Republicans and Independents for Impeaching Bush and Cheney

Yes, there are “good guys” in the NSA whose work you should know about. With the passage of today’s pardon of George Bush for the illegal spying he commenced right after his inauguration, in the form of the new FISA law, it is more and more up to patriots within the intelligence community to tell us what they know. The new FISA law means the telcoms will never be forced to cough up evidence in civil court, so it must come from somewhere else. And we must support these whistleblowers with our calls and letters to congress (I don’t capitalize congress any more. They don’t deserve it.)

But first learn about who the whistleblowers are and what they are doing. This FISA law is not the end, it is the beginning. We are learning about our rights and our history again. It frankly amazed me that this many Americans are starting to understand what the controversy around today’s Constitution-breaking action is about, and what it means for their rights and their Constitution. It’s got nothing to do with finding terrorists. It’s got everything to do with tossing out lawsuits which would have exposed which law-abiding Americans Bush was spying on (or he wouldn’t have circumvented the FISA court) and holding his administration accountable for the same crime which got Nixon impeached.

So read up! National Security Whistleblowers Coalition

Russell Tice in Wikipedia Tice is an NSA whistleblower who broke the story to the NY Times that the NSA was going around the FISA court to conduct illegal spying.

David Larson website. Larson gave testimony substantiating allegations made by Tice and which detailed unlawful criminal acts committed under Special Access Program (SAP) provisions. This matter remains pending and current with the Dept. of Defense Inspector General as case #103586.

Email your senators and congresscritters, ask “what about this?”

Email a letter to the editor, say “stop being treasonous collaborators to the criminal acts of this administration. Write about this (Please!)”

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Appeal to American NSA Officers: Join Us
by Ralph Lopez

We know you are reading this, because now it’s your job to read and hear everything, private, not-private, personal, that could keep the Bush administration in power, keeps it from being impeached or brought up on war crimes charges, keeps its Halliburton/Kellogg Root Brown agenda on track (I wonder who gets to rebuild Iran for cost-plus-any-profit-you-dream-of, after we commit genocide with nukes as it looks we are about to do?) You hand up the info to your bosses, who hand it up to their bosses, who decide how it can best be used. In flagrant violation of the letter and spirit of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. But you are still American officers, some of you. Never forget that.

Freedom from warrantless searches was a hard-won right. Its origin was our Founder’s contempt for the British “general warrant,” which said that agents of the crown could search any home, open any mail, go through any personal belongings on a whim. It was one of the main causes of the rebellion. The forms of mail and communications have changed, to cellphone and Internet, but the principle of privacy is exactly the same. No search without cause, stated to a judge, either before or after the fact. George Bush just swept up all our communications even before 9/11 and said F- all y’all.

Ever wonder what happened to those guys who declared these rights for us? What price they paid? Of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence:

-Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.

-Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

-Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

-Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

-Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

-Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him.

-Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

-Legend has it when Thomas Nelson Jr was told the British General Cornwallis had taken over his home for British headquarters, he replied, “Blow the damn thing down.” Nelson’s house is still standing at Yorktown and there are cannonballs embedded in its east wall.

-Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

-John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

That rank you wear was granted only after you swore a sacred oath, which made you the guardian of what these men fought for:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God.”

The oath of enlisted soldiers differs in a key respect. In addition to swearing to defend the Constitution, they also swear to “obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me.”

Thus the allegiance of the enlisted man present a bit of a quandry; it is to the President, officers, and the Constitution. The oath of the officer is free of any such quandry: it is to the Constitution and the Constitution alone.

No law may be made which is contrary to the Constution, which is the “Supreme Law of the Land.” The Constitution can only be changed by Constitutional Convention, and ratified by all 50 states. Any law which violates the Constitution is illegal.

George Bush seems to have the Congress and the Senate well in hand, given today’s vote to block lawsuits which could expose the targets and extent of illegal spying. Given our representative’s refusal to do their clear duty to impeach. Bush can even get Pelosi to intercede on behalf of Karl Rove’s arrest on contempt charges.

Bruce Fein, associate deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan, put it best:

The most conservative principle of the Founding Fathers was distrust of unchecked power. Centuries of experience substantiated that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Men are not angels. Ambition must be made to counteract ambition to avert abuses or tyranny….President Bush has flouted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) for five years by directing the National Security Agency to target American citizens on American soil for electronic surveillance on his say-so alone. The president has defended his warrantless domestic spying with an imperial theory of inherent constitutional power that would empower him to open mail, break in and enter homes, or torture detainees, even in violation of federal criminal statutes.

So it’s up to you, the NSA. Since Bush’s wrongdoing will not be exposed as a result of pending legal actions, thanks to this compliant congress, it’s up to men and women in the NSA more courageous than the sheep who sit in these seats of power, who are not fit to pick up cigarette butts from the Founders’ graves.

It’s up to you to step forward with what you know. You are military officers, and the courage of many of you is already proven, in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Vietnam. Remember the lives of those who entrusted the preservation of our hard-won rights into your hands. Read your oath. And join us.