Wednesday, January 18, 2006 Bush Sued Over NSA Spying & Your FOIA May be Denied if You Wonder if You've been Spied On Yes, Bush is watching us, but what are the chances we'll find out? Pix courtesy of Bronte 17. CNN: Bush has been slapped w/a lawsuit by 2 separate groups over his illegal warrantless wiretapping & spying. The ACLU filed suit in the E. District of MI on behalf of several journalists, authors, scholars and organizations. Separately, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed suit in the S. District of NY on behalf of "clients who fit the criteria described by the Att Gen for targeting" under the program. ACLU Exec Dir Anthony Romero said: "Bush may believe he can authorize spying on Americans w/o judicial or congressional approval, but this program is illegal, and we intend to put a stop to it. Surveillance of Americans is a chilling assertion of presidential power that has not been seen since the days of Richard Nixon." Nixonesque indeed... but what if you filled out an FOIA in order to see if you've spied on? Well, according to this worried citizen, their FOIA request was flat out refused: "B/c of the highly classified nature of the program, we can neither confirm or deny the existence of records responsive to your request. The fact of the existence or the non-existence of responsive records is a currently and properly classified matter in accordance with Exec Order 12958, as amended." Scared yet? If not, you are clearly not paying attention. |