-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 I sent a copy of this post to a buddy of mine who retired from the CIA not too long ago ... these were his comments on the matter; FWIW.
But legal experts say it could be a difficult lawsuit to win, especially since an employer - in this case the government - generally has a right to listen to employee conversation on office phones.
They're right.
It also doesn't help that national security was involved and that courts have held that U.S. citizens don't have constitutional rights overseas.
Completely wrong. No court has so ruled; the writer is confusing the Bern Convention, signed by almost every nation on earth, which formally establishes the the rule of "lex loci," or law of the land where the individual is found. This is only a common-sense restatement of old principles of Roman AND common law, whereby a national of country X can never act with impunity in country B. It's as old as Hammurabi. There is NO "ruling" that establishes that an American citizen forfeits his Constitutional rights vis-a-vis the United States Government, and to claim otherwise is to insult the truth.
``It's an uphill battle. It's going to be a tough suit,'' said constitutional law expert Paul Rothstein of Georgetown University.
Maybe so. But it'll be fun to watch. We've known for years now that the jackbooted thugs of the DEA are by far the most law-abusing, disrespectful, rights-sneering, down-and-dirty, life-threatening, hair-raising agents of the entire US Government. Bar none. They've got to be watched, because they're a nasty threat to individual liberty, and because they routinely interfere with the legitimate work of other American intelligence agencies. (And they've been monitored, by the way, since at least 1984, to my knowledge.)
"It is not the CIA's mission, nor is it part of the operations of the agency, to surveil in any manner U.S. officials, or other U.S. citizens at home or abroad,'' Mansfield said.
Well, that's the kind of in-your-face lying that brings deserved contempt down on the heads of the intelligence community. I disdain it, and have done so publicly. The sonofabitch needs to say openly that you're damned right the CIA and NSA do this, and here's WHY we do it...
The only exception would be in counterintelligence cases, he added, and then only in consultation with senior Justice Department officials.
Yeah. A GS-12 giggler.
In Horn's previous case, Leighton said, the Justice Department angered DEA agents by claiming they have no Fourth Amendment constitutional right against wiretapping when working outside the country.
See? The ignorance of DEA agents is legendary!
Leighton, a former federal prosecutor, said the lawsuit doesn't address the reasons for the alleged electronic eavesdropping.
Ever heard of Title 18 of the US Code, stupid one?
"My assumption is because they want to know what DEA is doing, they want to rip off DEA informants, they want to know DEA contacts within foreign governments,'' Leighton said. ``And with the Cold War over, these agencies are looking for a new mission.''
Nice try, slick. But it ain't so much the desire for their network as it is a desire to prove that a huge number of DEA agents have been involved in drug-running and foreign government corruption for at least 14 years now. Like that?
Horn's residence ``was the target of a U.S. Government Agency-sponsored electronic audio intercept,'' it said.
I'd love to be on the stand here. I'd LOVE to hear this arrogant schmuck try and "prove" that the "tap" (if there ever was one) was of US origin! What an ignorant ass...
"Horn had occasion to see a cable containing his words in quotation marks, that he had spoken to another DEA agent, set forth exactly as stated...''
Tsk tsk. Imagine that. And of course it just never occurs to the fool that we can also derive such intel from third-party sources and governments.
The suit, assigned to U.S. District Judge Harold H. Greene,
Oh, yea! The same trigger-happy judge that fathered the infamous AT&T dismemberment! Hoo-boy!
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