Today Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Jim Webb called the newest details to come to light about the National Security Agency (NSA) wiretapping program yet another instance of gross abuse and overreach by the current Administration and called for an independent panel to investigate the program.+óGé¼+ôI believe we need a politically neutral panel with impeccable credentials and the appropriate security clearance to examine these activities and report their findings back to the American people,+óGé¼-¥ said Webb.
USA Today reported today that the U.S. government had amassed +óGé¼GÇ£ with the help of three telephone service providers +óGé¼GÇ£ a database of almost every phone call made within the country by secretly collecting information about the phone calls of ordinary Americans.
Last year it was publicly revealed that the NSA had been secretly taping international phone calls of ordinary U.S. citizens in an effort to catch terrorists. In March, Senator Russ Feingold called for the Congress to formally censure the President for illegally eavesdropping on Americans.
+óGé¼+ôThis issue is a matter of utmost importance to our existence as a free society,+óGé¼-¥ said Webb. +óGé¼+ôNational security is vital, but the Congress must always protect against the abuse of our individual rights.+óGé¼-¥
I haven't tracked it, but there's a split in interest between ITAA companies and certain telcos.
The other NSA data provider, BellSouth, is a company that Miller had squabbles with:
http://www.itaa.org/newsroom/release.cfm?ID=655
And perhaps this is also related to his current interest in Neutral Net.
Finally, the dollar amount that the company PACs involved here are absolutely huge. These are the PACs that ITAA informally delivers. And don't forget the SBC (merged in with AT&T) PACs.
Just to repeat, if it involves large scale IT and large quantities of money, Harris Miller is most likely only a degree or two away.
This is exactly what we are working to change. It is highly unlikely that either George Allen or Harris Miller has had some epiphany to do an about face on just about everything he has worked for during the last decade or two.
Jim Webb knows exactly what we need to get our country back on track again. And it is not gamesmanship or self-redefinition.
But if you view the law as something to be carefully skirted, and if you believe that honesty is outmoded and obsolete, and if you think that the basic rights of citizens are just words, then Jim Webb is not the candidate for you.