USG - Google Investigation of WikiLeaks Staff - Broad Attack on Free Speech & Free Press

Google, gag orders and WikiLeaks: who’s lying? Jeff John Roberts    Feb. 2, 2015 - 6:26 AM PST The political fallout of WikiLeaks has passed, but the fury of law enforcement has not. More than four years after the organization published a trove of U.S. diplomatic cables, federal agents continue to wage a secret legal campaign to put the screws to those responsible. This month, a new twist to the story emerged as lawyers for WikiLeaks accused Google of betraying its users by secretly turning over their communications to the Justice Department. Google shot back that it did all that it could, but the government stifled the company with gag orders. The dispute suggests someone is not telling the truth but, at a deeper level, points to the problem of secret rabbit holes in the U.S. justice system that obscure the existence of criminal investigations. [ ... ] ... the biggest liar in the Google-WikiLeaks affair: the U.S. government, which claims that national security requires it to disregard even the most basic principles of procedural justice by scrubbing the very existence of certain dockets — including ones that appear to have no obvious tie to security. Keep in mind that the secret court orders related to the Google-WikiLeaks conflict are not about disrupting potential terrorist plots. Instead, they represent a process for the Justice Department to search the correspondence of people who consider themselves to be journalists, and to use gag orders to ensure it takes years to learn a search has taken place at all. This is just the latest spread of a shadow justice system that serves to breed paranoia and distrust. Whether you believe Google or WikiLeaks, their current dispute wouldn’t exist in the first place if the Justice Department scaled back its use of secret investigations. “Central to this whole question, is not just Google, but the federal government,” Ratner said. “This entire investigation, including the search warrants, is a broad attack on free speech and free press. It should have never begun, and certainly should have ended long ago.” EXTRACT ONLY - FULL @ SOURCE https://gigaom.com/2015/02/02/google-gag-orders-and-wikileaks-whos-lying/ COMMENT An example of the US government misusing the law to target and punish foreign journalists exercising free speech and freedom of press. PS   The impact of US secret investigations campaign against these journalists would have an implication for all journalists, including Americans.

US - DoJ release memos - Bush Admin. justification warrantless tapping

Bush-era memos justify NSA wiretaps Sep 07, 2014 | Secret programme allowed NSA to obtain data within US The US justice department has released two memos detailing the Bush administration’s legal justification for monitoring the phone calls and emails of Americans without a warrant. The documents, released late on Friday, relate to a secret programme, dubbed Stellar Wind, which began after the September 11, 2001 attacks. It allowed the National Security Agency to obtain communications data within the United States when at least one party was a suspected Al Qaeda or Al-Qaeda affiliate member, and at least one party in the communication was located overseas. “Even in peacetime, absent congressional action, the president has inherent constitutional authority ... To order warrantless foreign intelligence surveillance,” then-assistant attorney general Jack Goldsmith said in a heavily-redacted 108-page memo dated May 6, 2004. “We believe that Stellar Wind comes squarely within the commander in chief’s authority to conduct the campaign against Al Qaeda as part of the current armed conflict and that congressional efforts to prohibit the President’s efforts to intercept enemy communications through Stellar Wind would be an unconstitutional encroachment on the commander in chief’s power.” The document was obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union rights group through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Mr Goldsmith at the time also headed the justice department’s office of legal counsel under then-attorney-general John Ashcroft and then-deputy attorney-general James Comey, who now heads the FBI. According to Mr Goldsmith, Congress’ authorisation for the use of force passed shortly after 9/11 provided “express authority” for Stellar Wind. He suggested that the congressional approval granted the President authority that “overrides the limitations” of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a law requiring a court order to monitor the communications of any American or person on US soil. The second memo, dated July 16, 2004, pointed to a Supreme Court decision handed down just over two weeks earlier as providing additional justification for Stellar Wind. http://www.asianage.com/international/bush-era-memos-justify-nsa-wiretaps-721

Flipping through the news stories (and other articles regarding this release), I first took it to be an 'illegal' wiretap.

Turns out memos released justify the tapping. Doh!

Anyway, thought I'd transfer this over because it's rather interesting.

It would seem that no matter what, governments have the final trump card: National Security.

I'm not that focused on the finer ins and outs of this right now, so I don't fully understand it.

Might have to come back. I'm on a roll digging stuff up and I want to keep up the pace.