Domestic spying far outpaces terrorism prosecutions

You may want to sit down before you read this one. Ready? Ok, we now know that "the number of Americans being secretly wiretapped" or having their records reviewed by the government continues to increase, "the number of terrorism prosecutions ending up in court" has declined.

Yes, you heard me correctly...more wiretapping, less prosecutions. So the question then is what other purposes are they using this program for? If nothing else we must use this to convince wavering Democrats that they absolutely MUST stay strong and refuse to give telecom companies immunity for their complicity in the administration's illegal wiretapping program.

Apparently two very prominent Democrats are working behind the scenes to create a "compromise" (as in give him everything) bill that the President will sign.

I'm speaking in particular of Rockefeller and Hoyer. In the case of these two integrity impaired legislators, I do know for sure that Rockefeller is running for re-election. Gee Jay, how's that influx of telecom contributions treating your campaign?

Needless to say, experts point out that these trends are evidence that "the government has compromised the privacy rights of ordinary citizens without much to show for it." Duhhh....

The Los Angeles Times reports:

These concerns come as the Bush administration has been seeking to expand its ability to gather intelligence without prior court approval. It has asked Congress for amendments to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to make it clear that eavesdropping on foreign telecommunications signals routed through the U.S. does not require a warrant.

...

The inspector general of the Justice Department has found numerous cases in which FBI agents failed to comply with rules and guidelines in issuing the letters, often gaining access to information they were not entitled to. The FBI has responded by taking a number of measures to tighten its internal procedures.Civil liberties groups say the new data reveal a disturbing consequence of the government's post-Sept. 11 expanded surveillance capabilities.

"The number of Americans being investigated dwarfs any legitimate number of actual terrorism prosecutions, and that is extremely troubling -- for both the security and privacy of innocent Americans as well as for the squandering of resources on people who have not and never will be charged with any wrongdoing," said Lisa Graves, deputy director of the Center for National Security Studies, a Washington-based civil liberties group.

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