The decision by Germany’s highest court to annul a controversial state law allowing secret computer searches for security and anti-terror investigations rightfully puts civil rights above security interests, experts say…
Intelligence agencies will now only be able to collect data secretly from suspects’ computer hard drives if they have evidence that “legally protected interests,” like human lives or state property, are in jeopardy, the court said. They also must get permission from a judge before they upload Trojan horse spyware onto a suspect’s computer. The court also forbade the collection of a suspect’s personal data…
The state law, legal for just over a year, had allowed security officials to monitor private e-mails, Internet telephony and chats, as well as storing hard drive data, including images and word documents. Schaeuble had wanted a similar law for his federal agencies but will now have to change his plans.
Some of you may recall that Germany has previous experience with a nutball government that placed security above freedom?
Although Germany’s privacy laws are to be commended, they are still finding a balance between privacy and security.
Germany’s privacy laws have allowed their country to become a safe haven for a number of terrorist organizations.
“The core members of the Sept. 11 plot, including hijackers Mohamed Atta, Marwan al Shehhi, and Ziad Jarrah, as well as alleged key planner Ramzi bin al-Shibh, formed in Hamburg in the mid-1990s.
Mounir el-Motassadeq, who admitted to knowing some of the Sept. 11 hijackers, became the only person to have been convicted for the Sept. 11 attacks when in February 2003 he was found guilty on more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder…
The plot to attack the Christmas Market in Strasbourg, France on New Year’s Eve 2000 was hatched in Germany.
Mamoun Darkazanli, a Syrian-born German national, has been charged in Spain for having provided logistical and financial support to Al Qaeda since 1997. He was arrested in Hamburg in October 2004”
According to this December 2004 Washington Post article about the Motassadeq case, “the massive investigation into the al Qaeda cell has been stymied by this country’s lax anti-terrorism laws, unfavorable judicial rulings and a lack of evidence, making it increasingly doubtful that anyone here will be convicted.”
http://tinyurl.com/2pjm2y
And if you want a blow by blow of how the Germans really screwed us pre-911, just read this
http://tinyurl.com/2o8tog
It’s unlikely to happen here anymore. The GOP and Bush are clearly on their way out and I believe, no longer allowed to touch anything.
They are collecting their things, gifts, trophies and separating paper products to one side for the graffiti maker.
#2 – Do you mean confetti?
Oops. Good catch. yes, I did.
Ah_Yea said
“And if you want a blow by blow of how the Germans really screwed us pre-911, just read this”
—–
Yeah, yeah, whatever. try reading up on the money trail from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. After all, 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers where Saudi.
Follow the money…
http://tinyurl.com/yqqpbs
On December 5, the CIA’s director, General Michael V. Hayden, issued a statement disclosing that in 2005 at least two videotapes of interrogations with al Qaeda prisoners were destroyed. The tapes, which the CIA did not provide to either the 9/11 Commission, nor to a federal court in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, were destroyed, claimed Hayden, to protect the safety of undercover operatives.
Hayden did not disclose one of the al Qaeda suspects whose tapes were destroyed. But he did identify the other. It was Abu Zubaydah, the top ranking terror suspect when he was tracked and captured in Pakistan in 2003.
-snip-
American interrogators used painkillers to induce Zubaydah to talk — they gave him the meds when he cooperated, and withdrew them when he was quiet. They also utilized a thiopental sodium drip (a so-called truth serum). Several hours after he first fingered Prince Ahmed, his captors challenged the information, and said that since he had disparaged the Saudi royal family, he would be executed. It was at that point that some of the secrets of 9/11 came pouring out. In a short monologue, that one investigator told me was the “Rosetta Stone” of 9/11, Zubaydah laid out details of how he and the al Qaeda hierarchy had been supported at high levels inside the Saudi and Pakistan governments.
