Secret Court Goes on Extra Duty

Fox News ^ | Friday, October 12, 2001 | By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos

[tomball]

WASHINGTON

[lakey]

I'm dubious too about expanding FISA's scope.

Mr. Ashcroft is a disappointment.

[sargon]

A broadened FISA would open the door for law enforcement to conduct secret searches and spy on Americans without the scrutiny of an open court.

There's no friggin' way I will stand for that, and I believe there are millions of patriotic Americans who will agree. A Police state will not be tolerated.

You should've heard the crap that Senator Toricelli was spouting on Geraldo tonight! Mr. Toricelli basically said that we should be willing to accept federal police who demand "Your papers, please"; Geraldo echoed his sentiments, saying "I think that's where we're headed."

Law abiding American citizens aren't the problem here, folks, and to hysterically create a fascist America would mean that the terrorists have achieved their goal of destroying our way of life.

I will simply not tolerate such an America.

[Libloather]

And that has some civil libertarians concerned.

What doesn't?

[freedomnews]

Hitler Secret Court

[mykdsmom]

MKM

[fone]

Ah, yes... the old Star Chamber.

Nothing new under the sun. >bleat<

[mlo]

I noticed a couple of logical fallacies in this article. Don't believe everything you read.

[Bob Burnett]

The stench of fascism is in the air.

[Soul Citizen]

We all should demand a return of freedom when it is over!

NON terror intelligence should be destroyed after the war!

[Ymani Cricket]

It seems to me that the "powers that be" desire to have all the advantages of a state of war, yet Congress has never officially declared a state of war. War Powers become permanent powers? Not a good idea. Just declare war against Afghanistan. Are we too mushy for that now? We didn't declare war against Hitler during WWII or against the Emporer of Japan.

We declared war against the state - the country as named. We are bombing the Taliban. We are therefore at war with the Taliban. The Taliban are the current government of Afghanistan, elected or not, emperor or fuhrer or not, they are the government. So why haven't we passed a declaration of war? That would solve the problem of wiretaps immediately wouldn't it? As well as other areas of National Security.

If we're gonna have virtual permanent martial law, might as well do it right...

>>getting off of soapbox now<<

ahhh what a messed up situation no matter how you look at it.

[B4Ranch]

Sorry, but this is how they'll maintain "CONTROL". Bend over and kiss FREEDOM "Goodbye", because we will not see her anymore unless you can figure out how to get the entire countyr to pick arms and march against the socialists. Bush took it or we gave it away. Take your pick.

I have watched this happening and it has been depressing, very depressing to think we have so many ignorant citizens in this country.

National ID Cards aren't far behind, within two years. The American farmer is disappearing FAST and unless we get the people up off their ass, our Constitution and Bill of Rights are going to be used for toilet paper at the UN.

[onyx]

Judge Royce Lamberth is the chief on FISA'S seven-MAN court. I have full faith in Judge Lamberth. He belongs on the US Supreme Court!

[backhoe]

The very idea of a "Star Chamber" ( secret court ) ought to be loathsome to all Americans! Use these to tell a lot of people about it:

Communicate! Let the Sons of....

[HiTech RedNeck]

I say let not just the "stars" but also the sun and the moon fall upon any NON citizen who is in cahoots with the terrorism. 99% of the terrorism problem is rooted not in citizens but in aliens.

[jammer]

I'm dubious too about expanding FISA's scope.

Mr. Ashcroft is a disappointment.

Well said, in a perfect understatement. His motives might be less suspect if he had gone harder after some real criminals like the Klinton administration and FBI prior to the attack.

[Libertarian_4_eva]

There's no friggin' way I will stand for that, and I believe there are millions of patriotic Americans who will agree. A Police state will not be tolerated.

The problem is that both republicans and democrats are pushing for stronger laws stripping away our rights. It seems like your going to have to stand for it unless of course you have the guts to freep with liberals against members of your party. Its going to be a gut check for many here.

[CDHart]

"Mr. Ashcroft is a disappointment."

A very large disappointment. My family and I were so pleased when Bush finally won the election and appointed Ashcroft as AG. Little did we know what lay in store, even before 9/11, I think.

Carolyn

[cbkaty]

I'm dubious too about expanding FISA's scope.

This is one of those laws that "could" be properly and honorably executed by an honorable man.....yet one of dishonor would surely abuse.

For this reason alone, we must err on the side of freedom......as our forefathers insisted.

[William Terrell]

There is this line:

Since its debut in 1978, the FISA court has denied only one of the roughly 10,000 warrant applications sought by the feds.

Then there's this:

U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth, chief of the seven-member FISA court, would not agree to be interviewed, but has bristled at accusations that the court rubber-stamps federal warrants.

And Lamberth has often been critical of the government from his bench. He is said to have censured an FBI lawyer in March for one FISA warrant request, according to The Washington Post, a censure that set off a department-wide investigation into the way the FBI was requesting the warrants.

Either the writer or this judge takes us for complete idiots.