This week, May 12-16, the International Association of Whistleblowers will hold a conference in Washington, D.C. to publicly describe the challenges they faced in bringing to light corruption and abuses of power by the federal government, its contractors and the medical community.

The event is free, and the public is invited to attend. The schedule of events (including times and locations) is available on the IAW website. Even organizers say you can disregard the registration fee requested on the registration form.  Below, is a summary of the schedule along with details that are not available on the event  website.

On two consecutive days this week, disaster visited Fort Meade, an Army facility located north of Washington, D.C.  On Thursday, two people died when a small plane crashed nearby and Friday, a six-alarm blaze struck one of the facility's buildings.

The chances of such a convergence must be remote. Still, the events might have drawn little notice beyond the local community were it not that Fort Meade is home to the Army's largest counter-intelligence unit, criticized for its domestic surveillance of peaceful activist groups. This fact, irregularities in accounts of the incidents, and evasiveness by government officials invite closer scrutiny of the unfortunate events.

(I posted this at my blog and Daily Kos and figured I should shoot it over here, too!!)

Certainly the Bush administration is in a pickle over the recent revelation that Bush himself, in 2002, authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to conduct electronic surveillance against US citizens.  Presumably, and I'm paraphrasing the President himself with this, it was only to listen to bad guys talking to bad guys.  According to Bush, this action was not only legal but required in his solemn duty to protect America and its citizens.

I think it's worthwhile to take a closer look at FISA itself, inform ourselves, and be prepared for the arguments the administration is going to make as to why these secret, warrantless surveillance activities are not, as the President asserts, illegal.  In fact, his argument is that they are proper.

Read on.