He named two other Saudi princes, and also the chief of Pakistan’s air force, as his major contacts. Moreover, he stunned his interrogators, by charging that two of the men, the King’s nephew, and the Pakistani Air Force chief, knew a major terror operation was planned for America on 9/11.
Don’t really care about German laws, but here in the USA, the FISA bill is getting ready to fly through Congress. It’s going to cause some of the lefties to go nuts, but it will become law.
Question: Is Pelosi actively campaigning to be worst Speaker ever or does this come naturally to her? A New Direction for America! (grin)
Bush Administration 96, Pelosi 0
My chances of being in a fatal auto accident are vastly more than being the victim of a terrorist attack. My child has a greater chance of having been exposed to BSE from contaminated beef supplied by the Department of Agriculture. Geeze, I even have a greater chance of winning a major lottery. When the odds of terrorism become remotely close to the most extreme of my examples, then come tell me about the danger.
#1, Oh Ya,
Didn’t Timothy McVey have American contacts? And didn’t Harris and Klebold associate with a lot of Americans?
What? They can’t get a warrant to monitor criminal suspects?
That’s the tried-and-true system here in America that the conservatives are trying like hell to end.
There is nothing more sacred than our civil rights. In fact they are worth fighting for to keep. Even dying for as so many of our forefathers have. If that means a few more terrorist attacks then so be it.
Actually I think it is the other way around. A strong society of independent and free men will always be the most capable to resist terrorism.
A society run by big brother government and their agencies such as the TSA, FEMA and so on is twice damned. First not to be safe and unable to handle any major crisis. Secondly as a society unworthy to keep safe…
I wonder if they have lederhosen in my size
In case you’re wondering, Democrats in the House are ready to pass the immunity for telecoms that you’re so upset about.
I think the biggest fear the Bush administration has concerning the telecom immunity issue is what will happen after the first lawsuit starts going forward. There’s a little process called “discovery” that sometimes unearths some previously unknown violations of law, and I bet the telecoms have already mentioned this (I hate to say threatened), just to make sure the administration fights for immunity tooth and nail. The fact that AT&T has former Attorney General John Ashcroft as one of their lobbyists probably doesn’t hurt, either.
#5. Absolutely the Saudi royalty is the worse of the worst. There are more Saudi Princes that you can shake a stick at and more than a few who are in league with the terrorist. If I remember right Bin Laden is related to the Royal Family. But… these terrorist had to leave Saudi Arabia because they could not put together this plot without being found out and executed. Hence, they end up in the safe haven of Germany.
#10. Very good post. This is the best response I have seen for the argument on decreasing surveillance. The question truly becomes, “When does the cure become worse than the disease?”.
Not an easy question to answer, but certainly worth asking, and asking often.
To Ah_Yea,
You`re too funny. If you`re looking for the perpetrators responsible for Sept.11, look no farther than dc or tel aviv. Now go back to cooking up more neverending holyhoax bs.
#16–franny==how much explosive do you think Bush planted at the World Towers in order to blow it up?
I certainly think whoever held the janitor contract (probably Halliburton on a no-bid basis) should be closely looked at for failing to report the build-up of explosive materials on the 86th floor==if they weren’t doing it themselves!!!!
So–best case is that this attack on America was done by Halliburton with Bushco just continuing in its willing stooge position.
Courageous post. Please keep us informed.
Don’t forget the Germans still have Ernst Zundel in jail for Free Speech, so let’s not congratulate them too much. In the US, the gov’t continues to violate our rights:
They violate the 1st Amendment by opening mail, caging demonstrators and banning books like “America Deceived” from Amazon.
They violate the 2nd Amendment by confiscating guns during Katrina.
They violate the 4th Amendment by conducting warrant-less wiretaps.
They violate the 5th and 6th Amendment by suspending habeas corpus.
They violate the 8th Amendment by torturing.
They violate the entire Constitution by starting 2 illegal wars based on lies and on behalf of a foriegn gov’t.
Support Dr. Ron Paul and save this great country.
