Repeal FISA, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
Title 50, Chapter 36
Synopsis
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Synopsis:
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, FISA seems a rebirth of the Cointelpro program and the Blacklist. The elements of each are the same. One’s placement in any of those programs is based on a subjective interpretation of everyday common events, at some point deemed anti-American or subversive (without a judge or jury). These same activities, originally called Cointelpro, now, have become secret, through Title 50 Chapter 36.
To be placed on the Blacklist (1956), an innocent comment, such as actor Will Geer made, praising the Russian theater, resulted in him being placed on the Blacklist. This negatively impacted his acting career. Lucille Ball’s grandfather was on a Communist Party roll. That got her placed on the “List”. Similarly, in 2018, with FISA enacted, it is possible that one’s conversation with an Afghanistani or Iranian taxi driver, about life and war, and one’s perceptions, could get one on the FISA list.
We all have thoughts on the theater, Russian or other, life, and war. Should voicing them, put U.S. military intelligence in our bedrooms – and put us at the risk of directed energy surveillance devices/ weapons, which DARPA furnishes to military contractors doing the surveillance, as allowed by Title 50, Chapter 36? 1.
Normally, warrants require “probable cause”, that a crime is being planned or committed. But FISA warrants do not. They require only that the FBI show probable cause to believe that “the target of the electronic surveillance is a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power.”2. This was the same prerequisite of the earlier Cointelpro activities. Will Geer praised the Russian theater, therefore, “he must be a Communist.” Flawed reasoning, then, had these people placed on a “list”, resulting in their lives and careers, being ruined.
Ramasastry at Findlaw, writes of this non-evidential process leading to surveillance: “Amazingly, even if the defendants move to suppress evidence resulting from the wiretaps and microphones from being offered at trial, they may still not have a chance to see the warrant applicants. The government will show them only to a “FISA Judge” – along with the underlying evidence, and an affidavit from the U.S. Attorney General’s Office stating that releasing the material would harm national security.
Without the benefit of adversary briefing, the judge will then rule on whether the warrants satisfied the law. Defendants will still remain in the dark – and when the motion is decided, they’ll receive yet another ruling based on secret evidence.” 3. IBID
The Hollywood blacklist, was the practice of denying employment to screenwriters and other American entertainment professionals during the mid-twentieth Century, because they were accused of having communist ties or sympathies. The blacklist was rarely made explicit or verifiable, but it directly damaged the careers of scores of individuals working in the film industry.
Mississippi congressman John E. Rankin, a member of HUAC, held a press conference to declare that “one of the most dangerous plots ever instigated for the overthrow of this Government has its headquarters in Hollywood … and the greatest hotbed of subversive activities in the United States”. Rankin promised, “We’re on the trail of the tarantula now. 8. Lucille Ball, Eddie Albert, Pete Seeger, Lee Grant, Orson Wells and many others, were similarly blacklisted.
To be on the blacklist was both invasive and harmful. People were fired, unable to get rehired and prevented from working in their fields. Marriages were broken up and families destroyed. Miller was married twice. Singer Pete Seeger moved to Beacon, NY, built his house by hand and scheduled his own performances, singing children’s songs to get scheduled, as the blacklist placement began to impact him and his singing career.
As the Blacklist and House Committee on UnAmerican Activities was created and used, Cointelpro developed, along with it, for the same reasons and purposes. Hoover interpreted 50 USCA Section 841, the Communist Control Act, to validate these activities.
Between 1956 and 1971, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted a campaign of domestic counterintelligence. The agency's Domestic Intelligence Division did more than simply spy on U.S. citizens and their organizations; its ultimate goal was to disrupt, discredit, and destroy certain political groups. The division's operations were formally known within the bureau as COINTELPRO (the Counterintelligence Program). The brainchild of former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, the first Cointelpro campaign targeted the U.S. Communist party in the mid-1950s. More organizations came under attack in the 1960s. FBI agents worked to subvert civil rights groups, radical organizations, and white supremacists. Cointelpro existed primarily because of Director Hoover's extreme politics and ended only when he feared its exposure by his critics. A public uproar followed revelations in the news media in the early 1970s, and congressional hearings criticized Cointelpro campaigns in 1976. 9.
