Morality is not determined by the church you attend nor the faith you embrace. It is determined by the quality of your character and the positive impact you have on those you meet along your journey
Monday, June 10, 2013
Too soon?
Well it made me laugh. And if we are going to lose our privacy we might as well hang on to our sense of humor.
Please. The boneheaded legislation that loosened restrictions on intelligence gathering was enacted in an explosion of boneheadism unparalleled in our national history. The fact that it happened less than six weeks after Saudi boneheads drove planes into the World Trade Center should tell you that it [legislation] was already being considered. The Bonehead...er...Patriot Act now lives as testimony to total boneheadism. Obama had nothing to do with it. He might even help move the Bonehead Act off the law books and in to the history books. Please. If we are going to lose [have long since lost] our privacy, please attribute that loss to the actual boneheads.
Sorry I just can't seem to get upset with this. As a parent of two young teens, knowing the ton of banal inanity that is posted on a daily basis on Verizon by such children, I feel more sympathy than ire for anyone who has to read through it- even if it is first computer scanned for keywords..
I don't understand why you are not embarrassed to demonstrate your ignorance and stupidity every time you comment.
Don't you realize that readers here are not stupid and willfully ignorant and deliberate liars (so un-Christian of you!) like you and others that watch fox news?
Suggest you read the 4th amendment again. Warrants have to be specific No warrant can authorize what Obama did Spy on every single american Obama even campaigned on ending warrantless surveillance Just another one of his lies.
In 2006there was exactly the same sinuses going on with the NSA. Nobody cared about it then, because gwb was our 'savior'. Everybody is bent out of shape now, because we have that black Muslim socialist commie pinko as our President now.
Also, too, I am not sure if this whole thing actually ALSO was coming out of the right wingers. There are sooo many issues that do not add up with that 'whistleblower'. How can a high school dropout rise so fast and so high both in the CIA as well as in the NSA? Also, he said he left his girlfriend and family behind. Turns out, he and his girlfriend moved out TOGETHER out of their Hawaiian house on May 1, because the owner wanted to sell the house...
I truly don't care about this. They can observe me as much as they want - I'm not a terrorist. And, we do have them in the USA...as well as across the seas. This type of observation is required. And, it was NOT started by President Obama! Look at the histories of J. Edgar Hoover - FBI head for years, President Nixon, President Johnson and the most recent President Bush!
I think that when President Obama was elected the first time, he had no idea what was ahead of him! But, he learned quickly and has gotten so much smarter this second term. The obstruction by the Republicans has been horrible and I think it is going to be fun watching President Obama continue to work around them and be successful. He has no other option!
I respect the guy and wish him well.
Oh, and the guy that "leaked" the national security information (via the journalist overseas) should be found, brought back to the USA, put on trial and executed. He is a traitor!
Snowden is no hero and hardly a patriot. What he IS is a snitch, pure and simple. But even more so, a snitch with a twisted need for attention, who then went to an even MORE twisted attention seeking horror like Greenwald to get his cock stroked. These guys have put this country at risk, has nearly single-handed destroyed what should be confidential information that is designed to keep this country safe. Both he and Greenwald should be prosecuted to the highest degree of the law for their nefarious activities, and I hope that they are.
This is a man who: left his mother and relatives to answer for his transgressions alone; left his live-in girlfriend also holding the bag; cut and ran after disclosing national secrets causing irreparable damage to the company that employed him, the country that nourished him, and who knows how many others. Courageous fellow? Nah, he's just a traitor.
Obama campaigned on ending warrant less surveillance Just another one of his lies. Even the Patriot Act only applies as part of an investigation Obama used the secret court and applied it to all Americans with no ongoing investigation
The real story in the NSA scandal is the collapse of journalism
Summary: A bombshell story published in the Washington Post this week alleged that the NSA had enlisted nine tech giants, including Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Apple, in a massive program of online spying. Now the story is unraveling, and the Post has quietly changed key details.
...And then a funny thing happened the next morning. If you followed the link to that story, you found a completely different story, nearly twice as long, with a slightly different headline. The new story wasn’t just expanded; it had been stripped of key details, with no acknowledgment of the changes. That updated version, time-stamped at 8:51 AM on June 7, backed off from key details in the original story.
Crucially, the Post removed the “knowingly participated” language and also scrubbed a reference to the program as being “highly classified.” In addition, a detail in the opening graf that claimed the NSA could “track a person’s movements and contacts over time” was changed to read simply “track foreign targets.”
