FBI Directly Spying On Prominent Muslim-American Politicians, Lawyers And Civil Rights Activists
from the because-of-course-they-did dept
For a little while now, Glenn Greenwald has been promising the next big scoop from the Snowden files, and it came out last night, with detailed reporting on how the FBI was directly spying on a bunch of prominent American politicians, lawyers and civil rights activists... who happened to be Muslim.- Faisal Gill, a longtime Republican Party operative and one-time candidate for public office who held a top-secret security clearance and served in the Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush;
- Asim Ghafoor, a prominent attorney who has represented clients in terrorism-related cases;
- Hooshang Amirahmadi, an Iranian-American professor of international relations at Rutgers University;
- Agha Saeed, a former political science professor at California State University who champions Muslim civil liberties and Palestinian rights;
- Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the country.
The individuals appear on an NSA spreadsheet in the Snowden archives called “FISA recap”—short for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Under that law, the Justice Department must convince a judge with the top-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that there is probable cause to believe that American targets are not only agents of an international terrorist organization or other foreign power, but also “are or may be” engaged in or abetting espionage, sabotage, or terrorism. The authorizations must be renewed by the court, usually every 90 days for U.S. citizens.Reading through the report, it becomes quite clear that the main reason these individuals on the list is solely because they're Muslim. Of every lawyer who has helped represent defendants in terrorism-related cases, the only one on this list just happens to be Muslim. As the article reminds us, a few years back, Spencer Ackerman did some great reporting, revealing how the FBI was being trained to believe all Muslims were "violent" and "radical" and the impact of that ridiculous training appears to be clear in what this latest report finds. Perhaps the most chilling example of this anti-Muslim attitude is found in a training document revealed in this new report, showing intelligence community members how to "identify" targets for the FISA court. The "placeholder" name says it all:
The spreadsheet shows 7,485 email addresses listed as monitored between 2002 and 2008. Many of the email addresses on the list appear to belong to foreigners whom the government believes are linked to Al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah. Among the Americans on the list are individuals long accused of terrorist activity, including Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, who were killed in a 2011 drone strike in Yemen.
But a three-month investigation by The Intercept—including interviews with more than a dozen current and former federal law enforcement officials involved in the FISA process—reveals that in practice, the system for authorizing NSA surveillance affords the government wide latitude in spying on U.S. citizens.
A former Justice Department official involved in FISA policy in the Obama Administration says the process contains too many internal checks and balances to serve as a rubber stamp on surveillance of Americans. But the former official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about FISA matters, acknowledges that there are significant problems with the process. Having no one present in court to contest the secret allegations can be an invitation to overreach. “There are serious weaknesses,” the former official says. “The lack of transparency and adversarial process—that’s a problem.”Much of the rest of the story involves a detailed look at the men listed above, all of which is worth reading, demonstrating just how ridiculous it was to be spying on their communications. The video of Faisal Gill is really worth watching:
Indeed, the government’s ability to monitor such high-profile Muslim-Americans—with or without warrants—suggests that the most alarming and invasive aspects of the NSA’s surveillance occur not because the agency breaks the law, but because it is able to exploit the law’s permissive contours. “The scandal is what Congress has made legal,” says Jameel Jaffer, an ACLU deputy legal director. “The claim that the intelligence agencies are complying with the laws is just a distraction from more urgent questions relating to the breadth of the laws themselves.”
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Filed Under: agha saeed, americans, asim ghafoor, civil rights, doj, ed snowden, faisal gill, fbi, fisa, fisa court, free speech, glenn greenwald, hooshang amirahmadi, lawyers, muslims, nihad awad, nsa, politicians, surveillance
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I say Christians because they are considered a threat according to the DHS.
Will people only care when it just happens to be them that have their rights ignored.
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Wow! This comment is dumber than usual...
When someone draws a funny picture of Mohammed, Muslims go nuts like little children. Any group of people so utterly brainwashed as Muslims are, need to be watched closely.
Now reply back with some hokum about one billion Muslims or some other crap about how Christians are just as violent....a hundred years ago.
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Re: Wow! This comment is dumber than usual...
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Re: Re: Wow! This comment is dumber than usual...
is dangerous.
You can twist and turn and cry, but until that is not the case, all Muslims should be suspected and carefully observed.
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Re: Re: Re: Wow! This comment is dumber than usual...
is dangerous"
Indeed it is. However, you're mistakenly attributing this to all Muslims. The problem isn't Islam, no matter how much you claim otherwise.
