Tuesday Reads: Larry Klayman v. NSA; CBS’ 60 Minutes v. Truth; and Police v. Foreign Diplomats
Posted: December 17, 2013 Filed under: abortion rights, birth control, Foreign Affairs, India, Media, morning reads, NSA, National Security Agency, Patriot Act, Reproductive Rights, U.S. Politics | Tags: Austrian consul, Benghazi, CBS' 60 Minutes, Devyani Khobragade, diplomatic immunity, FISA court, Freedom Watch, Indian embassy NYC, Judge Richard Leon, Judicial Watch, LA Sheriff's Office, Lara Logan, Larry Klayman, NYPD, right to privacy, winter weather 79 Comments
Out of Town News, Harvard Square, 1957
Good Morning!!
Our weird winter weather is continuing. This morning’s temperature outside my house is zero degrees! And we’re expecting five more inches of snow this afternoon, most of it during the afternoon rush hour. I guess all I can do is grin and bear it.
Now let’s see what’s happening in the news today.
Lots of people are excited about the ruling yesterday by US District Court Judge Richard Leon that NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records is “likely unconstitutional,” but the decision is on hold pending appeal by the Feds and as Reuters notes this morning, SCOTUS is probably going to have the final say on what happens to NSA surveillance programs following revelations from the massive trove of data stolen by Edward Snowden and passed to Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras.
“This is the opening salvo in a very long story, but it’s important symbolically in dispelling the invincibility of the metadata program,” said Stephen Vladeck, a national security law expert at the American University law school.
Vladeck said 15 judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court have examined Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, the provision of law under which the data collection takes place, without finding constitutional problems. “There’s a disconnect between the 15 judges on the FISA court who seem to think it’s a no-brainer that Section 215 is constitutional, and Judge Leon, who seems to think otherwise.”
Vladeck said there is a long road of court tests ahead for both sides in this dispute and said a higher court ultimately could avoid ruling on the big constitutional issue identified by Leon. “There are five or six different issues in these cases,” Vladeck said.
Robert F. Turner, a professor at the University of Virginia’s Center for National Security Law, predicted Leon’s decision was highly likely to be reversed on appeal. He said the collection of telephone metadata — the issue in Monday’s ruling — already has been addressed and resolved by the Supreme Court.
Maybe the solution would be to repeal the Patriot Act? Anyway, I think it’s important to note that this lawsuit was brought by Larry Klayman, a certified right wing nut who used to head Judicial Watch and now runs something called Freedom Watch.
Here’s a little background on Klayman from The New York Times:
In the 1990s, he filed numerous lawsuits against President Bill Clinton and his administration, alleging a litany of personal and professional transgressions. Mr. Klayman later nettled Vice President Dick Cheney over his secret energy policy meetings and claimed that members of George W. Bush’s administration might have known in advance of the 2001 anthrax attacks in Washington.
More recently, Mr. Klayman, who has been called “Litigious Larry,” sued OPEC, accusing oil-rich nations of price fixing and of trying to “bring Western economies to their knees.” And he sued Facebook and its founder for $1 billion when, he said, it was too slow to take down a web page that threatened Jews with death.
The guy is a weirdo, so I have to wonder what it was that convinced a conservative Bush-appointed judge like Leon. And will ne be able to convince our right wing Supreme Court? I’d love to see NSA reined in, but I have serious doubts as to whether it will happen.
More on Klayman:
Mr. Klayman is a fixture of sorts in Washington. He founded, and then parted ways, with the conservative interest group Judicial Watch, which continues litigating grievances despite Mr. Klayman’s bitter departure. (He sued Judicial Watch, too, accusing it of breach of contract and other offenses.) His 2009 book is titled “Whores: Why and How I Came to Fight the Establishment.”
Mr. Klayman has not spared the current Democratic administration. At a Tea Party rally in October, he urged conservatives “to demand that this president leave town, to get up, to put the Quran down, to get up off his knees, and to figuratively come out with his hands up.”
