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ZAID

Started by krazykat-migration,

245 posts in this topic

esquirecomics

esquirecomics

Posted
Posted

Ok all you comic book geeks ( poke2.gifflowerred.gif) who have been prodding and poking me to use a comic book reference on live tv, don't say I never delivered for you!

 

Watch MSNBC's Keith Oberman's Countdown tonight. It has already aired live but repeats at 12 am EST. I was interviewed about the NSA wiretapping scandal and somehow managed to use a familiar name and item. acclaim.gif

 

Whether they ever ask me back again is now another story altogether. foreheadslap.giftonofbricks.gif

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Aman619

Aman619

Posted
Posted

I stayed up to watch. COOL, Mark! You looked so serious! And you spoke, seemingly extemporaneously and still ended your statements before rambling off in circles like so many others do. good job. Must be pretty nerve wracking waiting in a studio for Olberman (or whoever) to finally get to your segment. And too bad its so serious you cant smile!

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tth2

tth2

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Posted
superman and kryptonite, referring to the Bush administrations security endeavors in the wire tapping efforts and what could possibly be th eonly thing to take them down.

That`s so L-A-M-E! That`s the kind of comic book reference that any layman could have come up with. I was expecting something a little more "insider". I`m very disappointed. frown.gif

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esquirecomics

esquirecomics

Posted
Posted
superman and kryptonite, referring to the Bush administrations security endeavors in the wire tapping efforts and what could possibly be th eonly thing to take them down.

That`s so L-A-M-E! That`s the kind of comic book reference that any layman could have come up with. I was expecting something a little more "insider". I`m very disappointed. frown.gif

 

Man, everyone is a critic! boo.gif

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tth2

tth2

Posted
Posted
superman and kryptonite, referring to the Bush administrations security endeavors in the wire tapping efforts and what could possibly be th eonly thing to take them down.

That`s so L-A-M-E! That`s the kind of comic book reference that any layman could have come up with. I was expecting something a little more "insider". I`m very disappointed. frown.gif

 

Man, everyone is a critic! boo.gif

That's what happens when you build up expectations! poke2.gif

 

As penance, you now have to work in a reference to Toro and Bucky in your next TV appearance. poke2.gif

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esquirecomics

esquirecomics

Posted
Posted
superman and kryptonite, referring to the Bush administrations security endeavors in the wire tapping efforts and what could possibly be th eonly thing to take them down.

That`s so L-A-M-E! That`s the kind of comic book reference that any layman could have come up with. I was expecting something a little more "insider". I`m very disappointed. frown.gif

 

Man, everyone is a critic! boo.gif

That's what happens when you build up expectations! poke2.gif

 

As penance, you now have to work in a reference to Toro and Bucky in your next TV appearance. poke2.gif

 

Now that will require some ingenuity! I'll see what I can do. Perhaps when Rove is indicted.

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tth2

tth2

Posted
Posted
superman and kryptonite, referring to the Bush administrations security endeavors in the wire tapping efforts and what could possibly be th eonly thing to take them down.

That`s so L-A-M-E! That`s the kind of comic book reference that any layman could have come up with. I was expecting something a little more "insider". I`m very disappointed. frown.gif

 

Man, everyone is a critic! boo.gif

That's what happens when you build up expectations! poke2.gif

 

As penance, you now have to work in a reference to Toro and Bucky in your next TV appearance. poke2.gif

 

Now that will require some ingenuity! I'll see what I can do. Perhaps when Rove is indicted.

Of course! Penance that's easy isn't really penance. wink.gif Good luck! 27_laughing.gif

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esquirecomics

esquirecomics

Posted
Posted

MSNBC (UNCORRECTED TRANSCRIPT)

 

SHOW: COUNTDOWN 8:00 PM EST

 

May 23, 2006 Tuesday

 

****

 

OLBERMANN: More fallout over that other CIA leak, the one the White House wishes never happened, the NSA domestic spy scandal, a new report explaining how the National Security Agency may have been able to obtain phone records and other personal data of millions of Americans while still giving the telephone companies themselves what a previous administration used to call plausible deniability.

 

The solution, buying all that information from a third party, your tax dollars in action, "Business Week" magazine reporting that the Bush administration is spending tens of millions of dollars every year to buy commercial databases, patronizing a small group of companies that specialize in tracking the finances, phone numbers, biographical information of millions of us.

 

And it may all be perfectly legal, the Privacy Act restricting what the government does with such information only when it was the entity collecting it.