In cases, Handschu, The Socialist Party, and others, Cointelpro acts are found to be illegal. The Socialist Party was heavily harassed including, as per their case, “disruption, surreptitious entries, use of informants and electronic surveillance…” These seemed the acts the FBI and other intelligence agencies were involved in.
A third program affecting the SWP was entitled Cointelpro-New Left. This was started in 1968. An FBI memorandum dated May 9, 1968 explained that the country was undergoing an era of disruption and violence caused by what was called the “new Left.” The memorandum stated that some of these activists urged revolution in the U.S. and called for the defeat of the U.S. in the Vietnam War. According to the FBI, the New Left activists were making false allegations against Government officials and utilizing unlawful acts to further their causes. The memo proposed that a counterintelligence program be set up to “neutralize the New Left and the Key activists.” The proposal was approved by FBI Director Hoover. …
The Handshu agreement, (agreement made, 1971) or decree, was the result of a class-action lawsuit filed against the City of New York, its Police Commissioner and the Intelligence Division of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) on behalf of Barbara Handschu and fifteen other plaintiffs affiliated with various political or ideological associations and organizations, known as Handschu v. Special Services Division, 605 F.Supp. 1384, affirmed 787 F.2d 828.[3] The plaintiffs claimed that “informers and infiltrators provoked, solicited and induced members of lawful political and social groups to engage in unlawful activities”; that files were maintained with respect to “persons, places, and activities entirely unrelated to legitimate law enforcement purposes, such as those attending meetings of lawful organizations”; and that information from these files was made available to academic institutions, prospective employers, licensing agencies and others. In addition, plaintiffs protested seven types of police misconduct: (1) the use of informers; (2) infiltration; (3) interrogation; (4) overt surveillance; (5) summary punishment; (6) intelligence gathering; and (7) electronic surveillance, and alleged that these police practices which punished and repressed lawful dissent had had a “chilling effect” upon the exercise of freedom of speech, assembly and association, that they violated constitutional prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures, and that they abridged rights of privacy and due process.12.
In 1985, the court found that police surveillance of political activity violated constitutional protections of free speech. This ruling resulted in a consent decree which prohibited the NYPD from engaging “in any investigation of political activity except through the … Intelligence Division [of the Police Department]" and required that any “such investigations shall be conducted” only in accordance with the Guidelines incorporated into the Decree. The Guidelines further prohibited the Intelligence Division from “commencing an investigation” into the political, ideological or religious activities of an individual or group unless “specific information has been received by the Police Department that a person or group engaged in political activity is engaged in, about to engage in or has threatened to engage in conduct which constitutes a crime….”
According to the terms of the agreement, purely political activity can only be investigated by the Public Security Section (PSS) of the NYPD's Intelligence Division, and then only when the Section suspects criminal activity. When the PSS does suspect criminal activity on the part of political groups, it must obtain a warrant from the three-person Handschu Authority, a commission made up of two deputy commissioners and a mayor-appointed civilian.
The agreement also prohibits indiscriminate police video recording and photographing of public gatherings when there is no indication that unlawful activity is occurring.
The department is also prohibited from sharing information pertaining to political activity with other law enforcement agencies unless those agencies agree to abide by the terms of the Handschu agreement.
The court order mandates the compiling of annual, publicly available reports listing the surveillance requests made by the NYPD and the number of such requests granted. 13.
In this case and similar cases, such as Bivens and Handshu, the acts and intentions of the Cointelpro program of the U.S. intelligence agencies, were found to be legally violative and illegal under American law.
Later, similarly in the FISA, the loss of due process and ability to answer charges the legal reasoning or any reasoning step attempted in the name of fairness or due process, is similarly eliminated. This violates the very basic tenants of our court system – the ability of the accused to face his accuser.
One noteworthy victim of Cointelpro activities was the actress Jean Seberg and her subsequent suicide. 13. Because of her support for the Black Panther Party, actress Jean Seberg was targeted for 'neutralization' by the FBI's COINTELPRO effort. SAC Richard W. Held, the author of the request, went on to become SAC San Francisco at the time of the bombing of Earth First activist Judi Bari. He subsequently retired from the Bureau to become Head of Security for Visa International. 19.
