Spying on U.S Citizens — Uncle Sam turns his multi-billion dollar espionage network on U.S Citizens

Spying on U.S Citizens — Uncle Sam turns his multi-billion dollar espionage network on U.S Citizens
Posted by Alexander Higgins – May 7, 2011 at 8:20 am – Permalink – Source via Alexander Higgins Blog
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Spying on U.S Citizens — Uncle Sam turns his multi-billion dollar espionage network on U.S Citizens. Massive spike in domestic spy operations, Over 12,000 “special ops” personnel deployed daily, 100′s of Thousands of secret surveillance requests rubber stamped by crooked judges, secret illegal spy operations conducted in over 75 countries and over $11 billion spent annually to cover it all up. And this is only the tip of the iceberg that the feds were willing to declassify through various Freedom of Information Request. Much more still remains classified in the interest of National Security.

Spying On US Citizens – Uncle Sam Turns His Espionage Network On US Citizens And Pays 11 Billion A Year To Cover It Up Spying On US Citizens

A series of previously classified documents obtained by The Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy reveals that spy operation against U.S citizens here in the homeland have spiked massively over the last year and so has the government’s cost to cover up their plethora of illegal activities.

But first a little background to explain how America has arrived to this point in the first place.

The Executive Branch of the US Government has found a loophole in the legal system that has effectively abolished the constitution by allowing our entire bill of rights to be suspended at will. This probably best explains it.

Understanding Enemy Combatant Status and the Military Commissions Act, Part I. Enemy Combatant Status: No More Pernicious Doctrine
[...]

The Hamdi Decision: A Defeat and Deadly Precedent

The 2004 Supreme Court decision in the case of Yasir Hamdi has been touted by many, including the ACLU, human rights organizations, and the mainstream press, as a victory for civil rights, the Constitution, and the rule of law. It is nothing of the sort. While the Hamdi majority paid lip service to limits on the executive in time of war and to “due process,” it joined Bush as a willing accomplice in his current attempt to murder the Bill of Rights.

Apologists for the Court point out that Bush did not get all that he wanted. That is true. Bush wanted absolute and plenary power to designate anyone, citizen or not, an “enemy combatant” and do as he pleased with them – detaining, interrogating, even torturing and executing them if he saw fit – with no judicial interference at all. Instead, the Court insisted that there be some manner of a deferential administrative hearing before Bush got to do as he wished. That is the only difference of any substance.

Rather than insisting that Hamdi, a U.S. citizen, receive all of the protections of the accused which are his due under the Bill of Rights, the Court breathed new life and legitimacy into this destructive doctrine that had lain around unused and nearly forgotten, like a dusty, but still dangerous “loaded weapon,” since the World War II Ex Parte Quirin decision (1942). The Hamdi Court, citing Quirin, stated unequivocally that “[t]here is no bar to this Nation’s holding one of its own citizens as an enemy combatant.” According to the majority on the Court, the mere labeling of a person as an “enemy combatant” removes the shield of the Bill of Rights and replaces it with a new judge-created system of minimal administrative process to “challenge” that designation.

Under this system, the accused will have none of the procedural protections of our Bill of Rights: No Grand Jury indictment; no trial by jury with its requirement of a unanimous verdict of twelve of one’s peers; no possibility of an unreviewable acquittal and immunity from further prosecution; and no protection against compelled self incrimination. The presumption of innocence is gone, as is the requirement of a showing of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Instead, the government will enjoy a presumption that its allegations are accurate. The accused will have the burden of proving his innocence, but will have no right to compulsory process of witnesses and no right to confront the secret evidence and witnesses against him.

At most, according to the Hamdi majority, “a citizen held in the United States as an enemy combatant [will] be given a meaningful opportunity to contest the factual basis for that detention before a neutral decision maker” and access to counsel to assist (as best they can) in that hearing. The Court made clear that the definition of “a meaningful opportunity” will have to be fleshed out by subsequent courts, and a military tribunal may qualify as a “neutral decision maker” for that minimal, administrative hearing to determine status. And this is touted as a victory.

How did we get here? As war is the greatest engine of tyranny known to man, it should come as no surprise that like many such usurpations before it, this doctrine of absolute power was born in the fires of war.

CONTINUE READING AT: http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2011/05/07/spying-citizens-uncle-sam-turns-multibillion-dollar-espionage-network-citizens-22358/