Here’s what a key paragraph in the story originally looked like in a browser window:
NSA Bombshell Story Falling Apart Under Scrutiny; Key Facts Turning Out to Be Inaccurate
It turns out, the NSA PRISM story isn’t quite the bombshell that everyone said it was. Yes, there continues to be a serious cause for concern when it comes to government spying and overreach with its counter-terrorism efforts. But the reporting from Glenn Greenwald and the Washington Post has been shoddy and misleading.
We shouldn’t shrug off our weakened privacy as a merely a side effect of the digital age, either. We ought to fight to preserve as much of our personal information as possible. So if there’s any benefit to the NSA news, it’s to serve as a reminder that, yes, the government is serious about attaining information in its war on terrorism and that we should be aware of what’s going on — checking it when it gets out of control.
But with new contravening information emerging since the original stories were posted by Greenwald and the Washington Post, it’s clear that the reporting by each news outlet was filled with possibly agenda-driven speculation and key inaccuracies.
Greenwald told CNN, “It’s well past time that we have a debate about whether that’s the kind of country and world in which we want to live.”
Canonizing bad reporting as a means of inciting a debate is as bad as no debate at all. Attachment to empirical reality must remain a central trait of the left, otherwise the progressive movement is no better than the non-reality based propagandists on the right who will say and do anything to further the conservative agenda. So perhaps some positive changes on domestic spying are eventually achieved, but at what cost? Greenwald, who doesn’t really care about “left and right,” isn’t concerned with anything other than his personal agenda and clearly he’s willing to do whatever it takes in pursuit of those goals. Specifics presently.
It’s a shame because there’s a way to have this debate without selling out to misinformation. Instead, we appear to be careening way off the empirical rails into hysterical, kneejerk acceptance of half-assed information.
Here’s how this story has played out since late Thursday.
I'm not quite understanding what it is that Snowden had hoped to accomplish by doing this. If he had wanted to shine a light on some wrong doing by the NSA there are plenty of watchdog agencies in the US who would have gladly jumped all over this. Was he about to get canned from his 200K a year job or was he just feeling unappreciated and wanted to feel more important. He could have certainly stayed unnamed but apparently he didn't want that for some reason. So where is all this supposed to lead? There were no laws broken that I'm aware of. The NSA is doing business as allowed by the laws congress has passed and they are not laws that most people were unaware of. He took something that didn't belong to him and basically sold it to a foreign media outlet for what? Recognition? Fame? Maybe even money, who knows. Something doesn't square with this guy
I hope this Snowdon guy rots in jail for a very long time, and his family members lose any security clearances they might have. He ponders the fact that he could be tried under the espionage act, and I think that is the right course to take. You cant just "leak" top secret documents and then run off to China without any consequences. Things just don't work that way.
As to him believing that he didn't do anything illegal, I think he needs to re-think that. This guy is incredibly naïve to say the least.
Here is the deal, what Bradley Manning did was illegal, but he was a legitimate whistleblower so he operated in a gray area. The guy who revealed the Bush warrantless wiretaps, was a legitimate whistleblower because he revealed an illegal activity. This guy wants to call himself a whistleblower for revealing a government activity he doesn't like. The fact that this was authorized by way of a warrant by the FISA court makes it legal, regardless whether you like it or not. What he did cannot be condoned or justified in any rational fashion.
What's infuriating about the attitudes of the supporters of this guy is that the supposed privacy invasions that everybody's having a fit about will never amount to a hill o'beans for anybody's life in the real world, but the vulnerability he's exposed for our safety as a nation definitely will.
Snowden was a contractor.; He signed a specific secrecy provision. He is no hero. There is nothing here but an employee violating his agreement. The Patriot Act is in place for a reason, and this clown discovered nothing of any novelty.
This guy is a traitor to the highest order. His credibility was tarnished when he fled to China of all places. He should be brought back to the U.S. and prosecuted, convicted, and given a life sentence. I'm a disable veteran, and putting our soldiers and the American people in danger of people who want to do us harm, is treason. This guy is no hero!
Now that Snowden has violated every security agreement he ever signed for access to TS info, HE decides to reveal it because HE believes HE knows better and HE does not have to honor his promise NOT to disclose TS Info. Next time we get hit by a terrorist, you'll have Snowden to thank because HE knows what is right for 300 million Americans. He has just trained our enemies on what to look out for. Unbelievable.
