Hello internet, and welcome to The Science They Don't Want You to Know. As I have mentioned in the first post of this series, I am doing research regarding the statistical viability of currently unconfirmed conspiracies (no leaked documents) by way of currently known conspiracies (documents have been leaked). The primary purpose of this initial research is to gather particular information, specifically how many people were involved in the actual conspiracies and the length of time which these conspiracies took place. If you have not read the first post, you should read it here.
On September 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden fulfilled an attack on the world trade center, the Pentagon, and another target in DC. There are conspiracy theories about the attacks themselves, but those aren't exactly the most valid ideas in the world.
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| As it turns out, jet fuel CAN melt steel beams. |
This article is not about those conspiracies, though. They are not "exposed" conspiracies, but rather on illegitimate science. This is about the laws which were passed in the wake of 9/11 which caused a legitimate conspiracy to occur not once, but twice; once under Bush and once under Obama. And if you can justify this action under only one of these two presidents but not the other, then -- Democrat or Republican -- you are a hypocrite. It is the same action under both presidents, so you either have to justify it as good under both or detest it as amoral under both. There is no either-or based on political affiliation.
Shortly after that fated day, Congress passed a bill to "deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes." The passing of this bill was nearly unanimous, with only 1 senator and 1 house representative objecting. On October 26th, 2001, with that bill passing both the house and the senate with unanimous bipartisan support, and based on the fear of the American Population, President Bush signed The PATRIOT Act into law. Since this is the law which will prompt the conspiracy, we will use this as the first year of the conspiracy.
The bill looked good on the surface, but there is a section, 215 as it's referred to, which allows wide spread monitoring of civilian telecommunication and internet activities without warrant and without prior suspicion. No one outside of the government or any of its agencies would have considered the concept of any government agency spying on its own citizens. After all, such activities would be a breach against the 4th Amendment of the American Bill of Rights, which states "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
On December 16th, 2005, The New York Times published an article claiming that the NSA under the Bush administration does monitor calls and emails of Americans while well inside American borders., done without the approval of the court. A stark contrast to the 4th amendment as it currently stands. This was later confirmed by then Attorney General of the United States Alberto Gonzalez. Later on, President Bush called the exposure of this program shameful "during a time of war", and went on to say that they are not only legal but necessary. After all, we were in the heat of the Iraq war and the infamous War on Terror. We needed protection at all costs.
A few months later, a former AT&T Technician revealed that the telecommunications company was aiding the NSA in their monitoring of the American population. They did this by handing over phone record of their cell phone clients, trying to make it easier for the NSA to monitor cell phone activity. After all, they had the decades since their creation just after the Pearl Harbor Attack on December 7th 1941 to perfect doing so with land-lines, but not much time doing so with modern (for the time; remember, this is pre-smart-phones) cell phones.
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| Flip Phones are So Hoard! |
Shortly after that revelation, there was a lawsuit brought against AT&T by Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of its customers, quoting invasion of privacy. After all, their customers expect a sense of not being spied on by anyone, especially their phone companies in liege with their own government, and doubly especially without a warrent for such spying. In july of 2006, it was revealed by USA Today that MCI and Sprint were also in on the action for helping the NSA spy on us. Their parent companies were also revealed (SBC Communications, Verizon, and Nextel, respectively for AT&T, MCI, and Sprint).
Nothing came of the lawsuits and the public backlash until March 5th, 2009, when the FISA court told the NSA that they had to get a warrant for every call which they monitor. This was 44 days after President Obama took the office of the Presidency. That should have been the end of the NSA's collections of phone and email records. That's where the end of the time frame for this NSA conspiracy should have been placed if we lived in a less imperfect world.
But we don't, so it isn't.
Since we've spent plenty of time together in this post as it is, the rest of the story will be saved for next time. As we will see, this is where the plot thickens, because life and government is nowhere near as perfect as we want or as some people want to claim. Not even under a President of a different political affiliation than Bush. This conspiracy does continue under the Obama administration. Join me next time when we actually get the values for time and people involved and all of the values required to make statistical analysis of conspiracies viable.
Relevant Entries:
Start Here
Start Here
Take that as you will,
K. "Alan" Eister Δαβ
K. "Alan" Eister Δαβ
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