Last link (unless Google Books caves to the gov’t and drops the title):
http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?&isbn=0-595-38523-0
Bobbo, I don’t know about the janitors, but don’t you know a Bush brother was in charge of security!
Conspiracy theories serve 1 purpose:
It brings nutballs out of the woodworks voluntarily so we can learn whom not to listen to.
Actually, there is a nice second purpose if you can make a movie (Michael Moore) or write a book and make some cash money off said individuals.
I’ve learned that conspiracy theories are a very profitable business and healthy to the economy while serving an important social purpose.
Bobbo, you got it! Alright, I’ve got my tin foil hat on.
Here it is, the janitorial contract was given to Halliburton on a no-bid basis. To save money the janitors were instructed to put all the trash on the 86th floor (where apparently nobody would notice) thereby eliminating the expense of disposal. That worked so well that Halliburton decided to dump ALL it’s garbage on the 86th floor. A real fire hazard waiting to happen. Unfortunately, the 86th floor starts to run out of room and they need to do something about it.
So, Halliburton hires some crazies to crash planes into the world trade center, thereby igniting the already in place fire hazard and disposing of the evidence at the same time by destroying the buildings…
Now, Halliburton gets the no-bid contract for the cleanup!
How’s that for a conspiracy theory. I think it makes as much sense as Charlie Sheen’s!
#20 Hmeyers, I may agree with your “conspiracy theory” call in this instance, but your apparent generalization on the subject seems like too much of a knee-jerk reaction. Don’t forget the occasional conspiracy theory that turns out to be horribly true, and the only “nutballs” are those who deride the people who speak the truth. The naive among us retreat to the comfort of a belief that some things are so terrible that the government wouldn’t dare get caught doing them, but students of history know better.
We shouldn’t ever forget the lesson of Project MKULTRA, the CIA’s experiments on unwitting American citizens using LSD and other drugs, in their attempt to gain knowledge of mind control techniques for political and black ops purposes.
Let’s also not forget that the only reason we (through U.S. Senate hearings) uncovered a few of the facts about Project MKULTRA was that when the CIA Director ordered all relevant documents destroyed, a few of them escaped that fate and were subpoenaed. We learned much about what people are willing to do when given a large budget, a cloak of secrecy, and the magic phrase “for the greater good.” The CIA also learned an important lesson — next time, cover their tracks better. How well did they learn it? We may never know.
Hey, I know it’s a scary bedtime story, but it has to be repeated occasionally 😉
#19–Mike==I did not know that. I thought that ex-cia or fbi guy that predicted 9-11 was in charge of security and that all the bushies were in paid off political positions?
Well, live and learn.
#21–Ah Yea==don’t be a fool. There were no airplanes on 911. Do you notice in frame number 269345 of the surveillance camera from the Pawn Shop down the street that there was a suspicious blimp in the air at the time? It was owned by the Moonies who were testing their “Astro Projection Laser System” for the next Pink Flloyd concert in Central Park.
The planes were all holograms. AND BEFORE YOU YAP ON about all the people killed on the flights—what proof of that is there except paper work that was generated after the supposed crash?
>Some of you may recall that Germany has previous experience with a nutball government that placed security above freedom?
Until they drop and bomb and they “everyone” will say, “why didn’t he government do anything?”
#24 LOL!!! Ok, well you got me. Another conspiracy theory down the tubes.
I have to ask — what does the administration have on Silvestre Reyes and the other Democrats who keep rolling over for the Bush administration?
I think we have know who they were wiretapping! (hint: it wasn’t terrorists!)
Nice shot Gary.
#29, Gary,
Are you trying to suggest I can’t just call myself Ruler of the World and God’s Gift to Women?
Sheet !!!!!
#31 Mister Catshit, just between you and me, I won’t question your labels if you don’t question mine…
“Infidel Humanitarian of the Year”
If anyone were to challenge it, I might actually have to start being generous or (gasp) nice 😉
I think such type of law are good for preventing crimes.