However you feel about the Patriot Act, I am starting to think this guy is a con artist. Booz Allen is saying he only worked for them for three months, if true there is no way he would have this type of access. Something stinks.
PRISM Program: Obama Administration Held 22 Briefings For Congress On Key FISA Law
Obama administration officials held 22 separate briefings or meetings for members of Congress on the law that has been used to justify the National Security Agency's controversial email monitoring program, according to data provided by a senior administration official.
According to the official, the sessions that took place over the course of 14 months starting in October 2011 touched on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act, which gives the attorney general and director of national intelligence the authority to gather intelligence on non-U.S. citizens for up to one year. Section 702 has been cited by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper as the legal basis for the NSA's PRISM program, which has allowed the government to track email communication data.
The Guardian and The Washington Post revealed the existence of the PRISM program and another data-monitoring action last week. In defending PRISM from criticism, Clapper stated that U.S. citizens were not, and are not, targeted for the data dragnet. He and others have also insisted that Congress has had ample opportunity to review the program and provide feedback.
To buttress that claim, the senior administration official -- discussing the matter only on condition of anonymity -- sent over the following list of meetings and briefings that took place.
10/19/11: Meeting with Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Staff 1/10/12: House Judiciary Committee Staff Briefings (majority and minority separately briefed) 1/11/12: Senate Judiciary Committee Staff Briefings (majority and minority separately briefed) 3/5/12: Meeting with Nancy Pelosi 3/8/12: Meeting with Harry Reid Staff 3/15/12: Law Briefing for Senate Judiciary Committee staff 3/15/12: Briefing for Senate Leadership Staff 3/21/12: Meeting with Mitch McConnell Staff 3/23/12: Senate Judiciary Committee Staff Briefing at NSA 3/27/12: Meeting with Jim Langevin 3/28/12: Meeting with Jan Schakowsky 3/29/12: Thompson Meeting* 3/29/12: Sens. Ron Wyden and Tom Udall Meeting 4/10/12: Senate Judiciary Committee Staff Briefing (in Virginia) 4/20/12: Senate Judiciary Committee Staff Briefing at FBI 5/4/12: Senate Judiciary Committee Staff Briefing 5/31/12: House Judiciary Committee FAA Hearing (unclassified) 6/7/12: House Judiciary Committee MEMBER Briefing (classified) 6/11/12: Meeting with Patrick Leahy Staff 6/21/12: House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Hearing (classified) 7/18/12: Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse/Richard Blumenthal Meeting 12/10/12: Akaka Meeting
* It's unclear which Thompson this meeting was with. The official did not immediately return a request for clarification.
The Huffington Post reached out to multiple offices named in the above list to confirm that they had been briefed by administration officials about Section 702. Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) replied: "We have received numerous briefings on FISA and Patriot Act over the years, these are in addition to the normal oversight of intelligence activities that take place within the Intelligence Committee. I’d have to check..."
AUMF Repeal Bill Would End Extraordinary War Powers Granted After 9/11
...President Barack Obama recently called for the repeal of the authorization, saying it promotes perpetual war and grants presidents too much power. Leaders in the Senate have also called for its repeal or revision, noting that while the AUMF is supposed to target al Qaeda, the Taliban and allies who helped carry out the Sept. 11 attacks, it has been interpreted to be used far more broadly.
"The nature of the threat we face is different now," said Schiff. "The authorities that we're using are straining at their legal edges to authorize force against groups that didn't exist on 9/11 or that may be only loosely affiliated with al Qaeda."
"I think the timing is right, particularly given the president's speech 10 days ago," he added, arguing that Congress can no longer afford to "kick the can" down the road on such a vital piece of national security law, one that is now 12 years removed from the event that sparked it.
While it does indeed rub me the wrong way to think that every little thing we do is under government scrutiny, I can't help but notice something:
Those doing the loudest whining about it, are no doubt the ones who can think back to some phone conversation they had, where they may have sounded just a little too keen, on the prospect of a violent overthrow of the U.S. government.
(All the while boasting of being a very patriotic, deeply religious Christian)
OR:
...can recall a conversation with their accountant, in which they instructed him to go ahead and cheat like crazy, on their tax return.
