[Tfug] Spy Bill Debate Comes to an End

[Jim March]

The FISA thing is part of a larger discussion on questionable actions of the
current administration.

Somebody has already cited the "when they came for the..." quote and
somebody else asked "who did they come for so far?"

One possible answer is: Qwest's CEO.

Quest was the one major telecom that wouldn't go along with the wiretapping
program.  In 2001 the CEO sold some stock just before Quest's stock took a
bath; the Federal government is charging him with insider trading.

His defense is interesting: he says the stock collapsed because several
lucrative contracts that were in the works were canceled in retaliation for
his backing out of warrantless wiretapping.  And then once they had the
chance, they tried to jail him for insider trading as further punishment for
his real "crime" of standing up for the law.

Now granted, that's his claim:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/12/AR2007101202485.html

So far he's been granted a re-trial after the judge in the first trial
knocked out at least one expert witness on his side.  Also, looking at that
WashPost article:

---
Nacchio was convicted for selling shares of Qwest stock in early 2001, just
before financial problems caused the company's share price to tumble. He has
claimed in court papers that he had been optimistic that Qwest would
overcome weak sales because of the expected top-secret contract with the
government. Nacchio said he was forbidden to mention the specifics during
the trial because of secrecy restrictions, but the judge ruled that the
issue was irrelevant to the charges against him.
---

When a judge limits your ability to defend yourself, that to me points to
his story being at least plausible.

An even worse-looking case of somebody being framed by this administration
is former Alabama governor Don Siegelman.  THAT case stinks to high heaven,
and as the frame-up was against a high elected official, you have to ask
questions like "if they'll go after HIM, is anybody safe?!"

Lest anybody think I'm a left-winger :) note that I'm a registered
Libertarian and former lobbyist for a smaller, more radical break-away
faction of the NRA :).  I was actually thrown out of the California NRA for
being too radical (exposing Republican sheriffs who were selling gun permits
for campaign contributions - the state NRA chapter was too deeply in bed
with the GOP to enjoy that).

Upshot: yeah, guys, there really IS a problem.  FISA is just one small part
of a big ugly picture.

(To bring it back semi-on-topic to the list: guess which major software
house has been a willing partner in data privacy breaches on behalf of the
.gov for years?  In case anybody doesn't know: Microsoft...)

Jim
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://tfug.org/pipermail/tfug_tfug.org/attachments/20080710/968ef889/attachment-0002.html>