NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR MIKE McCONNELL WANTS MORE POWER TO SPY ON YOU

The nation’s super spy, Mike McConnell, Director of National Intelligence, wants even more surveillance capabilities to pry into the lives of American citizens. While cloaked in the fast becoming tiresome grounds that it will help find more spies and terrorists, McConnell now wants to plant listening devices, install hidden cameras, and search luggage and break into homes to copy hard drives. Orwell has been in perpetual turnover in his grave during the Bush/Cheney administration. Here’s what McConnell wants:

• Power to monitor foreigners without seeking FISA court approval, including tapping e-mails in the United States.
• Clarify (meaning lower) standards the FBI and NSA use to get court orders for personal information.
• Triple the life span of a FISA warrant for U.S. citizens from 120 days to one year.
• Provide immunity to telecommunications companies in civil liability for cooperating with Bush’s terrorist program
• Extend from 72 hours to one week the surveillance time to spy on suspects without a court order.

The ACLU says Congress should be very leery of giving this administration any more power to spy on “…its own citizens,” in an MSNBC article. Kate Martin of the Center for National Security Studies says these changes will have “…basically done away with the protections of FISA.” It’s all coming to a head, and, meanwhile, a lackluster Democratic Congress just stands by and lets it all happen. Here’s where I get to use one of my favorite words: PATHETIC!