(All the while loudly claiming to "support the troops" and showing favor to the spending of vast sums of other taxpayers' money, to subject welfare recipients to drug testing, to prevent them from cheating the system)
The US makes a backup copy of the telecom records. They can’t access that info without a FISA warrant, unlike what Bush did – warrantless everyfrakingthing…. and actual wiretapping. That’s not what’s happening now. No one in the US GOV cares that you are addicted to Facebook. However, HBO (a private corporation) cares that you’re downloading Game of Thrones illegally. There’s a difference.
Most people aren’t really processing what Snowdon said; that he could wiretap/listen/access whatever… not that he did, or that anyone else has ever or that it’s going on OMG constantly to OMG everyone in the US 24/7, yet that’s how the OMG-HAIR-ON-FIRE media is making it out. I’m curious how Snowdon’s private sector employer feels about their, uhm, employee.
It’s funny, but how the frak did this Snowdon guy, get a $200k a year gig in Hawaii with no high school diploma, and never finishing a single computer class, in the first place? Seriously, I’m more qualified than he is. And how does he know exactly what he can and cannot do, when I’m not sure how much of a grasp he really has on how the technology works….. and why it might be necessary…. having been at that job for only a short time? I’ve just got a whole problem with this dude’s story. I’m not saying what he leaked was completely inaccurate, but since the media has very little interest these days in anything more than pouring gasoline on the fire of their own hysteria, and actually researching a story for accuracy, that I have my doubts.
Here’s the deal:
Private companies can be owned by anyone. A Saudi Prince, An American douche, Mitt Romney, assholes like the Kochs, Richard Murdoch, Carrot Top, Steven Seagal, China, or some rich spoiled yahoo in North Korea, who might not have the best interest of the security of the American people and the US GOV in mind.
So let’s say a terror cell in….. oh, I don’t know, let’s say Syria….., gets blown up, and when the CIA goes through the rubble, they find a cell phone, and discover a US phone number attached to that phone, that that phone called to, or received a call from, or both. Then the US GOV would ask for a FISA warrant to look at that US phone number’s records. Was it just a wrong number/butt dial, or is that number in their contacts? Did they speak for 10 seconds, or an hour? Was it once, or 30 times?
Now with that knowledge, are you okay with our NSA/CIA/FBI going after the bad guys, or do you want your privacy more than your technology and security? Europe has less privacy with CCTV cameras everywhere, and intense gun regulations. They have less crime than we do measured in parsecs.
Of course Verizon knows where you are, because your cell phone has google maps on it, or Find My iPhone, or several other countless apps you’ve voluntarily downloaded onto your smartphone, that require GPS, and want to “use your location.”
One of the callers this morning on The Stephanie Miller show said it really simply: (paraphrasing) You have the right to privacy in your home, and in your person. But once you voluntarily reach outside either of those, with a phone line, internet, cell phone, you’ve gone outside your home, and are using the public communication grid AT WILL.
If the US GOV had live humans going through all your ‘meta’ data as routine work, i.e. reading your emails, listening to you complain about your crazy Facebook stalker, or how bad your cousins’s meatloaf was last night, instead of computer algorithms looking for trigger words associated with know terrorist information, when a FISA warrant is issued, we’d have ZERO unemployment, and still wouldn’t have enough bodies to fill every position to listen to/watch what everyone is doing….
But to act pearl-clutchingly Lindsey Graham + Glenn Greenwald’s love baby SHOCKED like the ZOMFG people are doing over this, makes me laugh. Have they never thought about their own phone bill beyond paying it? Yet they’re the first to complain about who dropped the ball on the Boston Marathon bombers.
You really want your privacy? Fine. Empty your bank account, cancel your credit cards and cable/satellite TV/internet, and move to the sticks, to a property with a well, and land that’s self-sustaining. All communication devices are voluntary.
Plenty of people don’t have phones, cell or otherwise, just like Bin Laden. And make sure you have solar power, and a rain cistern with a hose and pump so you can try to save your house from burning down when it’s struck by lightening. Living in a community has it’s perks, and is also voluntary.
Please. The boneheaded legislation that loosened restrictions on intelligence gathering was enacted in an explosion of boneheadism unparalleled in our national history. The fact that it happened less than six weeks after Saudi boneheads drove planes into the World Trade Center should tell you that it [legislation] was already being considered. The Bonehead...er...Patriot Act now lives as testimony to total boneheadism. Obama had nothing to do with it. He might even help move the Bonehead Act off the law books and in to the history books. Please. If we are going to lose [have long since lost] our privacy, please attribute that loss to the actual boneheads.
