Home Of The..... Free? Big Brother (Or Is It Uncle Sam?) Is Watching!

[Mitch Cronin]

....most jarring, for this mind, among the reasons[??] given for disallowing the challenge: " "The Government has numerous other methods of conducting surveillance, none of which is challenged here,” "

US Supreme Court refuses to let Americans challenge FISA eavesdropping law

Published time: February 26, 2013 20:01

Reuters / Larry Downing

The United States Supreme Court will not let Americans challenge a provision in a foreign intelligence law that lets the federal government secretly eavesdrop on the intimate communications of millions of Americans.

On Tuesday, the top justices in the US said the country’s highest court will not hear a case in which Amnesty International and a slew of co-plaintiffs have contested a provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, or FISA, that lets the National Security Agency silently monitor emails and phone calls [.pdf].

Under the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA), the NSA is allowed to conduct electronic surveillance on any US citizen as long as they are suspected of conversing with any person located outside of the United States. That provision was scheduled to expire at the end of 2012, but Congress voted to re-up the bill and it was put back on the books for another five years.

Full article: http://rt.com/usa/scotus-FISA-FAA-surveillance-483/

[DEFCON]

But the US is a free & democratic Country, isn't it?

[Don Hudson]

"But the US is a free & democratic Country, isn't it?"

Yes, it is, so long as one doesn't ask certain questions or say certain things against the state.

If one asks certain questions (that would be allowed in a true democracy), one is greeted with resistance and silence, just as all reporters are when asking about the US drone program or the US declared right to assassinate US citizens where and when the state wants.