THE NSA’S ACHILLES HEEL?

I have to keep this short as I’m soon boarding a very long flight to China.  Jack Kelly will be manning the HFR ramparts while I’m gone, but I have to tell you this now.

The story starts with an obscure state politician representing District 67 of the Utah House of Representatives named Marc Roberts.  If you look at that official state government website, you won’t see anything unusual.

Like most pols, he also has his own site: marcroberts67.com.  How many elected politicians start their site off with a quote from Bastiat’s The Law?  Followed by a statement of commitment to State Sovereignty and the Tenth Amendment?

Yet it’s not Roberts’ words that are most interesting, however, it’s what he is doing.  He may have found the Achilles’ Heel of the NSA.

You may have heard of the gigantic $1.5 billion, one million square-foot date collection center the NSA is building in Bluffdale, Utah called Bumblehive.  It will require 1.7 million gallons of water a day to cool the massive NSA computers spying on all of us. 

Yesterday (2/12), the London Guardian reported that Roberts is proposing legislation to cut off the NSA water supply.

Roberts calls his bill the Utah 4th Amendment Protection Act, which would prohibit state material support, participation, or assistance to any federal agency that collects electronic data or metadata without a search warrant "that particularly describes the person, place and thing to be searched or seized."

Roberts says, "The language of the Fourth Amendment is clear.  It simply protects us against unreasonable and unwarranted searches or seizures of our persons, private residencies and property, documents and information and personal and private belongings.  This legislation preserves those rights to the people," as the mass surveillance and data collection on US citizens by the NSA is an obvious violation of the 4^th.

What enables Roberts’ bill, if passed, to shut Bumblehive down is a 1952 federal law called the McCarran Amendment, which waives federal sovereign supremacy over intrastate water, and gives the States instead supreme power to regulate it.

Ever hear of Yucca Mountain?  It was going to be the federalies’ nuclear waste dump.  Nevadans hated this so much that the Nevada State Legislature passed a law stating that it was not in the interest of the State for the State Water Engineer to grant or renew water permits for Yucca Mountain.  The State Water Engineer, Peter Morros, followed the law, effectively shutting off almost all of the water for the Yucca Mountain project.

The Federalies sued.  The Federal 9^th Circuit Court, in United States v. Peter Morros and the State of Nevada, ruled that the State Water Engineer had the legal power to do what he did, regardless of the consequences to the Federal Yucca Mountain project because under the McCarran Amendment, the State of Nevada owned all the ground water in the State, including that under Yucca Mountain and the Nuclear Waste Site.

Without the water, the Yucca Mountain project is defunct.  The same will happen with Bumblehive under Roberts’ bill.  Without the groundwater, Bumblehive’s cooling system will have to be redesigned and rebuilt to use dry rather than wet cooling towers.  This will require far more electricity — more than existing transmission lines and generating plants can provide. 

Building a new power plant with dry cooling towers will take years and add immense more cost, provided the State permits to do so were granted (not likely).

The NSA has declared all Americans to be potential Enemies of the State, which justifies their spying on all of us.  Marc Roberts may have found their Achilles’ Heel.  Let’s congratulate him and wish him Godspeed in his efforts.

Note:  Thanks to Skye for his guidance on this issue.