled on October 2001 as the go ahead"
i wonder when they first started spying, or if they had to build the infrastructure
Forget about the infrastructure.
"If we build them the terror, then they will come."
anon - true.
my point is that they are arguinf that '911 changed e/thing' (again) - but i wonder if this was in response to 911 or how much of it was in play beforehand.
The Federation of American Scientists had some Echelon source work, the earliest piece August of '99, by which point it seems to have been a fait accompli. The technology involved is broadly the same, so figure infrastructure in place by 98-99. Original participants were the US, UK, Canada, Australia and NZ, although it seems the EU ratified temporary approval on September 5, 2001.
One must read item at FAS is a transcript of a Fox News Interview from Oct 21, 1999. Although the sides have changed, the dialogue is eerily familiar, right up to the NSA non-denials and claims that purely domestic communications won't be monitored. Of particular interest, there are 3 references to Osama Bin Laden, almost 2 years before 9/11.
thnx don - my question was really about whether spying started in the US after 911 - and if there were plans to do that.
i've front-paged the fox interview. thnx for that.
Go to Huff Post and read Colleen Rowley's piece "National Insecurity". She says before 9/11 and I do believe her over and above anyone else in this discussion. What I can't understand is why her request for a subpoena to search the computer of a known terrorist was denied, while all this warrantless wiretapping was happening to regular Americans.
Also, a curious thing I read in James Risen's book State of War
is that the entire covert CIA operation on WMDs in Iran was outed and put out of commission by a "computer glitch". What proof is there that it was in fact a "glitch" and not intentional? Did this "glitch" happen before or after Plame's outing? What happened to the person responsible for the "glitch"? Did they suffer Mary McCarthy's fate? I doubt it.
thnx kathloeen
i'm not sure when the risen/iran thing happened...
Why isn't anyone in Congress tracking the computer glitch down? I called a few Senators and no one seems to be aware. Quelle surprise.
does risen say when it happened?
i had a quick look around but couldnt find the answer
Gotta go check, but it's not my book, so I need to reborrow it. Steve Clemmons would know.
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