"all Muslims should be suspected and carefully observed."
This attitude compromises the very "safety" you are so concerned about. By focusing on Islam instead of extremism, you are leaving a lot of gates unguarded.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Wow! This comment is dumber than usual...
You offer ZERO proof that all Muslims don't believe this. When I see Muslims say publicly: "it's offensive, but of course, you are free to draw whatever you like"
Then we can talk, until then STFU unless you have PROOF AND EVIDENCE that it is not.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Wow! This comment is dumber than usual...
Please point to something that dictates that Islam inherently breeds violent people, and that the same basic tenants behind whatever that answer is does not appear in other religions.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Wow! This comment is dumber than usual...
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Of course these sickening apologists have no response to their own ongoing silliness.
When Muslims begin behaving in a civilized manner, I'm sure they will be taken off the lists.
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Obviously all Christians should be viewed with suspicion and subjected to constant surveillance.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Wow! This comment is dumber than usual...
Can you point to anyplace in the world where Islam is strong and violent extremism is not? Can you point to anyplace where Christianity, or Hinduism, or Buddhism, or any other major world religion is strong that has severe systemic problems with violent extremism?
As for something specific in Islam, you can start here: its acceptance of polygyny means that many less successful men will end up without a mate, and coupled with the promise that martyrs for Islam will end up with plenty of desirable companionship in Paradise, the end results are rather predictable from a sociological perspective.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Wow! This comment is dumber than usual...
As near as I can tell, the majority of places where Islam is strong are not beset with violent extremism to any degree more than places where it is not. The Islamic radicals seem to be localized in just a few regions.
"As for something specific in Islam"
You'll have to do a bit better than that -- that's not a specific fact, that's specific speculation.
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Re: Wow!
We need less of you in the world.
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7,486 email addresses over a 7 year period.
That is 1069 email addresses per year.
If the court is working a 5 day week without any breaks and a full 8 hour day and DOES NOTHING ELSE, they are afforded less than 2 hours per request to hear the arguments and consider if they should allow the surveillance.
Not a rubber stamp? I think FISA is the definition of a rubber stamp.
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That is the definition of dangerous. The NSA and FBI are COMPLETELY justified in watching these people.
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Is it also completely justified if NSA and FBI are watching over-aggressive, bigoted, internet commentators with handgun avatars?
Just wondering.
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I just don't know the reason for our government's stupidity.
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And they want to KEEP IT!
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'foreign national'?
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Re: 'foreign national'?
Communist(1930s), Socialist (1950s), Anarchist (1960s), Marxist(1970s), Terrorist (1990s), Muslim (2000s)
The date of the power to unlock new powers and destroy civil rights goes back to the Red Scare and decimated any person in the sights of the government.
And yet somehow we thought these kings of powers for law enforcement enemy going to be abused?
Our own history says otherwise...
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Re: Re: 'foreign national'?
" And yet somehow we thought these *kinds* of powers for law enforcement *aren't* going to be abused?
Say what you will but it seems that the biggest terrorist out there is the government when it does not serve the public.
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We just can't fucking help ourselves. I'm ashamed to be Caucasian.
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get a grip already.
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Most Native Americans, including almost all of the ones oppressed by the US government during the 18th and 19th centuries, were nothing like that. The horrific blood sacrifices were an Aztec thing. They were also known as the Mexica, and they tended to live south of the modern-day border. They were just as vicious and steeped in culturally-ingrained evil as modern-day Islamic extremists, and the European immigrants did both the Americas and the world in general a definite service by wiping them out.
But a lot of needless harm was done to peaceful people as well. It's important to remember that the inhabitants of the pre-Colombian Americas were just as diverse in every way as the inhabitants of Europe, and if they hadn't drawn a seriously unfavorable ball in the genetic lottery when it comes to disease tolerance, the last five hundred years would have looked very, very different.
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I'm glad to be a bilingual french canadian, at least we didn't make em false promises (biggest example being Oklahoma : "we'll leave you one moderately large country!". How long did that even last?
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Wow. I can't tell if you're simply ignorant -- there was no single people who were the "native americans", there were hundreds of different cultures, and they were very, very different from each other -- or just straight-up xenophobic.
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Hating the self is step one in finding the real you.
Few people have the courage or decency.
Well done.
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I fucking hate that network but they absolutely need to generate outrage over this
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But before we get ahead of ourselves... remember the left if guilty of the same damn thing...
'Me and Mine can do no wrong' or 'shit which does not harm me is okay' that pervades Politics at large.
