Daniel Elsberg's Psychiatrist: Is the NSA Bugging YOUR Doctor?

[McCamy Taylor]

Much is being made (by the press) of the fact that the NSA has been bugging the press to determine who their sources are so that the feds can arrest their sources and put the reporters out of work. Makes sense that this would be BIG news to journalists, and since they control the presses, it is the story we all will hear. And it is an important one.

However, there is something else which the NSA can do with a wiretap that has the potential to put even more of us at risk for blackmail or prosecution or blacklist or intimidation. I have not seen anyone in the MSM media discuss this possibility, even though it is one of the Nixon WH's original dirty tricks. I refer to the burglary of Daniel Elsberg's psychiatrist in order to obtain damaging info on a WH enemy.

Nowadays, you do not have to break in to get medical records. All you have to do is tap a phone. That is because lots and lots of medical records are sent over phone lines. For instance, doctors fax medical records to other doctors who are consulting on their patient. Intercept that fax and you have free medical record. Doctors do telephone consultations. Listen in and you have more info. It gets better. Some doctors dictate charts over the phone and call in refills over the phone and talk to patients over the phone.

The NSA would not even have to blindly tap phones. They could demand that the insurance industry hand over its patient info--the stuff that we already knows that the industry mines for data and secretly sells to the highest bidder. Say the FBI wants to abuse its terrorism powers to do a drug investigation. It looks up the names of some active heroin users getting treatment. Then, it listens in until someone is noted to relapse. Follow that person, search him or her, and voila, caught with possession of a harmful substance. Cut a deal to catch the dealer.

The NSA could use it legitimately to check everyone getting a flight physical or vaccines for foreign travel. But they could also check to see if any enemies of the WH have embarassing diseases. They could see if their enemies have any psyciatric conditions that could be exploited.

This is what Nixon and Co. would have done with the NSA's wire tap power, and Cheney/Rove are following Tricky Dick every step of the way. The only difference is that Nixon was a hell of a lot smarter than either man, and I am beginning to think that Nixon was a better man who actually gave a damn what happened to this country, whereas Rove and Cheney dont give a shit about consequences. They are like two kids playing Watergate.

[TomInTib]

1. And attorneys, pastors/priests, accountants, and on and on..n/t

[bobbieinok]

2. Ashcroft early on said prison officials could listen to prisoner-lawyer ta

talks

this was before 9-11, I think.......he just decreed this was OK and destroyed lawyer-client privilege.....no need for congress or president to have any say; DoJ head just decreed and it was so

[McCamy Taylor]

3. Good point. Dr.s keep extensive records is why they are at risk.

Not as likely to get a priest faxing the confessional as you are to get a doctor faxing ten years worth of detailed medical records to a surgeon when someone needs an emergency CABG. Doctors are taught to keep detailed records that anyone--even a lay juror--could read and decipher years in the future, and people will answer almost any question that a doctor asks truthfully, under the false sense of security that their records are secret. Used to be an IV drug using prostitute? It's in the medical record.

[unhappycamper]

4. They are bugging everyone who uses a telepone or the internets.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/unhappycamper/4