Hey Kids! Let's connect the dots! NSA surveillance might be connected to:

[bleever]

Dan Rather and his Texas Air National Guard story being set up for immediate shoot-down in the right-wing blogosphere;

The miraculous 2004 "re-election" of a "president" with an approval rating below 50%;

Silence of the media and outright complicity in the Iraq War, and the 9-11 Commission's serial obstruction by the Bush Admistration;

Silence of key Democrats responsible for oversight of the Executive Branch;

Compliance of Congressional Republicans who fell into line like whipped puppies, and eventually followed their masters over the cliff...



Please help add to this list....We all know how important dot-connecting can be!


:thumbsup:

[Muttocracy]

1. What about the Siegelman (sp?) case? nt

[bleever]

3. Dan Siegelman! Yes!

Thank you.

[B o d i]

2. Eliot Spitzer who tried to warn about Wall St then got caught up in the hooker thing

http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/25-bushs-real-problem-with-eliot-spitzer

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021302783.html

The timing sure makes me go "Hmmmm..."

[bleever]

5. Spitzer! Absolutely.

This is why I started the thread: it's too much for one person to even comprehend in the simple space of a single hour.

[dixiegrrrrl]

43. And thanks to Tice, now we know how the bushies tracked him to the hooker.

Obviously that is what using all those phone taps and credit card trails was for.

[jwirr]

4. I was thinking that also. We have always wondered why they were

so silent.

[Wickerman]

6. Mark Dayton (D-MN) not running for Senate re-election in '06 n/t

[Muttocracy]

10. oooh - I've always wondered what the story was there. nt

[bleever]

7. The whole damn US Attorneys scandal.

I can't keep up.

[bleever]

8. OVP/OSP spying on Powell trying to defuse war with Iraq.

and spying on UN members looking to create a group to defuse the war.

[bleever]

9. RNC email and Blackberry accounts, RIM blackout

when the "private" accounts came under scrutiny, and all the Abramoff communications via Susan Ralston.

[Muttocracy]

11. Anthrax investigation / framing / whoknowswhat. nt

[Gregorian]

12. I can't connect my dots. Someone keeps moving them.

Of course!

And the anthrax mailer "investigation".

In fact, any story. As long as they have an algorithm to discover key words, they can circumvent any investigation of any illegal acts they do. Sort of a reach around of justice, if you will.

Having said that, it's highly doubtful this would ever have been fruitful due to the large number of communications.

But then, if they narrowed down their targets they'd have full view of communications. And that's where this becomes extremely effective. Or damaging, depending upon whose side you're on.


I think this is a monster of a story. Invading a country was clearly wrong. But this was the most secret action in the government, and for a reason. It's huge significance.

I can guess that the Plame defending attorneys were on realtime. In fact, Tice said there were banks of people listening with headphones.

Another would be the Obama election staff. You can bet they were being listened to. I seem to recall someone knowing something they shouldn't have known.

[bleever]

13. Plame investigation. The anthrax attacks, and the "investigation" thereof.

You've hit a key point: this system is much more powerful against domestic political opponents than it could ever be against foreign terrorists.

Great point!

:applause:

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. BUT, but, but I have been connecting these dots for quite a while

and people said I was crazy... and that our guv'ment would not do that...

Yes, even here on DU... where apparently one has to be a member of the tin foil brigade to connect these things

On a personal note... I know I was tracked and I know the IRS wanted to play games with us... damn being active and fighting the powers that be

On the bright side, one day I'll be able to tell the nephews what exactly transpired... perhaps when their time comes, they will step up to the plate as well.

[bleever]

18. Now is the time that those confined to the asylums and gulags

step blinking into the sunlight, and taste the freedom to tell the truth freely again.

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. Sadly I am not letting my guard down YET

if ever

Power is a specially strong drug, regardless of party or political affiliation

Eternal vigilance and all that

[bleever]

23. They do still have

those masses of information.

Cheney didn't hurt his back carrying dishes.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. Well those dishes probably had some crap that good old Darth

didn't want the movers to see

[jwirr]

34. That is the question that surfaced for me the minute I heard it. They

were using buzz words and if there is any place they would have found it would have been here on DU. We skate very near the break in the ice sometimes. Especially when we are angry about something.

[bleever]

15. Cheney picking Coleman over Pawlenty

to run against Paul Wellstone.

And the "victory" of Coleman over Paul's successor to the candidacy after his tragic death, Walter Mondale, beloved by Minnesotans and the leader in the pre-election polls.

