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"In addition to suing AT&T, we've now opened a second front in the battle to stop the NSA's illegal surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans and hold personally responsible those who authorized or participated in the spying program," said Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. It is Heroes like the EFF that we should be looking up to as role models. Keep up the excellence!

I support our government and most importantly our troops.  But I applaud this lawsuit.  It's also a great example of the American way of life at it's best.  A private citizen can sue their government;  that probably won't be happening in Iran, China, N. Korea or most other countries.  If nothing else, this suit affirms the rights of private citizens and should be supported, perhaps, on those grounds alone.

Congress simply cannot be counted upon to "watchdog" the President and the many agencies under their mutual control.  However, they are accountable to the American public for their actions or, for making sure their actions are legal.  This lawsuit will do nothing to undermine their jobs but it will likely force a review that is LONG overdue.  Good job EFF.

Like the cop will always say to the bad guy:  "If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear".  Let's see how our government's leaders stand up to that advice.  We have nothing to lose and literally, everything to gain. 

I support the EFF's suit.

I'm English not American but do have a fondness for the USA. I have spent a considerable amount of time there and enjoyed all of it - although felt threatened when asking a Police Officer for directions!

However, the bottom line is quite simply, if it's illegal, it's illegal. The American constitution is not just important for Americans - it's important for the ENTIRE world. For setting both a standard as well as world security.

If the American government is (again) breaking the law they MUST be held accountable, you or I would be! America is in a very dangerous place of potentially losing a lot of respect from the 'outside' world for it's inhumane and bullying tactics which it imposes upon it's own people as well as other nations.

America, 'The land of the free'. Great irony.

Im sorry I cant spell,if it realy matters A$$ Ho*@!  But I do know what time it is and have for many years. we scard the  crap out of them in the 60s, The institutions that grab for more power every day, the rest of the government that stays!  No matter who wins the election. They learned to go slow, Now our youngsters are being traned up to conform and forget the power we inherited from the creator and was affermed by our new nation with the documents that lay out the direction that authority flows from! our birthright! the power is ours, the power of JUST-US and its our duty to mantain this power only letting it flow from US in a limited way to OUR GOVERNMENT so that we can better cooperate with each other acting as one nation. we still hold onto it and only renew that little lease of power every four years. this allows a instatution to be created and mantained so WE CAN deal with other powers,big and small in matters of trade,treties,moneys and of war or peace!! this may be a simple understanding of what time it is. but its the truth  and in keeping of the duty that was set upon US by our forefathers. we have let ourselfs be lulled into a position that we may not recover from! WE droped the ball. and now need to recover what has sliped away from US in any manor set aside for US to use, that would include  the final raw power of any jury of our peers! also we have the appsolute RIGHT to address the courts for redress and relief from a government that has overstepped the laws & limets that WE bind ourselfs together with! The Rule Of LAW that is for JUSTUS. its over due. act now! we may have only this small slice of time in history to reclaim what is OURS. Its the jueys duty to judge the law as well as the evidence and how that law may be implemented. ITs on Everyone to stand up  for our civile rights at every turn ! never even hint that you might want to allow the law to be over stepped......love this land and never forget thos befor us. WGP

Very well spoken Col. Thompson.
However your dissertation of the duties of the Government and its limitations of power before the people of this great nation have failed to impress me. And as a law abiding citizen of this country I have the right to chose wether I agree or not with the way the Government conducts its business when it comes to protect the land and its inhabitants.
Lets not forget that the Founding Fathers meant for our social order to a Republic and not an anarchy called "Democratic" party and its constituents such as we see today.
I have to side with Mr. Carl D Sedillo on this one. I think his essay is brilliant and to the point and just to reiterate the essence of it that this is in fact a holy war, I can prove with just a few words how high the level of debauchery that is rampant in today's ultra left wing society. Only seven years after we've being attacked by radical Muslims the DNC wants to elect a Muslim to presidency of the United States Of America. Woooowww... Don't jump out of your chairs just yet boys and girls. Barack Hussein Obama is a catholic? Bullshit. Just remember one thing kids; The son of a Muslim is an will always be a Muslim. Contrary to other religious faiths such as Judaism or Christians, Muslims DO NOT require baptism or Bar-Mitzvah. You are what you're born. It is automatic. Just as he said and I quote his own words "you can put lipstick on a pig... its still a pig". Moreover, with friends and associates such as the one he has kept all his life it won't be long before a new Ottoman empire begin flourish.
Don't' forget Colonel, our Four Father's also never envisioned that the level of treason perpetrated by the liberals in all sectors of our society, including members of all levels of government, Presidents included.
Without the new NSA surveillance directives groups like the Hamas and Hezbollah would still be raking millions from unsuspecting Americans thru its so called network of "foundations" to help the "underprivileged" in the Middle East. What a joke.
No wonder this country is going to shits. People spend too much time studying the Constitution and not enough time taking care of real business. Remember folks, until we rid the world of this evil justice will not be served.

