Cable Forum - View Single Post - President Bush Seeks Broader Wiretapping Authority

BBKing · 26-01-2008, 12:19

The background to this is that in the 60s there was a lot of illegal wiretapping going on under the carpet, mainly the Hoover FBI v anyone they didn't like politically, like Martin Luther King. Nixon was naturally a big fan, being paranoid and corrupt. Naturally when this got exposed there was a bit of a scandal, so they passed an Act in the late 1970s called FISA which allowed wiretapping under judicial supervision.

For Bush and co., judicial supervision is an unnecessary control on supreme executive power, so they ignored it and went back to the old ways, learned in the Nixon White House so many of them grew up in. When this illegal activity inevitably leaked out they tried to grant retrospective immunity to the telecoms companies who colluded and it all got messy. What's obvious is that the current administration would dearly like to tap the phone of anyone, anytime without anyone knowing or any external supervision, under the handy all-encompassing 'anti-terror' excuse. This isn't quite the freedom-loving America they're sworn to defend, is it?

26-01-2008, 12:19	#4
BBKing R.I.P. Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: London Services: 20Mb VM CM, Virgin TV Posts: 5,983	Re: President Bush Seeks Broader Wiretapping Authority The background to this is that in the 60s there was a lot of illegal wiretapping going on under the carpet, mainly the Hoover FBI v anyone they didn't like politically, like Martin Luther King. Nixon was naturally a big fan, being paranoid and corrupt. Naturally when this got exposed there was a bit of a scandal, so they passed an Act in the late 1970s called FISA which allowed wiretapping under judicial supervision. For Bush and co., judicial supervision is an unnecessary control on supreme executive power, so they ignored it and went back to the old ways, learned in the Nixon White House so many of them grew up in. When this illegal activity inevitably leaked out they tried to grant retrospective immunity to the telecoms companies who colluded and it all got messy. What's obvious is that the current administration would dearly like to tap the phone of anyone, anytime without anyone knowing or any external supervision, under the handy all-encompassing 'anti-terror' excuse. This isn't quite the freedom-loving America they're sworn to defend, is it?