ReplyDeleteSorry I just can't seem to get upset with this. As a parent of two young teens, knowing the ton of banal inanity that is posted on a daily basis on Verizon by such children, I feel more sympathy than ire for anyone who has to read through it- even if it is first computer scanned for keywords..
ReplyDeleteWe are not going to lose our privacy rights
ReplyDeleteWe lost them several years ago
Thanks to President Obama(Big Brother)
Anonymous6:46 AM
DeleteWe are not going to lose our privacy rights
We lost them several years ago
Thanks to President Bush (Big Bro)
*****
There...fixed it for ya TROLL!
I don't understand why you are not embarrassed to demonstrate your ignorance and stupidity every time you comment.
DeleteDon't you realize that readers here are not stupid and willfully ignorant and deliberate liars (so un-Christian of you!) like you and others that watch fox news?
Suggest you read the 4th amendment again.
DeleteWarrants have to be specific
No warrant can authorize what Obama
did
Spy on every single american
Obama even campaigned on ending warrantless surveillance
Just another one of his lies.
In 2006there was exactly the same sinuses going on with the NSA. Nobody cared about it then, because gwb was our 'savior'. Everybody is bent out of shape now, because we have that black Muslim socialist commie pinko as our President now.
ReplyDeleteAlso, too, I am not sure if this whole thing actually ALSO was coming out of the right wingers. There are sooo many issues that do not add up with that 'whistleblower'. How can a high school dropout rise so fast and so high both in the CIA as well as in the NSA? Also, he said he left his girlfriend and family behind. Turns out, he and his girlfriend moved out TOGETHER out of their Hawaiian house on May 1, because the owner wanted to sell the house...
The whole thing stinks of a Koch setup!
DeleteI truly don't care about this. They can observe me as much as they want - I'm not a terrorist. And, we do have them in the USA...as well as across the seas. This type of observation is required. And, it was NOT started by President Obama! Look at the histories of J. Edgar Hoover - FBI head for years, President Nixon, President Johnson and the most recent President Bush!
ReplyDeleteI think that when President Obama was elected the first time, he had no idea what was ahead of him! But, he learned quickly and has gotten so much smarter this second term. The obstruction by the Republicans has been horrible and I think it is going to be fun watching President Obama continue to work around them and be successful. He has no other option!
I respect the guy and wish him well.
Oh, and the guy that "leaked" the national security information (via the journalist overseas) should be found, brought back to the USA, put on trial and executed. He is a traitor!
Snowden is an American hero and patriot.
DeleteSnowden is no hero and hardly a patriot. What he IS is a snitch, pure and simple. But even more so, a snitch with a twisted need for attention, who then went to an even MORE twisted attention seeking horror like Greenwald to get his cock stroked. These guys have put this country at risk, has nearly single-handed destroyed what should be confidential information that is designed to keep this country safe. Both he and Greenwald should be prosecuted to the highest degree of the law for their nefarious activities, and I hope that they are.
DeleteThis is a man who: left his mother and relatives to answer for his transgressions alone; left his live-in girlfriend also holding the bag; cut and ran after disclosing national secrets causing irreparable damage to the company that employed him, the country that nourished him, and who knows how many others. Courageous fellow? Nah, he's just a traitor.
DeleteObama campaigned on ending warrant less surveillance
ReplyDeleteJust another one of his lies.
Even the Patriot Act only applies as part of an investigation
Obama used the secret court and applied it to all Americans with no ongoing investigation
The real story in the NSA scandal is the collapse of journalism
ReplyDeleteSummary: A bombshell story published in the Washington Post this week alleged that the NSA had enlisted nine tech giants, including Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Apple, in a massive program of online spying. Now the story is unraveling, and the Post has quietly changed key details.
...And then a funny thing happened the next morning. If you followed the link to that story, you found a completely different story, nearly twice as long, with a slightly different headline. The new story wasn’t just expanded; it had been stripped of key details, with no acknowledgment of the changes. That updated version, time-stamped at 8:51 AM on June 7, backed off from key details in the original story.
Crucially, the Post removed the “knowingly participated” language and also scrubbed a reference to the program as being “highly classified.” In addition, a detail in the opening graf that claimed the NSA could “track a person’s movements and contacts over time” was changed to read simply “track foreign targets.”
