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Comment by Larry Ross, January 2, 2006

Here is a Christchurch Press article, January 2, 2006, on U.S. spying. From past experience I believe anyone who expresses a view against the US role in the Iraq war, or expresses questions or doubts about the official story of the 9/11 attack could be spied on. Remember Bush warned: "You are with us, or with the terrorists".

I also expect that includes spying on non-US people living in other countries, who express similar views.
Further information will clarify this.

I think this is further evidence that a criminal conspiracy has taken over the U.S. and is using the apparatus of the state to create an Orwellian type of fascist military rule - complete with spying on everyone. They will claim, and most will agree, that this is necessary to protect and preserve American Democracy. U.S. mass media will comply with this plan, maintain the cloak of deceit, exactly as they did for Bush's Iraq war. Lies will be repeatedly endlessly as before.

I think the Bush regime will soon stage a terrorist incident and blame Iran as a pretext for a new war. This predicted incident will probably be staged more convincingly than the sloppily staged 9/11 attack, which had more holes than a sieve. (They learn from their mistakes). It will convince a majority of Americans that Bush was right, and is right, about "the terrorist threat".

Bush's popularity rating will zoom upward again, and he will be able to strut around in uniform, surrounded by US military, and play the role of saviour of US Democracy from the terrorists.

Just as 9/11 provided the right atmosphere for Bush to start his fascist state with the Patriot laws and other measures, without significant opposition, so a new terrorist event perhaps worse than 9/11, will provide the right climate for more draconian fascist-type laws and restrictions on the public.

The US Senate and Congress, with few exceptions, who fell over themselves giving Bush unprecedented powers after 9/11 and opening the US Treasury to his every demand, will continue to be like frightened church mice before Bush's extremism. There is little or no Democratic opposition to Bush wars and plans. Presidential candidates, John Kerry in 2004 and Hillary Clinton for 2008, both expressed support for Bush's Iraq war and accepted as true, Bush giant lies to
con the US public into war.

Now Bush faces dwindling popularity, increasing doubts about his Iraq war and it's origins, increasing US casualties, impeachment threats and many other related problems. Things are closing in on Bush.

However if he stages another incident, and it can be made sufficiently believable, he will emerge again (like after 9/11)
as the hero who will save America from the terrorists. All his objectives will follow. Frightened, obedient Americans will be as lambs to the slaughter.

I really hope that events prove me wrong in my predictions.

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U.S. Spies Said to Share Eavesdropping Data

Christchurch Press, 2 January 2006

WASHINGTON: Data swept up by the US National Security Agency's controversial eavesdropping on communications between the United States and overseas has been sent to sister federal agencies for cross-checking with other databases, The Washington Post reported yesterday.

Citing current and former administration officials whom it did not identify, the Post said the NSA had handed such information to the Defence Intelligence Agency among other government offices.

Information from intercepts - which typically includes records of telephone or e-mail communications - would be made available by request to agencies "that are allowed to have it, including the FBI, DIA, CIA and Department of Homeland Security," one former official was quoted as saying.

The New York Times reported two weeks ago that President George W Bush had authorised the NSA to monitor, without court orders, the international telephone calls and emails of US citizens suspected of links to foreign terrorists.

A 1978 law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, makes it illegal to spy on US citizens in the United States without the approval of a special court.

Bush quickly acknowledged the programme, sparked by the September 11 attacks. The Justice Department has launched an investigation to determine who disclosed it, officials said on Friday.

Bush and senior administration officials have argued that the policy of authorising the eavesdropping - without court orders - was legal and necessary to help defend the country after September 11. The White House has said the programme was narrow in scope and that key congressional leaders were briefed about it.

Agencies that get the information can use it for "data mining," or looking for patterns or matches with other databases that they maintain "which may or may not be specifically geared toward detecting terrorism threats," the Post quoted a former official as saying.

The NSA did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. The Post said spokesmen for the FBI, CIA and the director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, also declined to comment on the use of NSA data.

The New York Times reported on its Web site on Sunday that James Comey, a top deputy to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, objected in 2004 to aspects of the NSA's domestic surveillance programme and refused to sign on to its continued use among concerns over its legality and oversight.

Citing officials with knowledge of the situation, the Times said the concerns prompted two of Bush's top aides - Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Alberto Gonzales, then White House counsel and now attorney general, to try to get needed approval from Ashcroft while he was in a Washington hospital for gallbladder surgery.

The Times said accounts of the hospital meeting differed, but that some officials said Ashcroft also appeared reluctant to give his authorisation to continue with aspects of the programme. It was unclear if the White House persuaded Ashcroft to approve the programme or proceeded without it, the Times said.

It added the concerns appeared to have played a part in the Justice Department's decision to suspend and revamp the programme, according to officials.

The Times said Comey, the White House and Ashcroft declined to comment on the report, while Gonzales could not be reached.