 Thank you, Mike, for the article.
 
Also for the opportunity, once again, to see in plain site the level of ignorance that is so pervasive in this country - which, of course,  is the real and true threat to our democracy above all else. With the exception of, perhaps 3 to 5 reply posts here, the majority of the responses clearly show what is most dangerous to our national security, freedoms and liberties (as set forth and granted us within our Constitution and Bill of Rights)- is blind and misinformed ignorance, ... something the Founding Fathers feared and warned us of most of all.

The level of inanity, blitheness, disoriented and incorrigible disdain for what is, to most intelligent people, a clear and unambiguous issue clearly illustrates why our Founding Fathers feared such ignorance and warned us that this would ultimately be the greatest threat to democracy - substantially a far greater threat than any external enemy could ever be.
 
Sadly, this is evidence of a "House Divided Within Itself", and, as history has proven time and again such a house is destined to fall. This both saddens me and fills me with much dread to realize these are the neighbors in which I share this neighborhood (i.e., nation). In their time the fathers of this nation had good reason to worry, and understandably so,... after all, back then the majority of the citizens were uneducated in the extreme - very few even had a basic elementary level of education. But to see this same level of ignorance displayed today - where presumably most citizens have at least a rudimentary high school level of education - well,... I frankly believe our Founding Fathers would be as outright terrified as I am today. Not terrified of foreign enemies, imagined or real, but terrified of their own fellow citizens. In a social and political climate like this here today, ... who the hell needs foreign enemies? Ignorance is more of a certain death to our democracy than any other factor or force.
 
That being said,... I wanted to make some relevant points in response to this article (and, although probably fruitless and wasteful of time, in response to the readers and some of those who have previously posted their response here).
 
1. The purpose of lawsuits or court actions against a purported wrong is not merely or exclusively to enact punishments or financial remuneration,... it is about seeking JUSTICE and protection of rights and liberties that are meant to apply to, or benefit,  all citizens - yes, even for the ignorant or ill informed ones.
 
This particular lawsuit filed by the EEF is not about seeking money, it is about seeking justice and about protecting all of our civil rights - as granted us by the Bill of Rights. For those who may not know what the Bill of Rights is, it is that little - and apparently troublesome to many here - addendum document our founding fathers wisely attached to the U.S. Constitution. It is, in fact, the document that both enacts and gives power to our Constitution, it is the very heart of it. Without the Bill off Rights, and it's actual application in daily governance, democracy as we know it does not exist in this nation. Within that troublesome little document are provisions and mechanisms in which we, the citizens of this nation, have the means to hold our government accountable and of assuring our rights are both protected and enacted upon.
 
One such is the right to vote, but it is not the only means provided us by this document to hold our government accountable,... we also have the right to use the judicial system as a means of redress as well. The courts are not there merely to either punish or reward (monetarily speaking) the judicial branch of government also exists a a means of checks and balances against the possibility of abuse and tyranny by the other branches of government (legislative and administrative) as well. In fact, a careful study of the Constitution (which many here in this forum I would suspect have never done, if they have even ever read it once, let alone studied it) easily shows the primary purpose of the judicial branch is to PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF THE CITIZENRY AGAINST UNBRIDLED ABUSES OF POWER AND DENIAL OF OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES BY THE GOVERNMENT,..  not simply as a tool of punishment as so many in this country erroneously believe. The purpose of the lawsuit by the EFF is simply exercising this right on all our behalf and is properly using this means of recourse as granted by our Constitution to seek justice. It has nothing to do with money.
 
