Wiretapping to Intimidate the Press

May 15, 2006 Off By leigh

If the report by the U.S ABC is indeed true, the Bush administration has been using it’s recently disclosed program by the N.S.A to trace U.S. domestic phone records as a means of spying on the press in order to trace government leaks. This was previously reported much earlier by smaller online reporters at the end of 2005.

As jaw dropping as this is in itself, the full scope of this illegal activity could be yet to appear. Was Porter Goss’s sudden departure precipitated by his involvement in the phone tapping since he was tasked to stop CIA leaks, rather than his involvement with the poker and prostitutes scandal of Kyle Foggo, the number three man at the CIA?

It’s just such a stunning repeat of all the stupid behaviour of the Nixon administration and it’s COINTELPRO scandal in the early 70’s. Likewise the Bush administration’s use of the conveniently movable definition of terrorist to include peace groups, animal rights and environmental protesters (but not the governments and militaries of Israel, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Belarus) allows practically anyone to be intimidated, and using selective evidence and secret process, to potentially lock them away in some form of Gitmo gulag. Can anyone say Jose Padilla?