![]() |
|||
Proudly afflicting the comfortable [and collecting shiny things] since March 2003 | |||
Send Magpie an email! RSS Feeds Click button to subscribe. ![]() ![]() ![]() Need a password? Click the button! ![]() Cost of the Iraq War [US$] (JavaScript Error)
[Find out more here]![]() BLOGS WE LIKE 3quarksdaily Alas, a Blog alphabitch Back to Iraq Baghdad Burning Bitch Ph.D. blac (k) ademic Blog Report Blogs by Women BOPNews Broadsheet Burnt Orange Report Confined Space Cursor Daily Kos Dangereuse trilingue Echidne of the Snakes Effect Measure Eschaton (Atrios) feministe Feministing Firedoglake Follow Me Here gendergeek Gordon.Coale The Housing Bubble New! I Blame the Patriarchy Juan Cole/Informed Comment Kicking Ass The King's Blog The Krile Files Left Coaster librarian.net Loaded Orygun Making Light Marian's Blog mediagirl Muslim Wake Up! Blog My Left Wing NathanNewman.org The NewsHoggers Null Device Orcinus Pacific Views Pandagon The Panda's Thumb Pedantry Peking Duck Philobiblon Pinko Feminist Hellcat Political Animal Reality-Based Community Riba Rambles The Rittenhouse Review Road to Surfdom Romenesko SCOTUSblog The Sideshow The Silence of Our Friends New! Sisyphus Shrugged skippy Suburban Guerrilla Talk Left Talking Points Memo TAPPED This Modern World The Unapologetic Mexican New! veiled4allah Wampum War and Piece wood s lot xymphora MISSING IN ACTION Body and Soul fafblog General Glut's Globlog Respectful of Otters RuminateThis ![]() WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE? Magpie is a former journalist, attempted historian [No, you can't ask how her thesis is going], and full-time corvid of the lesbian persuasion. She keeps herself in birdseed by writing those bad computer manuals that you toss out without bothering to read them. She also blogs too much when she's not on deadline, both here and at Pacific Views. Magpie roosts in Portland, Oregon, where she annoys her housemates (as well as her cats Medea, Whiskers, and Jane Doe) by attempting to play Irish music on the fiddle and concertina. If you like, you can send Magpie an email! WHO LINKS TO MAGPIE? Ask Technorati. Or ask WhoLinksToMe. ![]()
![]() This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. |
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
Feds using FISA warrants to go after common criminals.
Journalist John McKinnon has a disturbing story in today's Wall Street Journal about how prosecutors are using FISA warrants to gather information to use against people accused of 'normal' crimes, not of terrorism. McKinnon's story centers on the case against Samih Jammal, a grocery wholesaler in Tempe, Arizona who was suspected of helping to steal baby formula from Wal-Mart. Local authorities had been tracking Jamal's activities before 9/11 without luck, but that changed after the investigation was truned over to a local/federal joint task force: Phoenix police, in a written report later provided to Mr. Jammal as part of his prosecution, said they had "confirmed" that he "had significant connections to terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda." At some point after that -- prosecutors won't say precisely when -- authorities got a warrant to tap Mr. Jammal's phone and bug his office. So, in a manner similar to how prosecutors started using the RICO law to go after almost anyone except people involved in organized crime, they're now using FISA as a method to trawl for evidence against people suspected of 'normal' crimes that would not be obtainable through normal channels. What I find particularly disturbing about this story its context within the larger controversy over the use of FISA warrants by Dubya's administration. In terror cases, the prez has shown no patience for following even the highly relaxed standards of probable cause required for issuance of a FISA warrant. That impatience has obviously spilled over into the more day-to-day prosecutions by the Justice Department, and put average US residents in danger of being the target of government 'fishing expeditions' armed with FISA warrants. That's not something that should be tolerated in what's supposed to be a free country. Note: This article is behind the WSJ's pay firewall, but you can most likely access it via your library's newspaper database. We used ProQuest, where a search on 'FISA' brought the McKinnon article up at the top of the list. Via USA Watch. | | Posted by Magpie at 12:46 PM | Get permalink |
![]() NEWS HEADLINES Mail & Guardian [S. Africa] NEWS LINKS BBC News CBC News Agence France Presse Reuters Associated Press Aljazeera Inter Press Service Watching America International Herald Tribune Guardian (UK) Independent (UK) USA Today NY Times (US) Washington Post (US) McClatchy Washington Bureau (US) Boston Globe (US) LA Times (US) Globe & Mail (Canada) Toronto Star (Canada) Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) AllAfrica.com Mail & Guardian (South Africa) Al-Ahram (Egypt) Daily Star (Lebanon) Haaretz (Israel) Hindustan Times (India) Japan Times (Japan) Asia Times (Hong Kong) EurasiaNet New Scientist News Paper Chase OpenCongress COMMENT & ANALYSIS Molly Ivins CJR Daily Women's eNews Raw Story The Gadflyer Working for Change Common Dreams AlterNet Truthdig Truthout Salon Democracy Now! American Microphone rabble The Revealer Current Editor & Publisher Economic Policy Institute Center for American Progress The Memory Hole ![]() IRISH MUSIC Céilí House (RTE Radio) TheSession.org The Irish Fiddle Fiddler Magazine Concertina.net Concertina Library A Guide to the Irish Flute Chiff & Fipple Irtrad-l Archives Ceolas Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann BBC Virtual Session JC's ABC Tune Finder SHINY THINGS alt.portland Propaganda Remix Project Ask a Ninja grow-a-brain Boiling Point Bruno Cat and Girl Dykes to Watch Out For Library of Congress American Heritage Dictionary Dictonary of Newfoundland English American's Guide to Canada Digital History of the San Fernando Valley MetaFilter Blithe House Quarterly Astronomy Pic of the Day Earth Science Picture of the Day Asia Grace Gaelic Curse Engine Old Dinosaur Books ARCHIVES |