Larry Klayman
Obama's never-ending spy machine hits critical mass
By Larry Klayman
During the oral argument of Nov. 4, 2014, concerning the appeal of a case Freedom Watch and I brought against President Barack Hussein Obama, his National Security Agency (NSA) and other government and individual defendants over their illegal and unconstitutional surveillance of the telephonic metadata of nearly all Americans (14-cv-5004, 14-cv-5005, 14-cv-5016 and 14-5017, see www.freedomwatchusa.org), the legal counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice predictably lied to the three-judge panel. This Obama Justice Department lawyer told the judges, in no uncertain terms, that the NSA does not access the records of ordinary Americans by using identifying information unless there is a reasonable suspicion that a person is in contact with terrorists or is in the act of committing a crime.
In shock, yet regrettably not surprised that another high-ranking attorney of the Obama Justice Department would lie to the court, given all that has gone under the bridge with its demonstrably corrupt attorney general, Eric Holder, I politely told the judges that this was not to be believed and cited the pattern of illegal and unconstitutional conduct that had been disclosed by the NSA's own inspector general after the revelations of Edward Snowden forced an internal agency review. A few days later, I filed a motion to provide the appellate court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, with a supplemental brief showing that Obama and his spy agencies have lied repeatedly not just to the American people, but also the courts.
Now, just a few days after our brief was submitted, a new secret Obama spy program has been revealed, this one being run primarily by – you guessed it – the same Justice Department that has become a criminal enterprise for the president and the intelligence communities' tyrannical acts to keep Americans enslaved to their corrupt whims and wishes to rule over us as they see fit. Here is what Fox News reported just last Friday:
"The Justice Department is scooping up data from thousands of cellphones through fake communications towers deployed on airplanes, a high-tech hunt for criminal suspects that is snagging large number of innocent Americans, according to people familiar with the operations.
"The U.S. Marshals Service program, which became fully functional around 2007, operates Cessna aircraft from at least five metropolitan-area airports, with a flying range covering most of the U.S. population, according to people familiar with the program.
"Planes are equipped with devices – some known as 'dirtboxes' to law-enforcement officials because of the initials of the Boeing Co. unit that produces them – which mimic cell towers of large telecommunications firms and trick cellphones into reporting their unique registration information.
"The technology in the two-foot-square device enables investigators to scoop data from tens of thousands of cellphones in a single flight, collecting their identifying information and general location, these people said.
"People with knowledge of the program wouldn't discuss the frequency or duration of such flights, but said they take place on a regular basis.
"A Justice Department official would neither confirm nor deny the existence of such a program. The official said discussion of such matters would allow criminal suspects or foreign powers to determine U.S. surveillance capabilities. Justice Department agencies comply with federal law, including by seeking court approval, the official said.
"The program is the latest example of the extent to which the U.S. is training its surveillance lens inside the United States. It is similar in approach to the NSA's program to collect millions of Americans phone records, in that it scoops up large volumes of data in order to find a single person or a handful of people. The U.S. government justified the phone-records collection by arguing it is a minimally invasive way of searching for terrorists."
("Secret U.S. spy program targeted Americans' cellphones," Nov. 14, 2014)
This news comes just before the U.S. Senate is poised to vote next week on proposed bipartisan legislation, which is being advertised to end the illegal and unconstitutional spying on all of us. The sham piece of legislation, the USA Freedom Act, brought to you by the compromised establishment politicians of both major political parties, would have We the People believe that telephone metadata would remain in the hands of the companies until the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court issues what is in effect a warrant for the NSA, or other government agency in its chain of possible distribution (i.e., the FBI or IRS), to allow them to gain access under a showing of probable cause that a person was in contact with terrorists or committing a crime. Given the Obama administration's penchant for lying, you would have to live in Captain Hook's "Neverland," to accept this as what would occur if the USA Freedom Act passes.
While my colleagues and I take some personal satisfaction that our victory in having federal district Judge Richard J. Leon issue a preliminary injunction last December enjoining the illegal and unconstitutional surveillance forced this legislation (which is the decision now on appeal), the hard reality is that it is not worth the paper it is written on. The government and in particular Obama and his henchmen, not to mention his complicit Republican enablers like Reps. Peter King and Mike Rogers, head of the House Intelligence Committee, will not enforce this legislation through any meaningful and strong oversight. For they are co-conspirators with Obama, his NSA and their intelligence community felons, and the power of our current tyrannical government to terrorize the American people will go unchecked unless the courts set up a monitoring procedure to make sure that this outrage is stopped.
And, as I have said many times, if the courts don't step in and enforce the law, and then closely monitor its compliance, then We the People must then rise up and legally burn the establishment house down, as our Founding Fathers did during the first American Revolution. Do not look to the new Congress to help us. While it may feel satisfying that the voters rebuked Obama and his henchmen on Election Day, this was only a symbolic victory. Mark my words: This Congress will prove almost as gutless as other Republican congresses. Its leaders have known all along that we ordinary Americans have had our privacy and constitutional rights systematically violated.