Here’s what a key paragraph in the story originally looked like in a browser window:
http://www.zdnet.com/the-real-story-in-the-nsa-scandal-is-the-collapse-of-journalism-7000016570/
NSA Bombshell Story Falling Apart Under Scrutiny; Key Facts Turning Out to Be Inaccurate
ReplyDeleteIt turns out, the NSA PRISM story isn’t quite the bombshell that everyone said it was. Yes, there continues to be a serious cause for concern when it comes to government spying and overreach with its counter-terrorism efforts. But the reporting from Glenn Greenwald and the Washington Post has been shoddy and misleading.
We shouldn’t shrug off our weakened privacy as a merely a side effect of the digital age, either. We ought to fight to preserve as much of our personal information as possible. So if there’s any benefit to the NSA news, it’s to serve as a reminder that, yes, the government is serious about attaining information in its war on terrorism and that we should be aware of what’s going on — checking it when it gets out of control.
But with new contravening information emerging since the original stories were posted by Greenwald and the Washington Post, it’s clear that the reporting by each news outlet was filled with possibly agenda-driven speculation and key inaccuracies.
Greenwald told CNN, “It’s well past time that we have a debate about whether that’s the kind of country and world in which we want to live.”
Canonizing bad reporting as a means of inciting a debate is as bad as no debate at all. Attachment to empirical reality must remain a central trait of the left, otherwise the progressive movement is no better than the non-reality based propagandists on the right who will say and do anything to further the conservative agenda. So perhaps some positive changes on domestic spying are eventually achieved, but at what cost? Greenwald, who doesn’t really care about “left and right,” isn’t concerned with anything other than his personal agenda and clearly he’s willing to do whatever it takes in pursuit of those goals. Specifics presently.
It’s a shame because there’s a way to have this debate without selling out to misinformation. Instead, we appear to be careening way off the empirical rails into hysterical, kneejerk acceptance of half-assed information.
Here’s how this story has played out since late Thursday.
http://thedailybanter.com/2013/06/nsa-story-falling-apart-under-scrutiny-key-facts-turning-out-to-be-inaccurate/
I'm not quite understanding what it is that Snowden had hoped to accomplish by doing this. If he had wanted to shine a light on some wrong doing by the NSA there are plenty of watchdog agencies in the US who would have gladly jumped all over this. Was he about to get canned from his 200K a year job or was he just feeling unappreciated and wanted to feel more important. He could have certainly stayed unnamed but apparently he didn't want that for some reason. So where is all this supposed to lead? There were no laws broken that I'm aware of. The NSA is doing business as allowed by the laws congress has passed and they are not laws that most people were unaware of. He took something that didn't belong to him and basically sold it to a foreign media outlet for what? Recognition? Fame? Maybe even money, who knows. Something doesn't square with this guy
ReplyDeleteI hope this Snowdon guy rots in jail for a very long time, and his family members lose any security clearances they might have. He ponders the fact that he could be tried under the espionage act, and I think that is the right course to take. You cant just "leak" top secret documents and then run off to China without any consequences. Things just don't work that way.
ReplyDeleteAs to him believing that he didn't do anything illegal, I think he needs to re-think that. This guy is incredibly naïve to say the least.
Here is the deal, what Bradley Manning did was illegal, but he was a legitimate whistleblower so he operated in a gray area. The guy who revealed the Bush warrantless wiretaps, was a legitimate whistleblower because he revealed an illegal activity. This guy wants to call himself a whistleblower for revealing a government activity he doesn't like. The fact that this was authorized by way of a warrant by the FISA court makes it legal, regardless whether you like it or not. What he did cannot be condoned or justified in any rational fashion.
What's infuriating about the attitudes of the supporters of this guy is that the supposed privacy invasions that everybody's having a fit about will never amount to a hill o'beans for anybody's life in the real world, but the vulnerability he's exposed for our safety as a nation definitely will.
DeleteSnowden was a contractor.; He signed a specific secrecy provision. He is no hero. There is nothing here but an employee violating his agreement. The Patriot Act is in place for a reason, and this clown discovered nothing of any novelty.
DeleteThis guy is a traitor to the highest order. His credibility was tarnished when he fled to China of all places. He should be brought back to the U.S. and prosecuted, convicted, and given a life sentence. I'm a disable veteran, and putting our soldiers and the American people in danger of people who want to do us harm, is treason. This guy is no hero!
DeleteNow that Snowden has violated every security agreement he ever signed for access to TS info, HE decides to reveal it because HE believes HE knows better and HE does not have to honor his promise NOT to disclose TS Info. Next time we get hit by a terrorist, you'll have Snowden to thank because HE knows what is right for 300 million Americans. He has just trained our enemies on what to look out for. Unbelievable.
