Federal Judge Finds N.S.A. Wiretaps Were Illegal

Federal Judge Finds N.S.A. Wiretaps Were Illegal

Am I reading this wrong??? A Federal Judge seriously is going against the Obama administration?! WOW!

WASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the National Security Agency’s program of surveillance without warrants was illegal, rejecting the Obama administration’s effort to keep shrouded in secrecy one of the most disputed counterterrorism policies of former President George W. Bush.

Read the full article here

Not only is this awesome but check this out (from the article):

In a 45-page opinion, Judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled that the government had violated a 1978 federal statute requiring court approval for domestic surveillance when it intercepted phone calls of Al Haramain, a now-defunct Islamic charity in Oregon, and of two lawyers representing it in 2004. Declaring that the plaintiffs had been “subjected to unlawful surveillance,” the judge said the government was liable to pay them damages.

I know it says OPINION but still, Judge Walker is saying that the federal govt. should pay for damages done to the plaintiff because of their unlawful surveillance. That is just amazing, I hope more judges act on things like this!

It would be even better if this actually passed - as in the guy who was illegally spied on gets paid and the government officials involved in the case (including those who created it in the first place) are taken down! I hope this sparks something, it was in the NY Times by the way so a lot of people more than likely saw this.

Maybe now more than ever people will start to realize the Patriot Act had nothing to do with being "a patriot." And yes, before someone tries to correct me, I know that this article is talking about the government violating a statute from 1978 but it still goes alongside with the Patriot Act which takes away our rights and freedoms (which is exactly what happened in this instance).

[edit on 1/4/2010 by highlyoriginal]

Im not for sure but I think there
is already a thread for this.

reply to post by boondock-saint


I searched and found nothing... and if you can't come up with a link, why did you bother posting that "you think there is another thread" on this already? Not trying to be rude, but if you think there is a thread about it and would like to tell me that, why not dig up the link and show it so I can leave this thread alone?

Not that it matters though, from what I know to be from the T&C there can be two threads of the same topic as long as they're in different forums - at least that has been confirmed by a mod before to me so...

I don't even care though just was trying to share a decent story with you all. Forgive me if this is a repost.

cuz I was busy at the time
and didnt have time
this just caught my eye
sorry

This is good news but wiretapping proponents within our government's recon facets just say illegal schmillegal. My guess is their surveillance infrastructure is so advanced there's no way they're up and walking away from it.

Good for that judge.

That whole Patriot Act needs to go away.

I am very excited to see this sort of judgement come down. I'm hoping that this will be the beginning of the end for the Patriot Act and FISA.