Based on the many comments I have seen on various Blogs, discussion forums, and even conversations on the street in regard the NSA Wiretapping program, I have finally transcribed the section of the Interview I conducted with Democratic challenger JOE ROBERTS who was running against Republican Incumbent, Jeff Miller, in the 2006 election for Florida’s District One – the Panhandle area.
The below transcript is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief; I believe it offers insight, as well as a politicians view of the scandal in regard the illegal NSA Wiretapping program. There is no “smoking gun” – but the logic and points Mr. Roberts make are germane to this controversy – and if these suspicions had been made public many months ago, perhaps more investigating would have been conducted then, before the damage was done, rather than after the elections were over.
WILLIAM CORMIER: Joe, What’s your feelings about the wiretapping program, ah, the new programs the FBI is trying to implement as far as voice over IP, ah, ISP providers, ah, manufacturers like CISCO having to build-in to their hardware “back-doors” for the FBI so that they can literally spy on average Americans?
JOE ROBERTS: Well, I don’t think that the, this is a benign terrorist related kind of an operation that they’re doing. When you look at the amount of data that they’re gathering, they’re gathering billions and billions of phone calls, and you could never go through all those phone calls in a, in a few lifetimes. You just can’t deal with kind of data. So I think what they’re doing is mining for specific information on specific individuals. Ah, for instance, if someone might be running against Jeff Miller in Florida’s District One, like me, it might be useful for them to be able to monitor all of my cell phone calls. And, it would be easy to do with the programs they have, so I don’t think they are casting a wide net here and, I don’t think they have analysts who are going to go through billions of phone calls looking for terrorist activity. I think they’re spying on individual Americans and I think it’s illegal, I think it’s unconstitutional; And it breaks the laws of this land and I think it shows just how much of a, just how much of a contempt that our current government has for our Constitution and laws of our land. And that’s what I think about it.WILLIAM CORMIER: Yeah, there’s been a lot of speculation about that because Americans are looking at some of their representatives, Congressmen, and they’re aghast and simply don’t understand why they are voting against their constituencies’ and there has been some speculation that perhaps, information has been gathered on them, and, it’s all speculation, and none of us have an answer. Ah, but from my standpoint, I think I agree with you – that what stops them from doing exactly what you said?
JOE ROBERTS: Well, there, there’s just very few reasons that they would actually gather billions of phone calls. They cannot go through billions of phone calls in a random way or an organized way and come-up with people that they identify that are involved in terrorism. They have to go into this database with a name already – and with a specific agenda for locating information on an individual. And we don’t know who those individuals are. And, I suspect, and I feel, given the bent of this current government we have, I suspect that they would be looking at their political opponents. Ah, Ah, phone calls, and that’s what I’m afraid of; that’s what I would suspect; I don’t have any proof of that – it just seems to me that, ah, that would be a very likely reason they are doing this.
WILLIAM CORMIER: I appreciate that. I think that a lot of other Americans feel the same way too.JOE ROBERTS: OK
Note: I am not a professional in regard typing-out transcriptions; There may be an “ah”, “uh” or other omissions of that taped conversation, however, 99.9 % of the above transcription is true and correct – and it was taped in front of several people and with the full knowledge and approval of Joe Roberts.
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1 justanothercoverup.com » Blog Archive » Why it’s impossible to Impeach Bush and Cheney! // Jun 23, 2007 at 5:06 pm
[...] The Democrats have long suspected the Bush administration has been illegally spying on their activities – referenced in the below article, but talked about in hushed tones all over the country, too cowed and blocked by “Executive Privilege” to gather the proof necessary to substantiate their suspicions. The NSA Wiretapping Program – Is Bush spying on Politicians? [...]
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