 

For more on this latest development in an already complicated story, I`m joined now by Mark Zaid, an attorney who specializes in national security cases and has, in fact, represented more than a dozen intelligence officers in clearance cases.

 

Thank you for your time, sir.

 

MARK ZAID, ATTORNEY: Good evening, Keith.

 

OLBERMANN: Is this, in fact, how two of the big phone companies might have been able to get away with responding to that "USA" story, "USA Today" story about them supplying this information to the government by denying the stories, demanding retractions? And is it really, is it just semantics, or is there substance here?

 

ZAID: Well, it may very well be. I don`t think a lot of people realize how much outsourcing even the major companies do to smaller companies that handle a lot of their business. And the government does the same. And the government, in fact, for example, the Defense Department has been buying data in a lot of the data mining endeavors that it`s been doing.

 

And most of the time, as long as it doesn`t know where the information is coming from, it feels a lot of the legal restrictions or limitations are lifted. And entities and subcontractors, defense contractors are going around and purchasing that data and then filtering it to the government.

 

There`s also the issue that there are statutes and executive orders, most likely, that allow federal agencies to deny, essentially lie to the public, and to courts, that, in fact, certain classified data exists. And it may very well be that they`ve extended that type of ability to some of the private contractors.

 

OLBERMANN: This claim, what`s your viewpoint on the Privacy Act and the contention of the administration that this is as legal as it claims it is?

 

ZAID: Well, the Privacy Act is one of the most convoluted and confusing statutes. Thirty years old, written in the days when a lot of these problems came up in post-Watergate, with spying and snooping and IRS Involvement, et cetera.

 

The problem is that the thing is chock full of amendments and exceptions, and exceptions to the exceptions. And it`s almost impossible to figure out at times what it prevents. And a lot of the exceptions deal with national security and law enforcement, and obviously that`s exactly where this story falls.

 

OLBERMANN: For the sake of argument in this case here, let`s say that the collection of this data was, is, perfectly legal. If that`s the case, why not go to the secret intelligence court for permission? Then why not go to FISA? And if it`s all true, why, as it was reported, why would the government have directly approached one of the other major phone carriers, Qwest?

 

ZAID: Well, I think that`s the $64,000 question. To me, the concerns that are abounding from this story are not as much the very specifics of the NSA programs, but it`s where this administration is incrementally taking itself. It feels that over the last 30 years, the presidential office has lost power. And it`s trying to regrab that back.

 

I think, in many ways, the NSA issue in circumventing the FISA court has nothing to do with whether or not the NSA can do this. If it had gone to FISA, no doubt it would have been given permission. But the administration wants it to be known, to both the judiciary and the legislature, that it has the authority to grant this type of access.

 

The question`s going to be, this administration thinks it`s as invulnerable as Superman, and what type of Kryptonite, essentially, if you want to make a little light of it, is going to come up that`s actually going to bring down some of the illegalities, if that`s what it is, that have been transpiring?

 

I`m always reminded, and this is what concerns me, the story or the poem that came out of the Holocaust, where the individual said, you know, They came for the trade unionists, I didn`t say anything because I`m not a trade unionist. Then they came for the gypsies, I didn`t say anything, I`m not a gypsy. They came for me, and there was no one left to say anything.

 

And that`s the type of slippery slope that this type of action, like the NSA spying scandal, is bringing about that the public really needs to look at.

 

OLBERMANN: First it was the international calls, then the domestic calls, and then it`ll be conversations.

 

Mark Zaid, an attorney who knows national security law backwards and forwards, great thanks for your time, sir.

 

ZAID: Any time, Keith, thank you.

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adamstrange

adamstrange

Posted
Posted
Next time, Mark, it's Pastor Martin Niemoller.

 

First they came...

 

I know. I didn't want to take a chance and say the name on air and screw it up as I hadn't memorized the name. And, yes, I know the gypsy part is not in the original. The message I wanted to convey made it through.

 

 

Screw up? It was CNBC, right? Couldn't have been more than a half a million people watching. poke2.gif

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esquirecomics

esquirecomics

Posted
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Next time, Mark, it's Pastor Martin Niemoller.

 

First they came...

 

I know. I didn't want to take a chance and say the name on air and screw it up as I hadn't memorized the name. And, yes, I know the gypsy part is not in the original. The message I wanted to convey made it through.

 

 

Screw up? It was CNBC, right? Couldn't have been more than a half a million people watching. poke2.gif

 

MSNBC. gossip.gif

 

My whole family was watching so I had to look good! 27_laughing.gif

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