Last year, Mr. Klayman filed a lawsuit in Florida arguing that Barack Obama was ineligible to be president because “neither Mr. Obama, nor the Democratic Party of Florida, nor any other group has confirmed that Mr. Obama is a ‘natural born citizen’ since his father was a British subject born in Kenya and not a citizen of the United States.”
A little more on the case from Politico:
On June 6, just a day after the Guardian report [on Edward Snowden’s revelations about NSA phone data collection], Klayman filed suit in Washington on his own behalf and on behalf of two clients — Charles and Mary Ann Strange, parents of a Navy SEAL killed in a disastrous helicopter crash in Afghanistan in 2011….
Klayman said he and Charles Strange were being targeted by the government because of their claims relating to Strange’s son’s death, which include a complaint that a Muslim imam cursed the dead SEAL team members during a ceremony at Dover Air Force Base.
“My colleagues have received text messages I never sent,” Klayman told the judge. “I think they’re messing with me,” he said, referring to the government.
Klayman implored the judge to rule against the NSA program not only on legal grounds but in order to avert what the conservative gadfly said was a violent revolution on the verge of breaking out due to the federal governments [sic] unbridled use of power.
“We live in an Orwellian state,” Klayman said, warning that citizens angry about surveillance were about to “rise up.”
If litigation fails, “the only alternative is for people to take matters into their own hands,” he told Leon.
I wonder what parts of these arguments convinced Judge Leon?
Despite the weirdness, Charles Pierce is cheering Leon’s decision:
No matter what you think of Snowden, or Glenn Greenwald, and no matter what you think of what they did, this ruling does not happen if the NSA doesn’t let a contractor walk out of the joint with the family jewels on a flash drive. This ruling does not happen if we do not know what we now know, and we don’t know any of that unless Snowden gathers the data and leaks it to the Guardian. This entire country was founded after a revolution that was touched off to a great extent by the concept of individual privacy. I can forsee it becoming common practice, to use the best VPN service available to protect ourselves and our famillies.
Read all about it at the Esquire link.
I know it’s difficult for some males to understand this, but if Americans do have a right to privacy, then American women should also have that right in making decisions about what happens to their bodies–they should be able to choose whether or not and/or when to have a child. Therefore, they should have access to birth control and abortion without the interference of the state. If women–who represent more than 1/2 of the U.S. population–can’t have privacy; then there is a very big disconnect in the law that needs to be clarified. Are women people? Are they citizens? Griswald and Roe were also decided on the basis of privacy.
After their fluff piece on NSA on Sunday, CBS’ 60 Minutes announced yesterday that Lara Logan, who was “suspended” after she hosted an utterly false report on the Benghazi attacks, will be returning to the program next year. Politico’s Dylan Byers:
Logan and McClellan took leave following public pressure over an Oct. 27 report in which security contractor Dylan Davies claimed to have been present and active at the Sept. 11 raid on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi. Reports later indicated that Davies had told both his contractor and the FBI that he was not present at the compound on the night of the attack. Logan later apologized and “60 Minutes” retracted the story.
Despite public criticism and internal frustrations among some members of the “60 Minutes” team, CBS News chairman and “60 Minutes” executive producer Jeff Fager decided to stand by Logan. Earlier this month, he held a meeting with CBS News staff in which he defended the 42-year-old journalist, saying that as EP he was ultimately responsible for failing to catch the mistake.
As an antidote, I recommend reading TBogg’s take on this decision at Raw Story: Lara Logan is tan, rested and ready to come back and be kind of bad at her job again.
Last week, it was revealed that LA Sheriff’s Office deputies who have been indicted by a Grand Jury had illegally arrested and “roughed up” two foreign diplomats in 2011. From the LA Times:
An Austrian consulate official was improperly arrested and searched by L.A. County sheriff’s deputies at the Men’s Central Jail, according to four indictments filed against 18 department officials.
The incident occurred in 2011 when the official and her husband were visiting an inmate who was an Austrian national….
The Austrian consul’s husband was arrested outside the jail because he had walked near the doors going into the visiting center, according to one of the indictments unsealed Monday.
When the consul requested to speak to a supervisor about her husband’s arrest, she too was placed in handcuffs and arrested, even though she had committed no crime and would have been immune from prosecution, the indictment said.