Why did Cheney want Coleman over Pawlenty? Pawlenty is squeaky clean. Norm...maybe had some vulnerabilities.

[leftofthedial]

16. It would certainly help explain the seemingly bottomless reservoir of hubris

[OnyxCollie]

17. Insider trading.

Joseph Nacchio and Qwest Communications.
Breaking and entering into the office of Thomas H. Nelson, the attorney representing Al-Hariman (sp?)
The top secret document accidentally (intentionally?) sent out to the Washington Post and Nelson giving specific details of who was wiretapped.
The court case that was dropped by the gov't to prevent said document from becoming unsealed.
Mukasey's claim that a "call from a safe house in Afghanistan" led to 9/11, that neither Lee Hamilton, Philip Zelikow, or John Conyers knew anything about.
The removal of the "wall" between feds and local enforcement and the sharing of info gathered under the looser FISA standards.
Surveillance of Guantanamo lawyers.
The Quantico circuit.
John Yoo's secret memo that says the Fourth Amendment no longer applies under domestic military operations. (Gathering "signals intelligence.")

FISA, telecommunication companies, and the Bush Administration
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3487945

[bleever]

19. An excellent list

of events cast into a new light by the revelation of Total Information Awareness Plus.

[bleever]

20. Sibel Edmonds' difficulty in getting an open hearing.

Perhaps that will change now. Perhaps.

[tex-wyo-dem]

21. Could help explain a whole mess of things...

Some that come to mind: 1.). Stunning lack of oversight, much less inveatigations, into corruption in Iraq, 2.). Failure of Dems to follow-up with inherent contempt against Meirs and Rove, 3.). Lack of follow-up on multiple investivations and hearings started by Waxman et. al....to name a few.






S

[tan guera]

25. I wonder if the NSA was tapping Obama

[shintao]

26. Need to add some dates to the dots

Dots needs dates, do ditto dat?

[shintao]

27. Schoedinger Suicide wire tapping phone

"I am still trying to prosecute ," said Schoedinger, a 38-year-old African-American woman who lived in the Houston suburb of Missouri City. "I want to get this matter settled and go on with my life."

Schoedinger's accusations - which include being drugged and sexually assaulted numerous times by Bush and other men purporting to be FBI agents - are bizarre and hard for most people to believe. But her story fits in with those told by a growing number of people who say they were used as guinea pigs or whatever by members of the CIA or another U.S. agency who wanted to test out the latest mind-controlling drug or just have a strange form of release. And her death - let's just say government agents have made murders look like suicides before.

Well, Schoedinger hasn't gone on with her life. In fact, three months after I spoke to her, she died in an apparent suicide. And this matter remains unsettled.

The Houston Chronicle wrote a bare-bones obituary that stated only that Schoedinger "expired" on Sept. 22, 2003, and her burial was at Houston Memorial Gardens.

I called the Harris County Medical Examiner's office, and a clerk told me the cause of death: a "suicide" by a "gunshot wound to the head." I hung up amid bombs going off in my mind.

Schoedinger's lawsuit can still be viewed on the Fort Bend County site at http://ccweb.co.fort-bend.tx.us/localization/menu.asp - then go down to the bottom and click on civil court. Then type "schoedinger" in the plaintiff box and click search. You should find another lawsuit she filed against Sugar Land police, as well.

http://www.opednews.com/thoreau1103bush_rape_suicide.htm

[LaStrega]

28. How about ...

The abject harrassment of whistleblowers (like the woman nearly run off the road) in the Siegelman case.

[Initech]

29. All of the above?

[JDPriestly]

30. Cheney got a court to allow him to decide on the fate of his documents.

I wonder how much of the evidence that he received and used personal information from private citizens for political purposes will be destroyed before his documents are turned over to the National Archives.

A federal judge yesterday rejected the claim by a coalition of historians and nonprofit groups that Vice President Cheney intended to illegally discard some of his official records, and instead accepted the pledge of a senior White House aide that key Cheney documents and other materials will be transferred as required to the National Archives.

The decision, announced on the eve of the Bush administration's handover of power, capped a long legal battle over how much discretion Cheney had to decide which documents he must preserve for history. On virtually every important legal issue in the case, including whether courts even have jurisdiction to review the matter, the Justice Department -- representing Cheney -- lost.
. . . .

Cheney "spent most of his time making sure he left no footprints," said Kutler, who has written two books on Watergate and President Richard M. Nixon's White House tapes. "Why did he fight this order so much if he did not have the intent to leave with these papers? I'm guessing that a lot of it will not be there."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/19/AR2009011903042.html?hpid=topnews

[tomp]

31. the silence of elected officials sworn to uphold the constitution...