2. The U.S. Constitution also clearly specifies and determines that our military forces are to be answerable to and under the control of our CIVILIAN LEADERS, those folks elected by the citizens of this nation, first the President and Commander & Chief and then the U.S. Congress, not the other way around. There is good reason for that. With all due respect to many fine military leaders,
myself included among them, the fact is the military's prime focus and concern is warfare, in fighting wars in defense of our nation and not in representing the people of the nation in civil matters. Military leadership is trained in the arts of war and defense, not in representing the will of the people or managing a nation. Military leaders are assigned and promoted to their duties, they are not elected or chosen by popular vote of the people, so therefore are not intrinsically or inherently especially qualified or skilled at representing the needs and concerns of the citizenry. They are skilled at managing armies and conducting war,... very different things from successfully managing or administering a nations business or citizenry. Yes, some military leaders can, and have, done so, but by and large military training does not include managing the complexities and needs of a free citizenry.
 
Further, our founding fathers well understood, as history has proven time and again, that when the military is not under the control of the civilian populace and their elected representatives real democracy is non-existent, tyranny is almost always the end result instead. Anyone who has served in the military knows full well the structure and culture therein is not democratic, it is autocratic in nature, by necessity,... it is the very opposite of democracy. In a true democracy military leaders can not be allowed to control the nation or the nation's interests. Like it or not, and I know many former fellow officers who think they know better than our elected officials (and perhaps some may) who do not especially like it, for better or worse, it is those freely elected officials who make the decisions on our behalf in a democracy, as it should be.
 
3. The EFF is NOT A COMPANY, it is a FOUNDATION, a diverse composium of various interests, .. thousands and thousands of ordinary private citizens, companies, researchers, developers, educators, students and many others whose primary interest is in protecting and promoting the freedoms to open and free communication around the world in the electronic age,... just as the name suggests "ELECTRONIC FREEDOM FOUNDATION". It primarily consists of volunteers, most of which work donating their own time and effort with no financial incentives or compensations whatsoever. Their underlying goals and concerns have nothing at all to do with money. The EFF operates only due the volunteers and donations the Foundation receives,.... it is not a for profit business of any kind. In fact, it is most often considered the enemy by many corporations, companies and governments who feel none of us should have the right to free and open communication without being either taxed, controlled or having to pay for the means and rights to communicate freely among ourselves.
In fact, it could easily be argued that if it were not for the work and efforts of the EFF, among others, none of us posting within this forum would be able to do so freely without censorship or without having to pay some company a hefty fee to do so or actually being unable to do so at all due to some government's restrictions on doing so (as is the case in many countries, in fact).
 
4. For those here who are so willing to cede their rights and liberties for the incorrect and false perception or feeling of "security and safety", not to mention everyone else's rights to boot, rather than belittling and deriding those of us who hold our rights as sacred and are willingly to speak out or act to defend those rights,.... stupidly imploring us to go live somewhere else,... why don't you go live somewhere else instead,... like, perhaps, some other totalitarian country where no one in the citizenry has any such rights, if you like that so well.
 
Please, just stop exposing and imposing your own ignorance, bigotry's and delusions  upon the rest of us who do value our freedoms - actions which only serve to drive this wonderful nation and it's people closer and ever closer into tyranny and totalitarianism,.... do us all a favor and go find somewhere to live that suits your own visions of absolute recidivist impoverishment of liberty. Democracy doesn't need the kind of help you are so willingly to provide,... I understand countries like Myanamar, China and Saudi Arabia, among others, have a place for you,... the rest of us who value freedom will gladly chip in to pay your passage. Otherwise, please educate yourself, stop being puppets* and mindless parrots* of divisive, derisive and party-line rhetoric and mind-numbing diatribe.
 
Ignorance is not a flag to proudly wave around as if it was something everyone should strive to achieve. Nor is being an automaton or goose-stepping jackboot something virtuous and honorable. Anyone can be trained or conditioned for those things,... real free thought and true freedom requires effort. Some might do well to try it sometime.
 
* : No offense to actual parrots or puppets intended.