The couple were taken to a deputy break room and searched, the indictment said.
Read more details at the link. And from Firedoglake, Peter Van Buren explains why this is so outrageous:
One of the primary jobs for any embassy or consulate abroad is the welfare of its citizens. Indeed, many of the first diplomatic outposts abroad were set up to protect sailors and merchants. This work typically includes visiting one’s citizens in foreign jails, a task young diplomats around the world conduct. As a State Department foreign service officer myself for 24 years, I must have done this hundreds of times. But no matter how many times I did it, it was always an unsettling feeling to walk into a jail, go through security into a cell or holding room, and then walk back out.
Getting out, and being treated properly inside, was however more than an act of faith on my part. Diplomats abroad are protected people; under both formal treaties and long-established traditions (“diplomatic immunity”), a country should not mess around with another’s diplomats. Take a look at Iran– over thirty years since the kidnapping of American diplomats in Tehran, our two countries still are a long, long way from reestablishing relations.
I once safely visited in an underground facility of an Asian country’s secret police an American Citizen who likely had been tortured. The system generally works everywhere, from first world countries to crappy police states in the developing world. However, one rough area where it does not work is in Los Angeles.
Please read the rest if you can.
Today we learn that the NYPD also abused a foreign diplomat. The woman, a deputy consul general at the Indian embassy in NYC was arrested and handcuffed on the street and then subjected to a strip search at police headquarters. From The Guardian:
Bulldozers have removed security barriers outside the US embassy in Delhi as a diplomatic row prompted by the arrest of an Indian diplomat on visa fraud charges in New York intensified.
Devyani Khobragade, India‘s deputy consul general in New York, was charged last week with making false statements on an application for her housekeeper to live and work in the United States.
India’s national security adviser on Tuesday called the treatment of Khobragade “despicable and barbaric” and the country’s foreign secretary summoned the US ambassador. Politicians – including Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and vice chairman of the ruling Congress party, and Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate of the Hindu nationalist opposition BJP – refused to meet a visiting US congressional delegation.
The removal of the barriers was one of a slew of retaliatory actions taken by the Indian government as outrage at the arrest grew, including the withdrawal of import clearances and special airport passes. The incident has become a major story in India, dominating TV bulletins.
The false statements were that Khobragade had agreed to pay the housekeeper the New York minimum wage ($9.25), but had agreed privately with the woman that her actual salary would be only 1/3 that amount.
Furious with the US for the arrest and alleged strip search of its high-ranking diplomat Devyani Khobragade, India today retaliated with a slew of measures to pare down the privileges of American diplomats. (10 latest developments)
US diplomats in consulates across India have been asked to surrender identity cards issued to them and their families, which entitle them to special privileges. India has also withdrawn all airport passes for consulates and import clearances for the embassy.
The Delhi police removed barricades outside the sprawling US embassy in the capital.
Ms Khobragade was subjected to a humiliating strip search and was kept in a cell with drug addicts after her arrest for alleged visa fraud in New York last week. (Read) Noel Clay, a spokesperson for the US State Department, told NDTV that standard procedures had been followed during Ms Khobragade’s arrest.
The US has implied that she enjoyed only limited immunity.
As part of its reciprocal measures, India is asking for details like salaries paid to Indian staff employed in US consulates, including those working as domestic helps with the families of American officials.
It seems that, between the NSA revelations and the increasing use of police state tactics by law enforcement, the US is managing to alienate much of the rest of all the world.
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On the 1-10 weird spectrum, with 10 being freaky-scary-weird, Klayman is a 10
Fresh Air interview of Peter O’Toole by Terri Gross from 1993. It was replayed yesterday.
610110/the-camels-were-impossible-peter-otoole-remembers-arabia?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=DailyDigest&utm_campaign=20131217
Politico breaking news:
The Senate voted 67-33 to advance the budget deal crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). Final passage is virtually guaranteed now and a vote is slated for no later than Wednesday.
The House passed the measure last week and President Barack Obama has indicated he will sign it into law.