...is not excused by threats or coercion of any kind. it is really that simple.

[seabeyond]

32. absofuckinglutely. hubby came to bed last night and said "you were right".

neither of us like saying those words so was monumental that he said that.

for what i asked

about nsa spying on all of for. years ago i was in rant about it. before the kerry election. so pissed, telling people we need to say no. that we cannot let them get away with. against law. gotta speak up. and no one cared. i thought no one cared. so last couple years i haven't said anything, just smoldering anger they get away with it. so pissed. so pissed.

when hubby said that i said, ..... yaaaaaaa. in a snotty way

he says, well, i just didn't believe that they could do that, would get away with that.

well yaaaaaa. why do you think i am so pissed.

it isn't that people didn't care, i hope. it is that they did not have the knowledge that bushco was really doing this, could actually get away with it.

maybe there will be a movement of outrage. i can hope. cause hubby is pissed.

[jasmeel]

33. These wiretaps might also prevent congress from investigating

* admin for their crimes. Excellent insurance against prosecution. Fuckers!

[keepthemhonest]

35. drawing a blank

but that all sounds right to me.How can that shit be legal?

[bleever]

36. They even surveilled James Comey and Jack Goldsmith.

After expressing severe doubts about the operations of the NSA program, both Deputy Attorney General Comey and former Assistant Attorney General Jack Goldsmith both believe they also came under intense surveillance. Both decided to leave the Bush Administration after these developments.

http://harpers.org/archive/2009/01/hbc-90004257

They were spying on their own top law enforcement officials.

Which leads to the question: who is "they"?

I don't think there's any doubt that all roads here lead to Cheney.

[L. Coyote]

37. Ohio AG Marc Dann investigating 2004 Election Fraud.

[eomer]

47. Right, and then getting taken down.

Maybe an example of what happened if you didn't tow the line.

[L. Coyote]

38. The 2002 Congressional election results. Spying on ALL Dem candidates.

[L. Coyote]

39. The 2004 Congressional election results. Spying on ALL Dem candidates.

[L. Coyote]

40. The 2004 Presidental election results. Spying on the Kerry campaign.

[L. Coyote]

41. The 2004 Presidental election results. Spying on the Primary campaigns.

[chill_wind]

42. Niger Yellow Cake Forgeries.

Cheney's Rump Pentagon and his OSP.

An FBI not interested in picking up Rocco Martino while he was in the U.S.

[leftchick]

44. the 24 missing pages from the final 9/11 commission draft

concerning the saudis.

[apnu]

45. would explain why so many journalists carried water for, or cowered about Bush

Blackmail is a powerful tool.

[azul]

46. Were hoping too many dots in rapid fire would blur the picture.

Like seeing unending canopy of trees and not realizing the forest? Corruption, coup, hijacked democracy?

[bleever]

48. The Iraq NIE, put together in a rush by Cheney,

which Congress demanded before the IWR. NSA surveillance would have been very useful in knowing what was needed to get sufficient numbers of votes, and in knowing who might be especially problematic (e.g., Paul Wellstone).

[gkhouston]

49. How about compliance of Congressional Democrats? Maybe some of those jello spines

were induced via extortion and not campaign contributions.

[bleever]

51. It's not hard to imagine

that Pelosi's finances, or Reid's rise through Nevada gambling regulation, might include some things that wouldn't look good repeated ad infinitum on Fox News.

Not to mention the 533 other members.

:hi:

[mojowork_n]

50. The "Elephant in the Room" -- the US Gub'mint WARONDRUGS...

1. Google Gary Webb + Mighty Wurlitzer

2. Go to Catherine Austin Fitts' blog at Scoop.nz (the basic primer is 'narco-dollars for dummies')

3. Follow some of the other links that come up from those results. (It's not it's that well-kept a secret.)

4. Hurl, Toss Cookies...

[bleever]

52. Warren County "lockdown" election night 2004,

due to a purported "level 10" national security threat.

[Patsy Stone]

55. Nice one!

:hi:

[bleever]

53. Finding groups of losers to set up as "terrorist cells"

by infiltrating them with an FBI stooge to egg them on to "aspirational" terrorist plots, which were then "thwarted" to great fanfare.

[bleever]

54. Spying on Gitmo defense lawyers AND prosecutors

in order to get convictions by defusing defense tactics and weeding out insufficiently zealous government lawyers.