cannabisnews.com: ACLU Renews Calls for Congressional Hearings 





ACLU Renews Calls for Congressional Hearings 
Posted by FoM on February 27, 2000 at 11:12:34 PT
Into Secret Global Surveillance System
Source: ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union today renewed its call for Congressional hearings into the threat to the privacy and civil liberties of Americans from the global electronic communications surveillance system known as "ECHELON.""In light of the controversy engendered by this week's hearings before the European Parliament, Congress must move quickly to investigate to determine if ECHELON is as sweeping and intrusive as has been reported," said Gregory T. Nojeim, an ACLU Legislative Counsel.
The ACLU said that more than 13,000 constituent letters to Congress calling for oversight hearings have been sent from its special website dedicated to monitoring ECHELON -- http://www.echelonwatch.org -- which was launched in November 1999.Given this week's heightened public interest in ECHELON, the ACLU said it was ratcheting up the pressure on Congress, giving users of its website the ability to send copies of their letters directly to the chairman and ranking minority member of the House Committee on Government Reform, which has oversight authority to call hearings."We need Congressional hearings now more than ever to determine whether ECHELON is used by the government's intelligence community to conduct domestic electronic surveillance to circumvent protections Congress has established by law," Nojeim said.The television news program "60 Minutes" is airing a report on Echelon this Sunday, which, according to the CBS website will feature the story of a woman whose name and telephone number went into the ECHELON database "as a possible terrorist because she told a friend on the phone that her son had 'bombed' in a school play.""Congress has the authority and the responsibility to get to the bottom of this," said ACLU Associate Director Barry Steinhardt. "Only Congress can pierce the veil of secrecy of the puzzle palace."WashingtonRelease Date: February 25, 2000Copyright 2000, The American Civil Liberties UnionRelated Article & Web Site:Echelon Watchhttp://www.aclu.org/echelonwatch/index.htmlEx-Snoop Confirms Echelon Network:Global Network Monitors Phones And Email Former Agent Tells '60 Minutes' How It Works Network Sifts 'Good Guys' And Bad http://cbsnews.cbs.com/now/story/0,1597,164651-412,00.shtml ACLU Launches Web Site On Global Surveillance Sys. http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3727.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on February 27, 2000 at 22:58:43 PT
Your right!
Thanks CongressmanSuet,You're right that's what my name stands for but don't tell anybody! LOL! Just kidding! It was a good show and they conveniently kept saying it won't be a real problem as long as your aren't a bad guy. Not in those words but that's what they meant. Who is a bad guy? It's anyone that doesn't say yes sir, I'll do as you say sir, not as you do sir, and that's a bunch of bologney! Peace, FoM! 
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Comment #2 posted by CongressmanSuet on February 27, 2000 at 22:08:16 PT
Since first coming here....
  I have always enjoyed the articles and comments posted by concerned citizens[which is what we are actually], like alot of other readers, I have come to look forward to hitting this site on a daily basis. But I have to say, when readers take this a step further and post the date and/time of TV broadcasts[and radio NPR does some excellent work] that are relevant to the cause, they are doing a great service. In the past month alone, I have viewed the NORML conference in D.C., I have been alerted to the appearences of Donna Shalala and Barry McPinnochio on "Washington Review", and as such have acquired a taste for C-Span. And now, as much as I like "60 Minutes" I had a few personal things I wanted to do, but after getting this info. from Kap, I was redirected to watch the broadcast. Thanks guys, especially FoM[ which I always thought meant Friends of Marijuana} for doing such a great public service. And if you watched the broadcast, there really was an incredibly ironic moment when we were told that the hate-monger Strom Thurmond was an unknowing victim of this "Big Brother" technology.I for one would love to hear any calls he placed to any male escort services in the last 10 years.
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on February 27, 2000 at 12:15:04 PT
I hope you all watch this 60 minutes
Because it is more important than you might think.ECHELON has been around a long time. And it most certainly has been used to spy on US citizens. Every telephone call into and out of the US is monitored by it. (So if you've called a seed bank in another country, you can bet somebody has a tape of it.) It has the ability to track dynamically assigned IPs, which means if you placed an order to a seed bank, they can track you.Oh yes, Big Brother is alive and well, and living in a Cray computer at NSA. Time to poke him in the eye for being such a nosy b-----d.
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