DeleteHowever you feel about the Patriot Act, I am starting to think this guy is a con artist. Booz Allen is saying he only worked for them for three months, if true there is no way he would have this type of access. Something stinks.
DeletePRISM Program: Obama Administration Held 22 Briefings For Congress On Key FISA Law
ReplyDeleteObama administration officials held 22 separate briefings or meetings for members of Congress on the law that has been used to justify the National Security Agency's controversial email monitoring program, according to data provided by a senior administration official.
According to the official, the sessions that took place over the course of 14 months starting in October 2011 touched on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act, which gives the attorney general and director of national intelligence the authority to gather intelligence on non-U.S. citizens for up to one year. Section 702 has been cited by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper as the legal basis for the NSA's PRISM program, which has allowed the government to track email communication data.
The Guardian and The Washington Post revealed the existence of the PRISM program and another data-monitoring action last week. In defending PRISM from criticism, Clapper stated that U.S. citizens were not, and are not, targeted for the data dragnet. He and others have also insisted that Congress has had ample opportunity to review the program and provide feedback.
To buttress that claim, the senior administration official -- discussing the matter only on condition of anonymity -- sent over the following list of meetings and briefings that took place.
10/19/11: Meeting with Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Staff
1/10/12: House Judiciary Committee Staff Briefings (majority and minority separately briefed)
1/11/12: Senate Judiciary Committee Staff Briefings (majority and minority separately briefed)
3/5/12: Meeting with Nancy Pelosi
3/8/12: Meeting with Harry Reid Staff
3/15/12: Law Briefing for Senate Judiciary Committee staff
3/15/12: Briefing for Senate Leadership Staff
3/21/12: Meeting with Mitch McConnell Staff
3/23/12: Senate Judiciary Committee Staff Briefing at NSA
3/27/12: Meeting with Jim Langevin
3/28/12: Meeting with Jan Schakowsky
3/29/12: Thompson Meeting*
3/29/12: Sens. Ron Wyden and Tom Udall Meeting
4/10/12: Senate Judiciary Committee Staff Briefing (in Virginia)
4/20/12: Senate Judiciary Committee Staff Briefing at FBI
5/4/12: Senate Judiciary Committee Staff Briefing
5/31/12: House Judiciary Committee FAA Hearing (unclassified)
6/7/12: House Judiciary Committee MEMBER Briefing (classified)
6/11/12: Meeting with Patrick Leahy Staff
6/21/12: House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Hearing (classified)
7/18/12: Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse/Richard Blumenthal Meeting
12/10/12: Akaka Meeting
* It's unclear which Thompson this meeting was with. The official did not immediately return a request for clarification.
The Huffington Post reached out to multiple offices named in the above list to confirm that they had been briefed by administration officials about Section 702. Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) replied: "We have received numerous briefings on FISA and Patriot Act over the years, these are in addition to the normal oversight of intelligence activities that take place within the Intelligence Committee. I’d have to check..."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/10/prism-program-obama_n_3416973.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
AUMF Repeal Bill Would End Extraordinary War Powers Granted After 9/11
ReplyDelete...President Barack Obama recently called for the repeal of the authorization, saying it promotes perpetual war and grants presidents too much power. Leaders in the Senate have also called for its repeal or revision, noting that while the AUMF is supposed to target al Qaeda, the Taliban and allies who helped carry out the Sept. 11 attacks, it has been interpreted to be used far more broadly.
"The nature of the threat we face is different now," said Schiff. "The authorities that we're using are straining at their legal edges to authorize force against groups that didn't exist on 9/11 or that may be only loosely affiliated with al Qaeda."
"I think the timing is right, particularly given the president's speech 10 days ago," he added, arguing that Congress can no longer afford to "kick the can" down the road on such a vital piece of national security law, one that is now 12 years removed from the event that sparked it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/10/aumf-repeal-bill-war-powers_n_3416689.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
ReplyDeleteWhile it does indeed rub me the wrong way to think that every little thing we do is under government scrutiny, I can't help but notice something:
Those doing the loudest whining about it, are no doubt the ones who can think back to some phone conversation they had, where they may have sounded just a little too keen, on the prospect of a violent overthrow of the U.S. government.
(All the while boasting of being a very patriotic, deeply religious Christian)
OR:
...can recall a conversation with their accountant, in which they instructed him to go ahead and cheat like crazy, on their tax return.
