[Vision2020] GPS Tracking and Secret Policies

[Paul Rumelhart]

I think the speech writer screwed up.  I think what he wanted to say is 
that the People needed to be transparent to the Administration, not the 
other way around.  Simple sign-flipped error.  They happen all the time.

Paul

On 08/17/2013 08:16 AM, Sunil Ramalingam wrote:
> Obama promised the most transparent administration ever, but has 
> instead gone after leaks and whistleblowers with more prosecutions 
> than any - or is it all put together - previous administrations. He's 
> against leaks except when it suits him politically; then leaks are okay.
>
> Sunil
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Date: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 07:50:57 -0400
> From: art.deco.studios at gmail.com
> To: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: [Vision2020] GPS Tracking and Secret Policies
>
> The New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> August 16, 2013
>
>
>   GPS Tracking and Secret Policies
>
>
>             By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
>             <http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/opinion/editorialboard.html>
>
> This week brought fresh revelations about the National Security 
> Agency's sloppy and invasive collection of phone data on Americans and 
> others, as reported first by The Washington Post. In another realm of 
> surveillance --- the government's broad use of location tracking 
> devices --- the Justice Department was in federal court on Thursday 
> defending its refusal to release memos containing information about 
> its policies governing the use of GPS and other potentially invasive 
> technologies.
> The American Civil Liberties Union had brought the lawsuit to demand 
> that the department make the memos public. The documents were prepared 
> after a 2012 Supreme Court ruling, United States v. Jones, which held 
> that placement of a hidden tracking device on a suspect's car 
> constitutes a "search" under the Fourth Amendment.
> That case left lots of questions unanswered, including whether GPS 
> tracking always requires a warrant based on probable cause, and how 
> the Fourth Amendment applies to tracking someone 24/7 with cellphone 
> location technology. After the decision was released, the F.B.I.'s 
> general counsel, Andrew Weissmann, mentioned in a public talk that the 
> government was issuing memos containing official guidance for federal 
> agents and prosecutors on when they can use tracking technology and 
> how the Jones decision applies to other types of techniques, beyond GPS.
> The public has a right to know the government's policies on these 
> matters. There is very good reason to be concerned about the 
> government's interpretation of its police powers, especially given the 
> Obama administration's insensitivity to privacy in its mass collection 
> of phone data in the national security sphere.
> When the A.C.L.U. filed a request for the memos under the Freedom of 
> Information Act, the Justice Department responded by handing over 
> copies with the text nearly entirely blanked out, prompting the 
> lawsuit. The Justice Department claims that the memos were prepared 
> anticipating litigation and are exempt from disclosure because they 
> are a lawyer's work product. But to the extent Mr. Weissmann 
> accurately represented the memos, they also amount to statements of 
> official policy, not merely exchanges by lawyers on legal theories, 
> which the work-product exception is meant to protect.
> Our strong hunch is that there is material in the memos that can and 
> should be revealed without harm to law enforcement or the appropriate 
> discussion of confidential legal strategies. At Thursday's hearing, 
> Judge William Pauley III said he would personally review the documents 
> before deciding whether they should be released.
> It is distressing that the administration, which claims to welcome a 
> debate over the government's surveillance practices, time and again 
> refuses to be transparent about those practices. Instead of awaiting a 
> court order, the administration should release the tracking memos on 
> its own.
>
>
> -- 
> Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
> art.deco.studios at gmail.com <mailto:art.deco.studios at gmail.com>
>
>
>
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