Capitol Hill Blue Served National Security Letter
Doug Thompson of Capitol Hill Blue writes in his "The Rant" section that the Bush Administration, in their persuit of prosecuting reporters for receiving information from whistleblowers, has recently issued hundreds of National Security Letters.
Just how widespread, and uncontrolled, this latest government assault has become hit close to home last week when one of the FBI's National Security Letters arrived at the company that hosts the servers for this web site, Capitol Hill Blue.
The letter demanded traffic data, payment records and other information about the web site along with information on me, the publisher.
Now that's a problem. I own the company that hosts Capitol Hill Blue. So, in effect, the feds want me to turn over information on myself and not tell myself that I'm doing it. You'd think they'd know better.
Here's a link to the rest of the story
U.S.Marshals
Those were trators posing as U.S. Marshals as any true american U.S. Marshal has a deep respect for the rule of law Knowing full well that it is the only thing that sets them apart from the Red Guard or the S.S and people could then start seizing their own kids."We dont got no badges"
Scary alright
Mr Bush, his administration and henchmen have used secret law, and law that only exists inside their own minds to investigate, harrass and imprison civilians. In the past few days, we have discovered that some 5000 civilians in the United States have had secret trials. Secret law, secret courts, secet enforcement and secret punishments are not the hallmark of a democracy.
Yet Mr Bush and his cronies do not seem to feel impelled to obey the laws they impose on others. Law for them is only a club with which to bludgeon their enemies.
This attack on Thompson is indicative of the power that the Despot and his minions now posess. Material can not be classified if it describes illicit or illegal actions on any part of our government, yet the neofascists claim an inherent right to classify or declassify at will no matter the consequences. The chilling effects are obvious, but how far are they willing to take the process?
Thompson must be a particular thorn in their side. He has come out with too much solid information that has later been verified. The Feds must be particulary interested in getting to his sources within the administration. But because of the efficacy of gag rules, there is a good chance that we will know no more than we do now. Our only notice may be that another voice for freedom has fallen silent.
I wasn't kidding, m
when I made my crack a few days ago about none of us receiving NSA letters. I don't mind being somewhat inconsequential in the eyes of the secret police. And of course we'll just keep on jabbing until the Sun rises in the west.
"If not here, where? If not now, when?"
Wowsers.
This one hell of a story. Truly, it would seem that the only way out of such bullying is to go straight through it. They've left no where to run any more. It's gonna take martyrs...and Capitol Hill Blue looks like they're stepping up already.
I don't envy them, but I am grateful for their courage.
Do you really want to know?
Here is a message from People for the American Way about how you can use the freedom of information act to find out. I'm so paranoid that I'm afraid if I ask that will get their attention. Any brave souls out there?
Dear Douglas,
There are few things that the Bush administration hates more than sharing information -- that's why it's willing to use every trick in the book to keep its secrets.
After excessive secrecy helped bring down the Nixon administration, Congress strengthened the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to guarantee citizens' right to know what their government is doing.
Over the years, People For the American Way has asserted this right by filing numerous FOIA requests. Most recently, PFAW Foundation demanded in court that the NSA reveal how many people it had spied on through its illegal domestic surveillance program and whether it had collected any information on our organization.
In order to bring the power of FOIA to you, People For the American Way launched FOIARequest.org last week. Designed to make it easy for you to assert your right to know what the government knows about you, the basic information needed to complete a FOIA request takes less than a minute to enter.
In the past five days, over 10,000 people have used this service to try to find out whether the Bush administration has been monitoring their phone calls or reading their email.
If you're concerned the government has spied on you, you can visit FOIARequest.org right away.
FOIARequest.org is part of our four-part campaign to restore our constitutional system based on the principles of transparency, accountability, oversight, and public vigilance. Congress' Republican leadership, under pressure from Vice President Cheney, appears to be retreating from its oversight obligations and its demands for transparency. It's up to citizens like you and me to use tools like the Freedom of Information Act to demand the information necessary to hold administration officials accountable if they have broken the law.
You can fill out a FOIA request by visiting
FOIARequest.org
Also, please help us spread the word about FOIARequest.org. We can't promise the Bush administration will be forthcoming, but if Americans don't assert their right to know, we may lose it altogether.
Ralph G. Neas
President
dcu
I've printed mine out
but probably won't send it in for a few weeks due to more pressing things and the timing and all that. Never know what'll turn up, though I have no doubt (thanks to my think tank mentor) that in fact I do have an FBI file. Should be a hoot what's in there. Horace always thought the FBI were the gang that could barely shoot straight.
"If not here, where? If not now, when?"
Follow up on Capitol Hill Blue NSA letter story
Telling the 'approved' story
March 7, 2006 12:12 AM / The Rant .
By DOUG THOMPSON
"On an unspecified day last week an employee of a federal agency that cannot be revealed delivered a document that cannot be identified to a company that cannot be named seeking information that cannot be discussed.
The aforementioned federal agent left the unidentified document with an employee of the unnamed company. That employee then called the owner, who must remain anonymous, to inform him that the document that could not be identified sought information that could not be discussed. The owner who must remain anonymous instructed the employee to deliver the unidentified document to a lawyer whose name is protected by attorney-client privilege.
