[antimedia] antimedia: I think I just figured out why Glenn Greenwald....

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Posted by antimedia:
I think I just figured out why Glenn Greenwald....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1155415745.shtml


   ....named his blog "Unclaimed Terroritory" -- because his mind goes to
   places not even insane people's minds go. Where Greenwald's thoughts
   reside really is unclaimed terroritory.
   In [1]this screed Greenwald attempts to prove that the NSA's
   warrentless surveillance program could not possibly have been involved
   in the breakup of the recent London terror plot. He is desperate to do
   so, because his entire claim to fame is the demagoguing of this one
   issue.
   This part is particularly laughable.

     Even more significantly, to the extent that U.S. law enforcement
     agents attempted to assist in the pre-arrest surveillance of these
     terrorists, they were able to eavesdrop on the conversations of
     scores of individuals inside the U.S. by obtaining the approval of
     the FISA court, just as the law requires:
     [he includes several quoted paragraphs from the cited article]
     From the very beginning of the NSA scandal, this has been the point
     -- the principal, overarching, never-answered point. There is no
     reason for the Bush administration to eavesdrop in secret, with no
     judicial oversight, and in violation of the law precisely because
     the legal framework that has been in place for the last 28 years
     empowers the government to eavesdrop aggressively on all of the
     terrorists they want, with ease.

   First of all, Greenwald's constant beating of the drum that what the
   administration is doing with surveillance is patently illegal receives
   a body blow from the very article Greenwald so approvingly quotes. Why
   on earth would the administration bother to get FISA warrants if
   they're surveilling illegally anyway? You don't suppose it's because
   they're complying with the law after all, do you? Greenwald has
   consistently tried to blur the lines between what the NSA does and
   what the FBI does because it serves his purpose of claiming
   illegality. He has refused, from the beginning, to address the issue
   headon, because it destroys his argument.
   More to the point, however, where does Greenwald think the leads on
   who to surveill with FISA warrants came from? You don't suppose [2]it
   could have been the NSA program Greenwald hates so much, do you?

     Some of the British suspects arrested had made calls to the United
     States, a US intelligence source told the daily.

   Gee, I wonder what intelligence agency does electronic surveillance of
   foreign calls coming in to the US?
   Of course, Greenwald launches his tirade by insisting that the NSA
   could not possibly have been involved.

     As I noted on Thursday, Bush supporters have been attempting to
     exploit the U.K. terrorist plot to bolster support for an array of
     extremist and lawless Bush policies -- from warrantless
     eavesdropping to torture -- even though there is not a shred of
     evidence that any of those policies played any role whatsoever,
     either in the U.S. or England, in impeding this plot.

   [3]Time Magazine begins an article, Thwarting the Airline Plot: Inside
   the Investigation, published two days ago, with this.

     Exclusive: U.S. picked up the suspects' chatter and shared it with
     British authorities;[......]a knowledgeable American official says
     U.S. intelligence provided London authorities with intercepts of
     the group's communications.

   And that chatter was what led directly to the arrests.
   Gee, I wonder what intelligence agency captures communications, Glenn?
   But Glenn isn't finished.

     This fact, yet again, demonstrates the sheer dishonesty motivating
     those right-wing pundits claiming that "Democrats" oppose the type
     of eavesdropping used to stop this plot. Legal eavesdropping,
     within the FISA framework, is exactly the eavesdropping which Bush
     critics advocate, and it was precisely that legal eavesdropping
     which was used to engage in surveillance of suspected terrorists
     here.

   Greenwald wields the sword of ad hominem so comfortably because he
   uses it so often. His many sycophants love it and nod their heads
   approvingly rather than think about what Greenwald is saying.
   Democrats did, indeed, oppose the warrantless surveillance that the
   NSA was doing, which is precisely what assisted in uncovering this
   plot. The fact that the Bush administration is also doing domestic
   surveillance in full cooperation with the FISA court is used to make
   the claim, "See, you can do it legally", in order to obscure the
   truth. Yet, in the very next breath the administration is berated for
   not following the law.
   This is definitely unclaimed terrority.

References

   1. http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/08/legal-surveillance-not-illegal.html
   2. http://sg.news.yahoo.com/060811/1/42pvq.html
   3. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1225453,00.html