CIA Spying Lawsuit: Do Americans Have Privacy Rights When Abroad?
While all American and international media ignored this important story involving Mike Pompeo, the CIA, and Julian Assange, a newsletter that supports whistleblowers reported on it.
The Dissenter Newsletter, which posts about cases of whistleblowers and their struggle against governments and corporations, stood out for its first-hand reporting when its journalist Kevin Gosztola reported the update on last year’s story of a lawsuit brought against the CIA and its former director Mike Pompeo.
Last year, the lawsuit by two American journalists along with a couple of attorneys against the CIA and its former head Mike Pompeo made headlines in some major media outlets. The four Americans claimed that CIA under Pompeo spied on them when they visited Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange in 2017 and 2018 at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where Assange had been granted asylum. A video of an attorney representing the plaintiffs serving Pompeo the lawsuit papers at an event made rounds on Twitter/X in November 2022.
The media quickly went quiet on the case with no follow-up stories or discussions about the issue in any news shows. But on November 19, Gosztola reported on what he called ‘a rare court hearing” held on November 16 before Judge John Koeltl of the Southern District of New York. The hearing was held for the case against CIA and Pompeo and revealed an interesting and important point about privacy rights of Americans.
Gosztola wrote that Assistant U.S. Attorney Jean-David Barnea, who represents the CIA and Pompeo in the lawsuit, declined to either confirm or deny that the CIA had targeted American citizens without obtaining a warrant. This was the defense attorney’s response to Judge Koeltl’s direct question whether his client, the government, concedes that no warrant was obtained for the surveillance because it was not needed. When the judge pressed on him for a clear answer on the question of warrant, Barnea answered that he was not at liberty to comment about it.
Barnea also contended that Americans visiting Assange at the embassy of Ecuador in London did not have the privacy rights that they otherwise enjoy back home within America.
Barnea, who represents the CIA and Pompeo, contended that the Fourth Amendment right to privacy under the U.S. Constitution did not apply at the Ecuador embassy in London.
Concluding the hearing, Judge Koeltl asked the plaintiff’s attorney to submit an “amendment letter” to add the point of the warrant’s relevance to the case. The next hearing of the case is expected in the second week of December.
A large number of conservatives have come to assume a critical opinion of Mike Pompeo since his role in siding with the intelligence community against the advocates of freedom to information became obvious over the years. In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, President Kennedy’s nephew and presidential candidate for 2024 Robert Kennedy Jr. shared a discussion he had with Pompeo over dinner. According to Kennedy Jr., Pompeo admitted that he did not do what he should have done when he was the head of the CIA and that the top leadership at the agency does not believe in the Democratic Institutions of the United States of America.
“While all American and international media ignored this important story involving Mike Pompeo, the CIA, and Julian Assange, a newsletter that supports whistleblowers reported on it.” Except I remember reading about this all over the place last year, so I looked it up and found it:
Aljazeera 8/15/2022 long story as well as Reuters on the same day and about a dozen other major media outlets — more so in England.
Does not look good for the Dumpster who adds: “The media quickly went quiet on the case with no follow-up stories or discussions about the issue in any news shows.”
The story is on WIKI where the story first broke on November of 2022, updated many times ever since. Except the 2023 action has not made it in wiki or anywhere except in the blogosphere and of the half dozen of these, they are all linked back to The Dissenter who appears to be the only press in the room.
Dempsey has a WINNER!!!! A true investigative piece.
Finally.
And it’s on Assange.
Who cares.
No wonder it’s not picked up but kudos to the Dumpster to finally get one.
Lost all respect for Pompeo when he went all in for traitor Haspel
It is very important that American citizens have public oversight of all government agencies, even those that do require a modicum of secrecy to do their jobs effectively. Otherwise, and as has been the case too often, these government agencies turn against the very citizens they were designed to protect. They literally turn against those who ultimately pay for their existence.
I find it interesting that in the 60’s, it was the leftists in fear of the government, and today it’s the conservatives.
If they start growing their hair and wearing bells, I’m gonna freak.
I lost the hair but did keep the bells. :>)
Well this one sentence just about says it all, and it would appear that they do not care who’s soil they are on when they say, “Pompeo admitted that he did not do what he should have done when he was the head of the CIA and that the top leadership at the agency does not believe in the Democratic Institutions of the United States of America.”
I have never expected my US Constituional rights from a foreign land’s government but I would naturally expect any US institution abroad would respect my US Constitutional rights!
Yeah, Pompeo should have cleaned house.
I find that statement from rfk, jr.dubious. As dubious as some of his beliefs. Why would Pompeo even unload on him to begin with? Is this the guy you share secrets with? On a show with a known liar?
More important; I thought when communicating with foreigners, there is no expectation of privacy? Likewise, our emails stored on servers on foreign soil were not private? Fisa, espionage act, etc? And warrantless too.
The email one is real sneaky given we don’t have a clue where the servers are; I just figure none of it’s private.
Except what I write here that Horist informs me is always private being always unread 🤔
Thought that was a 9/11 thingee.
Excellent point Frank when you say, “The email one is real sneaky given we don’t have a clue where the servers are; I just figure none of it’s private. “. I do much the same thing. My rule of thumb is that if I cannot say it to momma, it does not belong in print. Google shifts our emails all around the world when backing up their servers, so at any point in time you really do not know where your emails are. There are plenty of cases of people being approached by NSA and other security agencies about their emails because when they reload the server they are backing up, the emails come back to the USA and are viewed by government agencies for threads to terrorism according to the Patriot Act. Coming back to the USA is when your emails are most vulnerable.
Frank, I hope you haven’t been sending dick pics out like John Oliver did??? You can be identified by your too. No two are alike!