Hi I am not an American, but I love America, the country and the people!  Infact it is my favorite playground, "did I say Las Vegas??" lol  I will say,  I am nothing short of appalled at the way the US Government and major corporations have turned beautiful America into a paranoid police state just short of martial law! 

ie: ThePatriot Act was signed blind by US Congress 7 days after 911 how could such a document undermining of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights be written in 7 days?  Not even!!!!!  It was already written months before 911.  Watch out friends and neighbours your freedom is being dissolved bit by bit!  I would invite everyone to watch the documentary entitled The Greatest Lie Ever Sold (Anthony J Hilder) it is a wake up call for the American public and the world!   AJ Hilder is a Talk Show Host, Investigative Journalist and War Correspondent and American citizen no less!!  It is available almost everywhere including You Tube!! Check it out!!! 

If you do watch it and some of the other documentaries there, everything said can be checked out and is of public record and true!  These documentaries will shake you and you might not even believe what is said in them, but like I said public record is available to verify everything questionable!!

I hope that the EFF wins the suite it would a be a decisive victory and a start to recover the freedoms and rights for the people who make up great America and other countries world wide!! IMHO

A blogger is questioning who is qualify to become President but seems to be knocking Mccain right straight on the middle of the head with a hammer.Read it here

I’ve been telling folks for the past forty years that they have been losing their freedom through erosion and decay but usually received nothing but scoff for it.

Now that the pace has picked up a bit, some of you have started to notice it also. I hope that it is not too late to stop our total lose of freedom, but I fear that it may.

It will take more than elections to rid ourselves of the blight that has invaded our very way of life. Our politicians are mostly puppets run by global corporate and while we point fingers at Bush, Clinton and a host of other corrupt politicos, the global conglomerate keeps on raping and pillaging.

What I fear most are our lawmakers who can not begin to read legal ease any better than I and fill their pockets with little presents from lobbyist’s.

I also fear slogans like “Change we can believe in” “change we need” and other catchy rhetoric. What was it now that Hitler promised his fellow German Countrymen?  Was it not some form of “change”, be afraid, be very afraid.

i was told stories about the gov forcing SBCIS to allow them access to install some large scale packet sniffing equipment in thier pops very shortly after 911. for those of you who think this is ok, then maybe you should also send copies of all your personal email, webpages, regular mail and telephone conversations to them after you read them for inspection. its a blatent invasion of privacy.

furthermore, at the time i heard that if they were not allowed access to the pop that they were going to shut it down. ( you nah sayers now should think , gov says:" ill read your mail, and sniff your web traffic or you wont have any!" )

furthermore, im pretty sure it was not just limited to one pop. i heard it was most of the mega pops we had at the time, and not just email traffic. granted, its way to much information for them to process anyways so im sure they were looking only for certain patterns, but its been several years now. you can bet that other agencies are tapped into thier equipment as well as searching for whatever floats thier boat.  if this kind of misuse of authority is allowed to happen, we should also let them put rfid in all of us and our children, so they can at any moment track where we go, and who we associate with as its a logical next step.

sue em good. get thier crap out of those pops. and BTW your stupid to assume that its was only one ISP that they have thier traffic sniffing devices on.  i wondered for years when this would get out as only a very few people know about it internally to ATT.

When the opportunity to return to Colorado Springs presented itself, I told my wife; we’re gone. Since our return, I have contacted those I know live in the area. I am pleasantly surprised by the pride and dedication these retired Military express for the accomplishments of those serving in the Military today. And, somewhat taken back by their concurrent displeasure with the rhetoric of our National “politicos.”  

