:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 6.12.2006 ::
:: Domestic Eavesdropping ::
Judge defers decision on US wiretap suit
Computerworld
June 12, 2006 (Reuters) -- DETROIT -- A federal judge today deferred making an immediate decision on a request that the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program be halted as a violation of law.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the lawsuit in January, asked U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor to stop the National Security Agency from intercepting international phone calls and e-mails without a warrant in its fight against terrorism, saying it violates Americans' free speech and privacy rights.
But the government responded that the program is key to helping protect U.S. security.
Taylor deferred any ruling. Another hearing is scheduled for July 10.
"Our clients have suffered concrete harm," Ann Beeson, the ACLU's associate legal director, told the court, saying lawyers now have to travel overseas to gather information they would have previously received on the phone and that journalists are beginning to lose sources.
"The framers [of the U.S. Constitution] never intended to give the president the power to ignore the laws of Congress even during wartime and emergencies," she said.
The case was filed in Detroit because the area is home to one of the largest Arab populations outside the Middle East.
Read more here.
posted by me
:: 9:11:00 PM [+] ::
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