"...Using FOIA requests, the civil liberties group pried loose a bunch of heavily redacted documents showing that Ashcroft's Justice Department is trampling our rights even worse than we feared, which was still plenty bad. Turns out the FBI is getting lots of sensitive records with no judicial oversight, and they're doing wiretaps and secret searches without meeting the accepted definition of 'probable cause.'

�Typical authoritarian trick. Tell the people that you need your expanded police-state powers to protect them, and that these measures will only be used on the 'bad guys.' But really, all long, you intended to these new fascistic powers on everybody.

You can read all about the ACLU's detective work here, with the actual documents reproduced on this page.�

Highlights:

What We Have Learned

1. The FBI is aggressively using National Security Letters - with no judicial oversight - to obtain sensitive records from banks, credit reporting agencies, and Internet service providers.

2. The FBI is conducting wiretaps and secret searches in criminal investigations without complying with probable cause.

3. The government has begun to use an extraordinarily broad surveillance provision that could be used to force libraries and bookstores to report on their patrons and customers' reading habits.

4. The FBI is aggressively using its power to install pen registers and trap and trace devices.

5. The government plans to use all of its new surveillance powers aggressively, including by turning the powers against ordinary Americans and permanent residents.

What the Government Won't Tell Us

The Attorney General has refused to disclose basic statistical information about the FBI's use of new surveillance powers. We asked in particular for the statistical information that the Attorney General reluctantly provided in response to the House Judiciary Committee's June 2002 oversight letter. Most of the records released to us in response are internal e-mails discussing the DOJ's response to the letter. The important content of the e-mails has been blacked out, and as a result most of the e-mails are meaningless.

~~~

And how about this nice little article from the Sunday LA Times, which of course was safely tucked away inside about 30 pages of Patriotic articles:

"The Belgian Senate approved a measure to gut a war crimes law, bringing an end to lawsuits filed against former President Bush, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

In a 36-22 vote with five abstentions, the Senate approved an amendment to invalidate the cases. The House of Representatives had already done so.

The law, adopted in 1993, sought to prosecute war crimes and genocide wherever they occurred. But lawmakers said it was never intended for use against democratic countries."

Um...why? Because Democratic countries should be free to practice war crimes as they see fit?

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