For more information… http://www.politico.com
Sure wish they could have added the Unemployment Insurance extension into the bill before it passed the Senate. I’m not surprised though. The extension of the UI benefits has been a point of contention every year since Obama’s first December in office.
I just feel so badly for the people who need these benefits to survive. I recently read that there are 3 applicants for every job opening. I think that is likely a low number. I also read that the group who is having the most trouble finding jobs are the over 50 year old workers. Many of the 50+ workers have been forced to re-skill and are still unable to land a job. The theory that is being advanced is that the GOP wants to end UI or return it to a 26 week program so that they can flood the job market with cheap, desperate laborers. DUH!!!! Those hard hearted ass-wipes. Where the fuck is Karma when you need it?
They have hearts of stone.
Was listening to NPR tonight about the bill passage, and the reporter talked about how “modest” it was, and explained they put off the tough questions, such as “how to cut Medicare and Social Security.” Did she say “if” there should be cuts? No, she said “how to cut…” I nearly deafened myself in the car when I yelled “No!” at the radio.
Damn it hurts when the journalist have all bought into the R-wingnuttery lies.
With Pete Peterson spending hundreds of millions of dollars for the last three decades to push that lousy wingnuttery on the country, I’m just amazed the general public isn’t sold on the idea.
It just goes to show that, overall, the general public is not as stupid as the politicians think.
BB, that is one of the few encouraging things I have heard lately!
Good morning……looks like another storm is coming your way BB. We are gonna get it this weekend. Great links to read to morning. We are in total agreement about males not understanding our privacy rights. I can’t help but feel they want us to be silent about this, otherwise we’d be taking away some of their “powers”, you know what I mean. We haven’t gained nothing in that deparment, as a matter of fact we are going back. So thank you for keeping our voices loud, and comparing both these issues. Hooie on the men who allow for the continual fractures in the treatment of women’s privacy rights.
Reading about Big Sur, California……….a wildfire started yesterday, and many homes have been destroyed, even the Police Chief, Martha Karstens, lost her home. It’s really dry there, and the winds picked up.
http://usat.ly/1bMoaAc
OMG, you scared the hell out of me about the winter storm. I went right to the nat’l weather svc website to see if it was coming to Virginia. If I have to undergo another weekend of pain I might go crazy. Winter storms are miserable for arthritis sufferers. Low barometric pressure combined with extreme cold is torture.
I know the pain you’re talking about. When it’s cold I need a heating pad to calm down my aches & pains. I don’t know how you folks who live in the states where the winters are so cold and snowy for such long periods of time deal with it. I want to move to southern Florida to escape the brief cold and snowy spells we have here.
I’ll be keeping y’all in my good thoughts.
🙂 Thank you! From all of the info I have read about the best climate for arthritis sufferers I think Florida is not the best place because of the humidity. Warm and dry, as in the southwest corner of the U.S. is best. Cool and dry works for me too, but the humidity in this area is about to do me in.
Warm & dry sounds good, but I’m just dreaming. I’m at that point in life where dreaming is about the most I can afford. 🙂
I am sorry didn’t mean to scare you……….it’s winter, and I too suffer arthritis, and am not able to get out and do my walking because of it.
We are already having a winter storm today. Are you saying there’s another one coming?! Holy Hannah!
I went out to get my hair cut and make a quick stop at the grocery store, and I’m very lucky I made it home. There’s ice everywhere. I live on a narrow road on a steep hill, and when I came down the hill, I found that some idiot had parked his/her car sticking out into the street across from another car. There was no way I could get through without hitting one of them. So I had to turn around, slipping and sliding, go down another steep road and try to drive up the hill to my house. I didn’t make it, so I had to go around in a big circle and come back down my hill again. I made up my mind if that car was still there I’d call the police.
I’m so glad to be inside again!
Glad you made it. Stay inside and warm!
Thanks!
Yes, stay inside where it’s safe. A fall on the ice is not very forgiving for anyone but particularly us older folks. I have the scars to prove how unforgiving the ice can be.
I have arthritis too. My fingers ache a lot in this damp weather. I hope you and Janice will both be OK!!