(All the while loudly claiming to "support the troops" and showing favor to the spending of vast sums of other taxpayers' money, to subject welfare recipients to drug testing, to prevent them from cheating the system)
Anonymous12:47 PM
DeleteExactly!!!!!
AHMAHGAHD VERIZON HAZ MAH INFOS OH NOOOES!!
ReplyDeleteHere’s how it works:
The US makes a backup copy of the telecom records. They can’t access that info without a FISA warrant, unlike what Bush did – warrantless everyfrakingthing…. and actual wiretapping. That’s not what’s happening now. No one in the US GOV cares that you are addicted to Facebook. However, HBO (a private corporation) cares that you’re downloading Game of Thrones illegally. There’s a difference.
Most people aren’t really processing what Snowdon said; that he could wiretap/listen/access whatever… not that he did, or that anyone else has ever or that it’s going on OMG constantly to OMG everyone in the US 24/7, yet that’s how the OMG-HAIR-ON-FIRE media is making it out. I’m curious how Snowdon’s private sector employer feels about their, uhm, employee.
It’s funny, but how the frak did this Snowdon guy, get a $200k a year gig in Hawaii with no high school diploma, and never finishing a single computer class, in the first place? Seriously, I’m more qualified than he is. And how does he know exactly what he can and cannot do, when I’m not sure how much of a grasp he really has on how the technology works….. and why it might be necessary…. having been at that job for only a short time? I’ve just got a whole problem with this dude’s story. I’m not saying what he leaked was completely inaccurate, but since the media has very little interest these days in anything more than pouring gasoline on the fire of their own hysteria, and actually researching a story for accuracy, that I have my doubts.
Here’s the deal:
Private companies can be owned by anyone. A Saudi Prince, An American douche, Mitt Romney, assholes like the Kochs, Richard Murdoch, Carrot Top, Steven Seagal, China, or some rich spoiled yahoo in North Korea, who might not have the best interest of the security of the American people and the US GOV in mind.
So let’s say a terror cell in….. oh, I don’t know, let’s say Syria….., gets blown up, and when the CIA goes through the rubble, they find a cell phone, and discover a US phone number attached to that phone, that that phone called to, or received a call from, or both. Then the US GOV would ask for a FISA warrant to look at that US phone number’s records. Was it just a wrong number/butt dial, or is that number in their contacts? Did they speak for 10 seconds, or an hour? Was it once, or 30 times?
Now with that knowledge, are you okay with our NSA/CIA/FBI going after the bad guys, or do you want your privacy more than your technology and security? Europe has less privacy with CCTV cameras everywhere, and intense gun regulations. They have less crime than we do measured in parsecs.
Of course Verizon knows where you are, because your cell phone has google maps on it, or Find My iPhone, or several other countless apps you’ve voluntarily downloaded onto your smartphone, that require GPS, and want to “use your location.”
One of the callers this morning on The Stephanie Miller show said it really simply: (paraphrasing) You have the right to privacy in your home, and in your person. But once you voluntarily reach outside either of those, with a phone line, internet, cell phone, you’ve gone outside your home, and are using the public communication grid AT WILL.
more
http://theobamadiary.com/2013/06/10/tally/
If the US GOV had live humans going through all your ‘meta’ data as routine work, i.e. reading your emails, listening to you complain about your crazy Facebook stalker, or how bad your cousins’s meatloaf was last night, instead of computer algorithms looking for trigger words associated with know terrorist information, when a FISA warrant is issued, we’d have ZERO unemployment, and still wouldn’t have enough bodies to fill every position to listen to/watch what everyone is doing….
ReplyDeleteBut to act pearl-clutchingly Lindsey Graham + Glenn Greenwald’s love baby SHOCKED like the ZOMFG people are doing over this, makes me laugh. Have they never thought about their own phone bill beyond paying it? Yet they’re the first to complain about who dropped the ball on the Boston Marathon bombers.
You really want your privacy? Fine. Empty your bank account, cancel your credit cards and cable/satellite TV/internet, and move to the sticks, to a property with a well, and land that’s self-sustaining. All communication devices are voluntary.
Plenty of people don’t have phones, cell or otherwise, just like Bin Laden. And make sure you have solar power, and a rain cistern with a hose and pump so you can try to save your house from burning down when it’s struck by lightening. Living in a community has it’s perks, and is also voluntary.
http://theobamadiary.com/2013/06/10/tally/