Your comments against Fox without listing the other guilty dogs is a clear indication that you are an intellectually dishonest turd!
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If you are a right-leaning person, Republican, or conservative - however you identify, playing that game just makes you like the part of the Right that pisses you off.
And do you know for a fact that the comment you are responding to comes from the Left? (Also, don't confuse Democrats, especially the President, with the Left. They are mostly to the Right of where Reagan was.)
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Are clinton/bush spied on as well?
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GREENWALD LIED...as usual.
Where is the list? There is no list.
Instead we got filtered MSM media reports that a bunch of Muslims were observed to make sure they aren't contacting terrorist operatives in the Middle East and elsewhere.
IN OTHER WORDS: THE NSA IS DOING EXACTLY WHAT THEY SHOULD BE DOING!
NEXT!
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Re: GREENWALD LIED...as usual.
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Re: Re: GREENWALD LIED...as usual.
They actually have been tasked with stopping terrorists, and the way to do that is through surveillance of those mostly likely to have contact with terrorists.
So unless you have a better way, you should STFU, along with the rest of the mentally deranged AMEN CHOIR on this site.
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Re: Re: Re: GREENWALD LIED...as usual.
Only sort of - only in that their mission to investigate federal crimes may be seen as a form of deterrence. (Their mission is NOT to investigate future crimes)
the way to do that is through surveillance of those mostly likely to have contact with terrorists.
IF we applied that reasoning to the FBI's real mandate (i.e. all federal crime, not just domestic terrorism), then we should be spying on anyone who is likely to have had contact with a criminal. Mothers, past schoolmates, girlfriends, etc. of federal criminals should all be spied on. Anyone who visits, or writes to a criminal in prison should be spied on. Sound right to you? Maybe the FBI should start collecting the past subscriber lists of Martha Stewart magazine.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: GREENWALD LIED...as usual.
People who have contact with suspect does necessarily hold any value. You want people who have some sort of formative impact on the terrorist or potential terrorist.
Also, we are talking about the NSA here not the FBI. When the FBI gets various nuggets from the NSA, that's just professional off the books courtesy.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: GREENWALD LIED...as usual.
I agree with you that it would be wise to be selective about which contacts should be surveilled. If they could show probable cause to a judge and get a warrant, then more power to them. The article highlights that at least 1 person on the list was not covered by a warrant.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: GREENWALD LIED...as usual.
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Re: GREENWALD LIED...as usual.
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So two terrorist acts, aside from 9/11, since you morons are so utterly predictable, that have been committed by someone NOT a muslim.
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Deal
The Unibomber
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unibomber
1996 Manchester bombing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRA_Manchester_Bombing
Birmingham pub bombings
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_pub_bombings
2011 Norway attacks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Norway_attacks#Perpetrator
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Re: Deal
Tokyo subway sarin attack of 1995
Oklahoma city bombing (1995)
...
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Re: Re: Deal
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Re: Re: Re: Re: GREENWALD LIED...as usual.
http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/terrorism-2002-2005/terror02_05#terror_05su m
Only 6% were committed by Muslim extremists.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: GREENWALD LIED...as usual.
But I'll just point to the 60+ UN resolutions that they ignore, being a rogue state and all.
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Re: GREENWALD LIED...as usual.
Because that doesn't sound like fun, or even remotely rational, but hey, to each their own I suppose.
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Re: Re: GREENWALD LIED...as usual.
It's all a matter of degree. For now Judaism and Christianity are relatively tame compared to the barbarism of Islam.
The Islamic world is still stuck 200 years in the past, unable to grow and evolved like regular human beings for some reason.
Nobody gives a shit how many people believe what. Half the world is stewing in their own feces bowing down before superstitious nonsense. That only makes it that much more sad.
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Re: Re: Re: GREENWALD LIED...as usual.
> Spends a thread defending a violently argumentative Scientologist for being a scientologist
Okay then
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I was agreeing until this:
>It's all a matter of degree. For now Judaism.
It's not because it's not sensationalized and on TV that it doesn't happen.
User ignored from now on. Get real, buddy. Unless you're just doing your shill job, then well, you shouldn't have drank all those college years away and failed. You'd most likely have a job that contributes to mankind or something.
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Now they will never again corrupt other people with their poison.
If Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, all those countries, if they did the same thing, there would be peace in the middle east.
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Re: Re: Re: GREENWALD LIED...as usual.
Muslims are subhuman, huh? Your bigotry is laid bare.
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