I think the US just excels at pissing off the rest of the world and a whole group of nutters is proud of that.
The “police state” tactics are a worse problem than NSA spying to me. One is at least somewhat removed while the cops use of para-military tactics while in a roid rage gets in a lot more people’s face in a much more personal and disastrous way.
I agree.
Looks like Snowden doesn’t like his current baby sitters. He’s trying to get the Brazilians to take him in … guess he wants to hang out with Greenwald and friends or get his share of the $$.
http://rt.com/news/nsa-snowden-brazil-asylum-370/
I’ll bet if Snowden gets to Rio, he has to sue Greenwald and friends to get a single dollar for his efforts.
Greenwald says those reports are wildly incorrect, or something like that.
Haven’t heard/read the name Larry Klayman in awhile. He is the definition of “tool”.
Ho Ho Ho
http://aattp.org/woman-displays-her-christianity-by-assaulting-salvation-army-bell-ringer-who-said-happy-holidays/
Another casualty in the War on Christmas. Will the horror never end?
You know, this has all become nuts. I’ve done a little holiday shopping and I don’t know what I’m supposed to say. If you say Merry Christmas, which I normally do because I grew up saying Merry Christmas during the holidays, some people say it back and others look at me as if I were a right wing nut job and don’t even respond. On the other hand, times when I decided to say “Happy Holidays” because I was with my daughter and that’s what she says, some people don’t respond to that!
So thank you, religio-fascists, for fucking up another nice little tradition involving greeting people during the holiday season. I guess we have to come up with a “Festivus Pole” version of holiday greetings because the corporatists have succeeded in pitting us against each other once again.
So far, I haven’t encountered anyone saying either one. I didn’t hear it last year either. I don’t go into many stores at this time of year, but I went to the hair salon and the grocery store today. No one said either words. The only problem I have is the Salvation Army ringers. I refuse to give money to an organization that only helps people who are willing to pretend to believe in god.
Sure, they’re crazy too. But the Salvation Army helped my Aunt Connie when she was indigent in the very early 1950’s after she divorced her cheating husband. She was unemployed, with 3 children under the age of 5. As a lifelong Catholic, she first turned to Catholic Charities for help but they refused tao help her because she was living in sin as a divorced woman with young children. Only the Salvation Army would help her.
Connie and her 3 boys lived in the upstairs flat of our home in the Buffalo, NY area. I remember being a young child and my mom telling the Catholic Charities guy who came to the door looking for donations, that she was not interested in contributing. Then my mom would close the door and we would cluster up against the door to hear when the man went upstairs to ask Connie for a donation. The words were not clearly audible but I distinctly remember hearing the sound and feeling the whole house shake when Connie slammed the door after she told off the man from Catholic Charities. We would quietly listen and hear the slam and then my mom would smile and the fun was over. We all had a lot of fun saying “Fuck You” to Catholic Charities after the way they treated my desperate, helpless, Aunt Connie. I swear, if I had had a second daughter, I would have named her Connie. She was awesome.
Sorry for being disjointed but I always give a little to the Salvation Army in honor of Connie. I love you Connie. R.I.P.
I totally understand. I know they do a lot of good.
Separation of lunch and state?
Atheist Group’s ‘Flying Spaghetti Monster’ Displayed In Wisconsin Capitol
ROFLOL!
Well! That was right christian of her, eh?
Go get ’em, Frank!
tpm: Francis Makes His Move
Holy Ghost!!!! Perhaps Frank means what he says and says what he means and is willing to take names and kick ass.
Wouldn’t that be a nice surprise! 🙂
Wow! I think you have convinced me this Pope is the real thing. I hope he doesn’t get assassinated like Pope John Paul I.
Your More Than Occasional Pope
Charles Pierce does it really well!
Pierce is right about this pope. His actions don’t seem to be cosmetic. He’s already stirred up more attention and controversy through word and deed than any pope in my lifetime except for John Paul XXIII. He seems to be on the fast track to reform. And hell yeah, he’ll get a lot of push back from the keepers of the keys because they will lose control and control means prestige and power, and power means money, and this pope is not a big fan of the money hoarders.
