Tag Archives | George W. Bush

N.Y. Times Snares Secret FISA Court Decrees – Fresh Hell for NSA and Obama

The New York Times published a long article today on secret rulings by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The article describes the FISA court as “almost a parallel Supreme Court” which has cast aside traditional understandings of privacy and the Fourth Amendment. Reading between the lines, it is clear that NYT has the actual decisions…. […]

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Wash. Times: Transportation Security Does Not Include Freedom to Molest

  Washington Times, June 20, 2013 BOVARD: Transportation security doesn’t include the freedom to molest Passengers aren’t feeling it for TSA’s invasive scanners The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) treats American travelers like cattle being chuted to a civil liberties slaughterhouse. Thanks to a federal appeals court, citizens have a golden opportunity to tell the agency […]

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Federal Surveillance’s Threat to Security (2004)

My piece from the Foundation for Economic Education‘s Freeman, January 2004  “The more information government gathers on people, the more power it will have over them. The more power it has to monitor their peaceful activities, the more intimidated Americans will become.”  Federal Surveillance: The Threat to Americans’ Security More Information Equals More Power JANUARY […]

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My 2006 Book Review on Warrantless Wiretapping Scandal

Here’s my 2006 review of the James Risen book that ignited the first uproar about the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping. I noted: James Risen’s revelations on pervasive National Security Agency warrantless spying on Americans shred the final pretenses to legality of the Bush administration. Now the debate is simply whether, as Bush and his supporters […]

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My 2006 FFF Articles on Surveillance Insanity

From the Future of Freedom Foundation website – BUSH’S WIRETAP CRIMES AND THE FISA FARCE by James Bovard March 1, 2006 President Bush proudly announced last December that he is violating federal law. He declared that in 2002 he had ordered the National Security Agency to begin conducting warrantless wiretaps and email intercepts on Americans. […]

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My 2003 piece: Surveillance State – from American Conservative

Here’s a 2003 piece from the American Conservative on out-of-control government surveillance. This was the first piece I wrote for them (the magazine was launched the previous Fall).  The editing process went more smoothly with subsequent pieces I wrote for them. 🙂 My original final paragraph: Three months after 9/11, Ashcroft announced: “To those who […]

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Latest Wiretap Scandal Part of Long Pattern

So Verizon has been ordered to deliver to the feds the calling records of all its customers.   Appalling but not surprising. Here’s a 2006 piece I wrote on the burgeoning wiretapping scandals for American Conservative.  Here’s a few highlights: * The latest revelations are simply one in a series of revelations of the feds […]

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