Congress has adapted and upgraded a Blacklist, based on inquisitional precepts, precluding guilt. FISA,(code, definitions, included) a secret court, now includes electronic and mass surveillance methods of targeted harassment.
The Red Scare has morphed into the “Terrorist Scare”. Prohibited behavior, openly coded nowhere, includes everyday occurences and innocent friendships. The FBI man, hidden by sunglasses and his newspaper, has been replaced by a secret FISA court order, (with Fourth Amendment rights unheeded) enacted with unseen highly invasive, minimized, electronic devices.
We assert that FISA is an extension of Cointelpro, an attempt to codify and secret the illegal actions and intentions of Cointelpro. Any secret legal proceeding, be is state or federal seems clearly violative of American Constitutional intentions. We came here to overcome the kangaroo courts, the workhouses of a repressive and corrupt England. A secret FISA court, making judgements in secret, on unknowing citizens seems in league with the kangaroo courts in England. For these pressing reasons, we seek repeal of this “secret” American court, along with a restoration of constitutional rights, to those aggrieved by these violative practices of FISA.
In the United States v. Battle case (a FISA case), Battle alleged he was followed, surveilled and electronic bugs were placed in his living spaces.
As the unethical precepts of Cointelpro were found to be unethical and illegal, so must FISA be found so, repealed and names revealed. Cointelpro activities were found to be illegal, constitutionally violative and unethical. The same acts, of intentional discrediting, break-ins, privacy invasion, stalking – occur to uncharged Americans, now daily, through the vehicle and intent of FISA, in place of Cointelpro.
International Law Created at Nuremberg, Applies
"Indictments, trials and convictions were transparent devices ... for ... the ill-treatment of persons ..." 26..
These words could currently describe the FISA Courts. They were actually the words used in the determinations of charges in the ‘Justice Trials’ at the Nuremberg Court, after World War II. They spoke of the evolution of the Justice Courts –‘People’s’ and ‘Special’ of the Third Reich, as the Weimar laws were superceded, during World War II.
The charges concerning the People’s and Special Courts of the Third Reich, included:
Crimes Against Humanity:
1. Use of irregular courts to suppress opposition
2. Special Courts against targeted nationalities 27.
In the Volksgerichtshof (People’s Court), set up outside the operations of the constitutional frame of law 28. .The proceedings of the court were often less than show trials… concluded in less than an hour without evidence being presented or arguments made by either side. 29. The Jewish virtual library explains: “according to Section 1 of the ordinance on “antisocial parasites”, “looters” who committed thefts during air raids”, were prosecuted without presenting a defense.
Each special court formed … “looter” tribunals in 1942. These tribunals … handed down death sentences in summary proceedings … The defendants had no opportunity to prove their innocence or otherwise defend themselves.” 30.
In the latter day, FISA Court, defendants, similarly are given no opportunity to defend themselves. There exists a similarity between these courts of Hitler and the American FISA Courts, that the Nuremberg Court could not have predicted. The U.S. sat as jurists and justices at the Nuremberg Trials. They helped to form and write the determinations and Orders. At Nuremberg, the Justice Court, the Third Reicht defendants were found guilty of crimes against humanity, (with American jurists sitting in) because of their use of these “special courts”.
FISA’s precursors are the BlackList, Cointelpro Operations, and the construction of FISA. Volkensqerichsthof ‘s precursors were the German Constitution and the Weimar Laws. These two evolutions present an eerie similarity. Cointelpro was found to be illegal, so too, FISA needs to be found illegal, repealed, and the list of names revealed.
FISA must be repealed, so that America can reclaim her soul and citizens can once again be free to “ live by no man’s leave”, as the international code, established at the Nuremberg Trials, after our engagement in the war fought “for democracy”, instructed. This is vital to the American of way of life. We came to America, not to harness obliging servants, but to be free from servitude. FISA violates our constitution and our governmental intent. It must be repealed and list names given.
The following “Repeal Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act FISA Title 50 Chapter 36” is Workproduct of Kelb, Inc., Keep The Ethical Light Burning, keepkelb.wordpress.com.Any resemblance noted, is coincidental. This Kelb Workproduct may not be copied in any form, reproduced, or copied, computer or social network copied and shared with any individual, nor any entity, unless with written permission from Lynn Weed, Director, Kelb. It is Kelb Workproduct.
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