© Larry Klayman
During the oral argument of Nov. 4, 2014, concerning the appeal of a case Freedom Watch and I brought against President Barack Hussein Obama, his National Security Agency (NSA) and other government and individual defendants over their illegal and unconstitutional surveillance of the telephonic metadata of nearly all Americans (14-cv-5004, 14-cv-5005, 14-cv-5016 and 14-5017, see www.freedomwatchusa.org), the legal counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice predictably lied to the three-judge panel. This Obama Justice Department lawyer told the judges, in no uncertain terms, that the NSA does not access the records of ordinary Americans by using identifying information unless there is a reasonable suspicion that a person is in contact with terrorists or is in the act of committing a crime.
In shock, yet regrettably not surprised that another high-ranking attorney of the Obama Justice Department would lie to the court, given all that has gone under the bridge with its demonstrably corrupt attorney general, Eric Holder, I politely told the judges that this was not to be believed and cited the pattern of illegal and unconstitutional conduct that had been disclosed by the NSA's own inspector general after the revelations of Edward Snowden forced an internal agency review. A few days later, I filed a motion to provide the appellate court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, with a supplemental brief showing that Obama and his spy agencies have lied repeatedly not just to the American people, but also the courts.
Now, just a few days after our brief was submitted, a new secret Obama spy program has been revealed, this one being run primarily by – you guessed it – the same Justice Department that has become a criminal enterprise for the president and the intelligence communities' tyrannical acts to keep Americans enslaved to their corrupt whims and wishes to rule over us as they see fit. Here is what Fox News reported just last Friday:
"The Justice Department is scooping up data from thousands of cellphones through fake communications towers deployed on airplanes, a high-tech hunt for criminal suspects that is snagging large number of innocent Americans, according to people familiar with the operations.
"The U.S. Marshals Service program, which became fully functional around 2007, operates Cessna aircraft from at least five metropolitan-area airports, with a flying range covering most of the U.S. population, according to people familiar with the program.
"Planes are equipped with devices – some known as 'dirtboxes' to law-enforcement officials because of the initials of the Boeing Co. unit that produces them – which mimic cell towers of large telecommunications firms and trick cellphones into reporting their unique registration information.
"The technology in the two-foot-square device enables investigators to scoop data from tens of thousands of cellphones in a single flight, collecting their identifying information and general location, these people said.
"People with knowledge of the program wouldn't discuss the frequency or duration of such flights, but said they take place on a regular basis.
"A Justice Department official would neither confirm nor deny the existence of such a program. The official said discussion of such matters would allow criminal suspects or foreign powers to determine U.S. surveillance capabilities. Justice Department agencies comply with federal law, including by seeking court approval, the official said.
"The program is the latest example of the extent to which the U.S. is training its surveillance lens inside the United States. It is similar in approach to the NSA's program to collect millions of Americans phone records, in that it scoops up large volumes of data in order to find a single person or a handful of people. The U.S. government justified the phone-records collection by arguing it is a minimally invasive way of searching for terrorists."
("Secret U.S. spy program targeted Americans' cellphones," Nov. 14, 2014)
This news comes just before the U.S. Senate is poised to vote next week on proposed bipartisan legislation, which is being advertised to end the illegal and unconstitutional spying on all of us. The sham piece of legislation, the USA Freedom Act, brought to you by the compromised establishment politicians of both major political parties, would have We the People believe that telephone metadata would remain in the hands of the companies until the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court issues what is in effect a warrant for the NSA, or other government agency in its chain of possible distribution (i.e., the FBI or IRS), to allow them to gain access under a showing of probable cause that a person was in contact with terrorists or committing a crime. Given the Obama administration's penchant for lying, you would have to live in Captain Hook's "Neverland," to accept this as what would occur if the USA Freedom Act passes.
While my colleagues and I take some personal satisfaction that our victory in having federal district Judge Richard J. Leon issue a preliminary injunction last December enjoining the illegal and unconstitutional surveillance forced this legislation (which is the decision now on appeal), the hard reality is that it is not worth the paper it is written on. The government and in particular Obama and his henchmen, not to mention his complicit Republican enablers like Reps. Peter King and Mike Rogers, head of the House Intelligence Committee, will not enforce this legislation through any meaningful and strong oversight. For they are co-conspirators with Obama, his NSA and their intelligence community felons, and the power of our current tyrannical government to terrorize the American people will go unchecked unless the courts set up a monitoring procedure to make sure that this outrage is stopped.
And, as I have said many times, if the courts don't step in and enforce the law, and then closely monitor its compliance, then We the People must then rise up and legally burn the establishment house down, as our Founding Fathers did during the first American Revolution. Do not look to the new Congress to help us. While it may feel satisfying that the voters rebuked Obama and his henchmen on Election Day, this was only a symbolic victory. Mark my words: This Congress will prove almost as gutless as other Republican congresses. Its leaders have known all along that we ordinary Americans have had our privacy and constitutional rights systematically violated.
© Larry Klayman
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