Bastards

Calling it “SPYING AND LYING,” Glenn Reynolds links an article that really ought to shock more people.

The unconstitutional DEA has virtually unlimited access to all of our telephone records, and agents are taught to routinely lie about where they got them.

Shortly after the Snowden leaks began exposing the NSA’s massive collection efforts, the New York Times uncovered the DEA’s direct access to AT&T telecom switches (via non-government employee “analysts” working for AT&T), from which it and other law enforcement agencies were able to gather phone call and location data.

Unlike the NSA’s bulk records programs (which are limited to holding five years worth of data), the Hemisphere database stretches back to 1987 and advertises instant access to “10 years of records.” And unlike the NSA’s program, there’s not even the slightest bit of oversight. All law enforcement needs to run a search of the Hemisphere database is an administrative subpoena — a piece of paper roughly equivalent to calling up Hemisphere analysts and asking them to run a few numbers. Administrative subpoenas are only subject to the oversight of the agency issuing them.

It’s highly unlikely these administrative subpoenas are stored (where they could be accessed as public records) considering the constant emphasis placed on parallel construction in the documents obtained by Dustin Slaughter of MuckRock — documents it took the DEA ten months to turn over.

Unlike the documents obtained by the New York Times (possibly inadvertently), these do contain a few redactions, including some apparent success stories compiled at the end of the presentation. But like the earlier documents, the documents show that the DEA and law enforcement have unchecked access to a database that agents and officers are never allowed to talk about — not even inside a courtroom.

There is only one remedy for this that the bastards will understand, and that is to overturn every criminal conviction obtained during the period in question.

Regardless of what anyone thinks about the war on drugs, I see no other way to rein in what is a massive conspiracy — at all levels of government — to violate the Fourth Amendment.

…the DEA has access to loads of information and a policy of “parallel construction in all things.” Tons of other government agencies, including the NSA, FBI and CIA are funneling information to the DEA and instructing it to hide the origin. The DEA then demands law enforcement agencies around the nation to do the same thing. This stacks the deck against defendants, who are “walled off” from the chain of evidence, preventing them from challenging sources, methods or the integrity of the evidence itself.

The title of this post is an understatement.

MORE: I’m tempted to ask how these people can live with themselves, but it’s obvious that like most fanatics, they are blind to the monstrous nature of their evil, because they think they are doing good.