The lawyer whose name is protected by attorney-client privilege examined the unidentified document and then reviewed the information that could not be discussed with the owner who must remain anonymous."
More at The Rant
More or less the exact
same strategy I'd already planned should they ever waste taxpayers' money contacting me, whoever they are and whoever I might be. I can save them all a bunch of hassle by insisting, here and now, I AM SERGEANT SCHULTZ AND I KNOW NOTHING! (Which of course puts me in the same class as the WH who know nothing about Jack Abramoff, WMD, NSA spying, and a lot of other things no one knows anything about!)
"If not here, where? If not now, when?"
Gawd dang, that's funny m.
Am going to have to start frequenting Capital Hill Blue, more often.
Hilarious caleb.
Thompson at Capitol Hill Blue must be doing the ROFLMAO thing.
Interesting thing happened last week. My credit card got frozen. No notification by my credit card company, and they know my email address. Just couldn't use the card. Strange, because I never carry a balance, and had just paid the bill over the net. As always I had checked back to see that the payment transaction completed. Lucky I had enough cash with me when I tried to use the card over the weekend.
Called the company on Monday, and was told that the card was frozen because of highly suspicious behavior in my charges. Couldn't get anything out of the voice on the other end until I asked if this was connected to the massive overseas attack that this bank had been hit with during the weekend. The one that didn't make it into any papers or news that I know of until later that day, except for an entry at BoingBoing.net, which was where I learned of it.
I knew my problem wasn't connected to that, but the question opened up some information from the other end of the line. It seems that the item the bank froze my account over was a donation to the Lampson for Congress campaign. Lampson is the Democrat who is going to oppose DeLay in the 2006 election, assuming DeLay wins his primary. And I was told some folderol about credit card thieves testing stolen credit cards with small amounts.
I don't know if that is true, but it is and has been my habit to make quite a few small political donations on the net with my credit card. And, in particular, I had made a similar donation to Lampson a couple of months ago. Flagging me for that behavior was not a reasonable act.
The voice on the other end was not helpful or apologetic, but rather more as if blaming me for this unrealistic hold on my account. Odd, usually the customer reps are trained to make some placating, though not guilt admitting noises. I would have dropped the card and gotten another, but am in the middle of buying/selling homes. I don't need credit changes right now, should I have to get a temporary loan for an emergency. But the card will go once those other transactions are completed.
I would dismiss this, but there is a recent case in which a couple was supposed to be reported to Homeland Security for paying down their credit card debt (definitely unAmerican I suppose). Their payment to the credit card company was locked until Homeland Security "cleared" them. The payment was only $6K, not even the $10K transaction limit that is required to be reported to the Feds.
If you want to read more about that case, you can find it by googling "credit card payment homeland security".
I did Mine
Thanks for the info. I will try to send it off sometime soon. If you all don't hear from me for a long time if ever, I was arrested, Please someone take pity on me and bail me out.
I just want to thank all of you for all of the information I get at this website, it's the only way i can get the right news.
Up until the update
...my favorite part was about his having to turn over information about himself, without telling himself.
The update, however, was truly a revelation in absurdity.
NSA letter has been unserved
Having truly screwed up the serving of a secret security letter to Doug Thompson, the NSA apparently decided that discretion was the better half of valor. They reached a deal with Thompson's attorney, and revoked the letter.
Yes, but can he legally...
...let himself know that he has been unserved? Watch out Doug, I think it's a trick!
The Capital Hill site is down
The Capital Hill site is down...hmmmm.
Everyone must act
Everyone call Air America hosts and send them many emails. We need to draw some attention to all of this BS. Maybe one of them will spend a few minutes checking out what's really going on here.
The pervy helpline Sheffield
The pervy helpline Sheffield Gayphone, based in the UK are on the brink of closure after articles appearing on the internet have exposed serious wrong doings.
Reports circulating on the internet have exposed Sheffield School Teacher Joe Tang, Sheffield Doctor Tim Hooson and Sheffield Residents Albert Thomas, Jon Williams and Peter Williams for sexually harrassing male callers, using threatening behaviour to anyone exposing them, sending death threats and driving people out of the City Of Sheffield.
But their sick and appalling behaviour has not stopped there. According to other reports and eye witnesses the meetings which they organised were nothing more than to get into the pants of innocent victims and luring them into the notorious 'Lawton Tonge House toilet' which apparently caused the lawton tonge house toilet scandal a while back.
"The men who run Sheffield Gayphone are apparently Ugly and have difficulty getting anyone, so the only way they can get anyone is to abuse their positions, and this is what they do" said a local gay man
Sheffield City Council have seen the articles on the internet and are reviewing the £2000 a year grant which they receive, However information on the internet shows that the city council have been fully aware about sheffield gayphone for several years
Not sure
what this has to do with the topic. Hope Sheffield's problem gets straightened out, as the saying goes.
"If not here, where? If not now, when?"
U.S. Marshals
2 U.S. Marshals Walked into our Post Office on Friday looking for a felon. Now that's funny considering that you can't work at the Post Office if you are a felon. No one knows who they were looking for or anything, but they just walked right in without any ID and asking all kinds of questions. This is how accidents happen.
Hella! I find that scary considering that there is this thing called freedom of speech.