AT&T Whistleblower Warns of a Police State

Written by Dennis Behreandt

Friday, 27 June 2008 15:51

Mark Klein, the retired AT&T engineer turned whistleblower who revealed the existence of telecom cooperation with federal agencies in unauthorized and illegal wiretapping post 9/11, has warned that new legislation authorizing such activities in the future and giving the telecoms retroactive immunity for their illegal activities in the past, sets the stage for a police state. Klein's comments as reported at Wired.com:

[Wednesday]'s vote by Congress effectively gives retroactive immunity to the telecom companies and endorses an all-powerful president. It’s a Congressional coup against the Constitution.

The Democratic leadership is touting the deal as a "compromise," but in fact they have endorsed the infamous Nuremberg defense: "Just following orders." The judge can only check their paperwork. This cynical deal is a Democratic exercise in deceit and cowardice.

We're glad Mr. Klein recognizes and is speaking out against the Senate's abnegation of their duty to the Constitution. But he picks on the Democrats when he should be picking on both parties. The sell out of liberty at the federal level is a bipartisan effort.

Comments (17)

AT&T Whistleblower & Police State

17 Tuesday, 29 July 2008 20:37

NYCJulie

I'm a registered Democrat, and I called and called Congress and signed petitions to not accept the FISA compromise bill--because, among other things, it gave immunity to lawbreakers. I believe my local Democrat representatives did vote against it.
But they haven't yet demanded Impeachment for BushCheney. The President and VP seem to be drunk on their increasingly dictatorial power. Cheney's attorney, David Addington, is quoted as saying, "We're one bomb away from getting rid of that abnoxious FISA court", in The Terror Presidency, by Jack Goldsmith. Goldsmith is the (Conservative) former Assistant Attorney General who stood up to BushCheneyAddingtonGonzolas and told them that the "enhanced interrogation techniques" WERE NOT LEGAL.
Thank you, Dennis Behreandt and JBS, for acknowledging that, "the sell out of liberty at the federal level is a bipartisan effort." That's just one more reason for persons of any party who do believe in Liberty, Justice and the Constitution to unite with other persons who also do--even if we disagree on other issues. Our only hope as citizens who want to retain our basic human right to FREE WILL, is to unite with our fellow Patriots!

The constitution is just a piece of paper !

16 Monday, 28 July 2008 14:29

Thomas Hamilton is the alias given me by my parents

It must be so , Thats what president Bush said !!! (haw did he really get into the presidency anyway????) note: this is sarcastic !

CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS

15 Saturday, 26 July 2008 20:23

ROB ATWELL

WE ARE BECOMING A COMMUNIST COUNTRY AND THE MORONS IN WASHINGTON D.C. ARE ALLOWING THIS TO HAPPEN. THEIR GREED AND SPENDING NEEDS TO BE STOPPED. WHO PAYS THE PRICE? THAT IS RIGHT, THE WAGE SLAVES.

ALL OF US ARE BEING ENSLAVED BY THIS SYSTEM OF CREATING MONEY OUT OF THIN AIR. IT IS TIME TO REACT AND STOP SITTING ON OUR HANDS.

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE. IT IS FOUGHT FOR EVERY DAY BY PEOPLE ACTIVELY PUTTING CHECKS AND BALANCES ON CONGRESS.

HOW HAS YOUR CONGRESSIONAL MEMBERS VOTED? WHAT HAVE THEY DONE FOR YOU LATELY?

THIS MONEY THAT THEY ARE BLOWING IS CREATING THIS ECONOMIC DISASTER AND THEY DO NOT GIVE A CARE BECAUSE ALL THEY ARE GOING TO END UP DOING IS RAISING OUR TAXES... IS THIS THE KIND OF COUNTRY WE WANT?

Misspelled word

14 Monday, 21 July 2008 18:17

JBS-EDITOR

Dear Mr. Halle,

Thank you for pointing out the word we spelled incorrectly. It has been repaired.

Second note

13 Sunday, 20 July 2008 19:53

Thomas C. Halle, D.C.

"The right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searchs, shall not be violated."

Please note that "searches" is misspelled.

Note re website at top of the page

12 Sunday, 20 July 2008 19:51

Thomas C. Halle, D.C.

"The right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searchs, shall not be violated."

Good to see your website. Used to subscribe to your magazine, and consider myself still a member of JBS.
As a doc, but also a writer, figured I should bring this to your attention. Please not that "searches" is misspelled above.

Decimating Our Constitution - What Constitution?

11 Tuesday, 15 July 2008 21:21

Christopher Manos

I didn't realize we still had a Constitution. Isn't it an elected official's choice to defend it or not?

Oh, I must have forgotten that they TAKE AN OATH TO DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION!

Thanks - I feel better now...

Seriously, do we really have a Constitution?

It appears to me that our legis-liars are blatantly disregarding it.

I like the new site

10 Thursday, 10 July 2008 14:33

JenB

Not only is it pretty, it is very functional. But I think the topic here is the constitutional rights which are being taken away from us. The 4th Amendment has now effectively been destroyed.

Terrific New site!

9 Wednesday, 09 July 2008 09:48

Lee Gonzales

The new site will take some getting used to but I believe it is an improvement over the previous web page, How many changes has this website made now? Three? Overall the site is going in the direction it needs to go to catch and keep surfers and sustain their interest. I really like the 12 topics. This gives the Birch position on these very important issues.

New site

8 Monday, 07 July 2008 16:36

Cerus

The news feeds are on the front page, under the large sized font that reads "JBS News Feed"

The news feeds are now in a rotating image/text format designed to focus attention on the individual articles, it's a decided aesthetic and organizational improvement over the old method.

I hadn't visited the old JBS.org site often enough to develop any real familiarity, so I'm not bound by that feeling when I say this new site is an improvement in just about every way.

JBS web site

7 Monday, 07 July 2008 15:35

don m

The old one was better

C'mon

6 Sunday, 06 July 2008 07:43

Robert Robinson

There talking some serious stuff here.Desimating our Constitution,imposing martial law on American Citizens,and you folks are complaining about redesigned website .sheeeez

New Web site

5 Friday, 04 July 2008 13:28

Larry Brown

One picture is worth either 1,000 words or nothing. Most of the pictures on the new website (and I might add in the Bulletin) fall into the later category.

Also pictures make the web pages load slower. I'd rather not have to wait for a picture to load.

"Contact Congress" pages

4 Friday, 04 July 2008 13:25

Judy Stahl

The new website seems to make it more difficult to find the web pages about writing to Congress.

Bring back the News Feeds

3 Friday, 04 July 2008 07:56

Nancy

It encouraged people to visit your site more frequently. Please bring them back.

I hate to say it, but the old web page was better.

I'm not able to peruse the news feed section of the website every day, and was glad that I could quickly scan a list to find where I last left off. The new design puts form over function. Scrolling through the five recent stories is slow, and then finding a list of older stories is slower. I wholeheartedly vote to restore the old News Feed, or at least make it available somewhere on the site.

I agree

2 Thursday, 03 July 2008 16:03

bearfor

I agrree. I liked the old one better, much better. It was so much more imformative.

"News Feeds"

1 Thursday, 03 July 2008 14:23

David Scholefield

Although your redesigned web-site is very "pretty", in my opinion its potential effectiveness has been severely diminished by the apparent deletion of the "JBS News Feeds".