From: David Bernier on
But he was not about to turn
> a friend in for something so absurd. After all, this was a very minor
> thing - he paid a fine of nearly $3,000 and was put on probation and that
> was it.
>
> When the Secret Service threw Cummings in prison for possession of a red
> box in early 1995, they knew he could be screwed again when he finally
> got out since being arrested is a probation violation.
>
> And Special Agent Thomas Varney spent a great deal of effort to see that
> this is exactly what happened. He made multiple trips to Easton and
> convinced the local authorities to lock Cummings up as if he were the
> most sadistic of killers.
>
> On Friday, Cummings' probation officer did an aboutface and told the
> court that he thought Cummings represented a very great danger to the
> community. Outside the courtroom, he and the other local law enforcement
> people crowded around Varney like kids surrounding a rock star. He was
> their hero and maybe one day they would be just like him.

Well, isn't that strange: the Secret Service taking a strong interest in
the probation violation hearing of Ed Cummings for taking batteries out
of a tone dialer.

Not only were they interested, they testified against him!

> HERE WE GO AGAIN
>



From: quasi on
ANY SOLUTION THAT IGNORES THE PUBLIC SAFETY AND
NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS RISK GRAVE HARM TO BOTH.

Louis Freeh is lying.

* "Above the Law", by David Burnham, ISBN 0-684-80699-1, 1996
*
* The FBI attributes to wiretaps less than three percent of all judgements.
* Thus the FBI assertion that electronic surveillance is essential to
* investigating crime and nabbing spies and terrorists cannot be taken
* at face value.

Monitoree John DeLorean sends his regards.

Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang
Drum Drum Drum Drum Drum Drum Drum Drum Drum Drum Drum Drum Drum Drum Drum
War War War War War War War War War War War War War War War


It is ECHELON that they are trying to protect.

If the FBI targets you, they can get all your phone conversations BEFORE
they are encrypted, and can get your password to access your private
cryptography key.

* "Above the Law", by David Burnham, ISBN 0-684-80699-1, 1996
* "Keeping Track of the American People: The Unblinking Eye and Giant Ear"
*
* About six times a week, fifty-two weeks a


From: Pubkeybreaker on
: drugs on top of my bureau. For some unknown reason, they thought it
: necessary to open the bottles and scatter the contents all over the floor.
: Consequently, two of our cats got into the medication and died horrible
: deaths." In one final unconscionable act, female agent Donna Slusser
: deliberately stomped to death a cherished Manx kitten, and kicked it under
: a tree.


* "1984", author George Orwell, 1949, ISBN 0-679-41739-7
*
* There was a gasp and thump behind Winston, and he received a violent
* kick on the ankle which nearly flung him off balance.
*
* One of the men had smashed his fist into Julia's solar plexus,
* doubling her up like a pocket ruler. She was thrashing about
* on the floor, fighting for breath.
*
* Winston dared not turn his head by even a millimeter, but sometimes her
* livid, gasping face came within the angle of his vision.

: The BATF agent slammed Kimberly Katona, then several months pregnant,
: against the wall so hard she began bleeding. She soon miscarried.
:
: Did BATF apologize to this family? No. Instead, BATF pressed
: criminal charges. A judge threw the charges out of court.


I'm sure the BATF agent had a good reason for violently shoving Ms. Katona:
he th


From: Risto Lankinen on
special powers of the court by
Congress, noone was arrested and tried for this MASSIVE abuse of
power, which was granted by Congress in the good faith that the
government would not trade off the Bill of Rights in order to
pursue political objectives.

It was a worst-case disaster.

Even after investigating, Congress basically yawned: "The CISPES case was
an aberration, it was lower-level FBI employees who got carried away by
their national security mandate. It was not politically motivated"
--- The Senate Select Intelligence Committee.

* "Above the Law", by David Burnham, ISBN 0-684-80699-1, 1996
*
* ...something much more sinister was at work. In his carefully documented
* analysis of the CISPES matter, 'Break-ins, Death Threats and the FBI: the
* Covert War Against the Central American Movement', Boston writer Ross
* Gelbspan argues that a much more extensive conspiracy may have been at
* work. Far from being a low-level operation, Gelbspan reports, hundreds
* of documents in the CISPES file had been initialed by Oliver "Buck"
* Revell, then the number two official in the FBI. [Further evidence
* implicates the CIA]

Congress is unable to investigate the FBI, let alone the NSA.

# "U.S. Recruited Ex-Rebel Despite Links to Deaths, Report Says"
# By Tim Golden, The New York Times, January 21, 1997
#
# A former Salvadoran guerrilla commander was recruited by American official


From: JSH on
my language).


Remember the person the FBI was investigating for theft of Risk Management
source code? His manager told him and all the other employees in their
group that their email was being monitored. The manager told both me, Salomon
Legal, and the U.S. Attorney and the two FBI agents this.

Go figure.

I call this Internet-is-irresistible siren call: "Internet Fever".


When it comes to ECHELON, it was never discussed with the American people.

We never had a chance to vote on it.

It was done in secret.

It is done in secret.

When you lift up the phone, you don't hear a message warning you
that the NSA is monitoring it.

But they are.

"Anytime, anywhere" is their motto.



*****************************************************************************


On Being Monitored
-- ----- ---------

On being black.

African-Americans are a heavily monitored group.

* "Above the Law", by David Burnham, ISBN 0-684-80699-1, 1996
*
* Even while Lyndon Johnson fought for far-reaching civil rights
* legislation and spoke out against racism and government eavesdropping,
* the Johnson White House created a special squad of FBI agents to place
* wiretaps and bugs on most of the African Americans who came to Atlantic
* City during the 1964 Democratic con