1. Months after Christ was crucified, His Apostles set out to implement His mandate to spread His teachings in every corner of the earth. Most of those that lived in the Middle East, North Africa or Europe were converted to Christianity six hundred years before Mohammad was born. The majority remained devout Christians until conquered by Muslims. Their conquest began during the last half of the seventh century AD. Yet, collectively these areas are referred to as “Muslim”. Why? Because “infidels that opposed Muslim conquest were killed (particularly land owners) while others were enslaved or coerced into Islam. Muslim conquest was driven by a promise of land, women, and wealth as booty. Anything taken from an enemy as the result of combat is booty to be enjoyed by those that serve Allah and a contribution of 15% of the take to Islam. Before the end of the ninth century AD Muslims had plundered the Middle East and Africa destroying a very devout large Coptic (Christian) population in Egypt-- among others.
2. Muslims invaded Spain from North Africa in 711 AD. They remained there until 1492. The “Spanish Inquisition,” that began in 1478, was an effort to separate Christians from Muslims after 767 years of war and occupation; rather than an attempt to defame others, as we have been led to believe.
3. During the 1200s, Mongols did more to impede the spread of Islam than previously occurred. Unfortunately, a by product was the collapse of the Roman Empire East centered at Constantinople. Constantinople (Istanbul) was the center of Orthodox Christianity that prevails even today in Eastern Europe. Mongol influence subsided as their leaders died.  
4. In 1536, Muslim Armies were at the outskirts of Vienna. Without the aid of  Polish Cavalry their conquest might have succeeded and Europeans would probably be speaking Farsi or Arabic rather than the other various languages we associate with the region---thinking and politics would certainly be different if Muslim conquest had prevailed
5. The Movies; “Four Feathers”, “Gunga Din,” and most recently “Lawrence of Arabia,” while exciting, actually depict, early twentieth century, efforts by the British to contain Muslim conquest in India and Pakistan to include the intervening land mass.
6. What is occurring in the Middle East today is the continuance of the Muslim effort to remake the world in the image and likeness of Islam. Though the effort is driven by Islamofacists, it remains an objective and IS a tenant of Islam.
7. America’s enemy is not America’s Military.
8. After the war in South Vietnam, General Vo Nguyen Giap, the Commander of Viet Minh forces (VC) and North Vietnam Army Units (NVA) in South Vietnam, wrote in one of his several books; Without the help of John Kerry and Jane Fonda, they[the US] not we [Communists] would have won. General Giap is considered the authority on guerrilla and insurgency operations. His words may explain the similarity between many of this Country’s news releases and Islamofacists rhetoric against the U. S. It may also explain the left’s resistance to the Pentagon’s communications information mining project---Able Danger.

1. Months after Christ was crucified, His Apostles set out to implement His mandate to spread His teachings in every corner of the earth. Most of those that lived in the Middle East, North Africa or Europe were converted to Christianity six hundred years before Mohammad was born. The majority remained devout Christians until conquered by Muslims. Their conquest began during the last half of the seventh century AD. Yet, collectively these areas are referred to as “Muslim”. Why? Because “infidels that opposed Muslim conquest were killed (particularly land owners) while others were enslaved or coerced into Islam. Muslim conquest was driven by a promise of land, women, and wealth as booty. Anything taken from an enemy as the result of combat is booty to be enjoyed by those that serve Allah and a contribution of 15% of the take to Islam. Before the end of the ninth century AD Muslims had plundered the Middle East and Africa destroying a very devout large Coptic (Christian) population in Egypt-- among others.
2. Muslims invaded Spain from North Africa in 711 AD. They remained there until 1492. The “Spanish Inquisition,” that began in 1478, was an effort to separate Christians from Muslims after 767 years of war and occupation; rather than an attempt to defame others, as we have been led to believe.
3. During the 1200s, Mongols did more to impede the spread of Islam than previously occurred. Unfortunately, a by product was the collapse of the Roman Empire East centered at Constantinople. Constantinople (Istanbul) was the center of Orthodox Christianity that prevails even today in Eastern Europe. Mongol influence subsided as their leaders died.  
4. In 1536, Muslim Armies were at the outskirts of Vienna. Without the aid of  Polish Cavalry their conquest might have succeeded and Europeans would probably be speaking Farsi or Arabic rather than the other various languages we associate with the region---thinking and politics would certainly be different if Muslim conquest had prevailed
5. The Movies; “Four Feathers”, “Gunga Din,” and most recently “Lawrence of Arabia,” while exciting, actually depict, early twentieth century, efforts by the British to contain Muslim conquest in India and Pakistan to include the intervening land mass.
6. What is occurring in the Middle East today is the continuance of the Muslim effort to remake the world in the image and likeness of Islam. Though the effort is driven by Islamofacists, it remains an objective and IS a tenant of Islam.
7. America’s enemy is not America’s Military.
8. After the war in South Vietnam, General Vo Nguyen Giap, the Commander of Viet Minh forces (VC) and North Vietnam Army Units (NVA) in South Vietnam, wrote in one of his several books; Without the help of John Kerry and Jane Fonda, they[the US] not we [Communists] would have won. General Giap is considered the authority on guerrilla and insurgency operations. His words may explain the similarity between many of this Country’s news releases and Islamofacists rhetoric against the U. S. It may also explain the left’s resistance to the Pentagon’s communications information mining project---Able Danger.