Sibel Edmonds, FISA and Bush's Brain

I read Bush's Brain by James Moore and Wayne Slater a few years ago. It outlined quite well the strategies that Karl Rove used successfully in Texas to propel a marginal candidate to the presidency. Karl taught courses in political dirty tricks, and he was so effective that Bush's father (41) banned him from his campaign. One of the tricks he would use is to befriend FBI agents and gather information on opponents, and then at least get them indicted shortly before an election.

Knowing this, I was really worried when it came out that this administration was gathering data via phone, emails and data banks illegally. My first thought was how does anyone know that they aren't gathering information on political opponents, or on congressmen that may need a little pressure to vote 'appropriately'? The answer, of course, is they don't.

Which brings us to Sibel Edmonds, who has been banned from speaking out about corruption within the Bush administration that she learned about as an interpreter at one of the intelligence agencies. George has employed the rarely used State Secrets act to gag her.

"The fact that over the past five years, no known criminal investigations or indictments have resulted from the FISA warrants in question, ... leads to the possibility that the information gathered through the warrants was being used by the Bush administration for political control and not law enforcement purposes." (From The Narcosphere, "Bush Administration's abuse of FISA warrants linked to Sibel Edmonds case" by Bill Conroy 25-Feb-2007)

This is nasty stuff. And almost makes the ruckus over the firing of US Attorney's, and extraordinary renditions seem quaint.