Sorry. I meant John XXIII. The Vatican II pope
He was a good one.
I bet the right wing is going to howl about that!! Here’s more about Burke: http://www.jsonline.com/news/religion/pope-francis-removes-former-la-crosse-bishop-raymond-burke-b99165146z1-236134851.html
The one who should be removed is Cardinal Dolan.
Maybe Dolan is a bit scared. He did a TV interview a week or so ago and he was sort of downplaying this Pope’s messaging about money and the problems with capitalism and Dolan seemed to be trying to take the middle ground on what this Pope’s initial messaging concerning abortion, contraception, gays and wealth is really all about. I’m sure there is a lot of pressure on him by the purists to stay the course. I thought the interview was a bit funny because before the interview ended Dolan made a point of saying that “he voted for” this Pope. I thought that how the individual Cardinals voted was suppose to remain a secret, but apparently Dolan wanted the Pope to know he voted for him. From what little I know of Dolan he’s been a very conservative Cardinal so he may need more than those rosy cheeks of his to stay on the good side of this Pope. 🙂
Very interesting. He’s the head of the Catholic Bishops too.
He better watch his step, especially when he gives TV & print interviews, otherwise he may be on the fast track to retirement. This pope has not an iota of tolerance for the Cardinals & Bishops who are living the catholic church version of the High life. He already relieved a German Bishop for his extravagant lifestyle and he did that within a couple months of his election.
I hope the good liberal nuns, sisters and priests I know who’ve been able to weather the storm and remain with the church, are finally able to do the work they joined up to do. They’ve been on the bottom of the church totem-pole since the revolution that was Vatican II lost to the Ultra Conservative branch (otherwise known as the branch that caters to the wealthy) of the RCC.
As for the assassinated Pope, Do you think we’ll ever know the truth of that?
Today’s is the Pope’s birthday………77 yrs old.
Wow! I guess I never realized that you could fire a Cardinal. Cool. It’s not going to get me to church anytime soon, but it’s a refreshing sign of the times.
How can they catapult the propaganda if people aren’t watching? 😉
Issa To Texas Health Official: ‘You Need To Watch More Fox News’
Apparently the Founding Fathers didn’t care that much about searches by law enforcement. The only things they thought the fourth amendment protected was homes, saddlebags, and carriages.
That makes sense considering the times.
http://www.policestateusa.com/2013/david-perdue/
“No matter how cynical you become, it’s never enough to keep up.” – Lily Tomlin
Hadn’t heard that one before. Damn, I’ll sure be using that a lot in the future.
Fron Lily’s partner…
“Instead of working for the survival of the fittest, we should be working for the survival of the wittiest — then we can all die laughing.” — Jane Wagner
JJ may like this story ,,,
Ethics investigation against Georgia governor reportedly turns into criminal probe
Sounds interesting…
I hate to keep complaining about the weather, but I just found out we are getting up to 8 more inches of snow tonight.
Worst of all . . . Jim Cantore is in Boston!! According to Dakinikat, that is the kiss of death.
Really sorry to hear that. It’s been gorgeous here and is supposed to be all week, I think we have another front coming through Sunday or so. Cantore does always seem to be in the heart of weather messes. Good Luck!!!
I’m glad to hear your weather has been good.
I’m sorry. That sucks. I hope we can keep you entertained because you are not going anywhere for the next day or so. Don’t shovel. Stay safe.
Student Charged For Bomb Threats At Harvard
Apparently the NSA (or someone) smoked him out anyway. Was it really worth it just to put off taking an exam?
I am glad anonymous email is not so anonymous. If you send it, you should own it.
I think this guy is going to flunk it.
Janet Napolitano is leading the delegation,
That is so cool. I really have to hand it to Obama on this one!
I love it.
He definitely made a strong statement. Good for him!
Woohoo!
Schindler managed to get Klayman’s nuttiness into the discussion as well as Snowden’s selfish agenda. I was surprised that O’Donnell emphasized what bothers me so much–that there are much more important civil rights and human rights issues than NSA spying.
I thought it was very good and Schindler did great.