The Republican and Democratic parties have achieved a bipartisan purpose in uniting against the public’s need to know about massive surveillance programs and the need to redefine privacy in a more surveillance friendly image. They have also united in attacking Snowden as a traitor and seeking his prosecution for telling the public about the program. In the midst of this full-court press to lull the public back into sleep over civil liberties, the members will face a slightly inconvenient problem: possible perjury. These members have repeatedly called for perjury and contempt prosecutions of officials who have given false or misleading testimony like Eric Holder. However, they have a little problem with Obama officials who seem to have given false or intentionally misleading testimony over the surveillance of citizens. The problem is that these members want the scandal (and the public) to go away. Many of them knew at the time that the public was being told untrue things in these hearings. It will only be embarrassing to now address the falsehoods fed to the public in their presence and with their knowledge. In other words, they were all lying to the public and, under our new relativistic world, a lie told by everyone is treated as the truth.
Consider the testimony of James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, to the Senate in March. Clapper said unequivocally that the N.S.A. was not gathering data on millions of Americans. That is obviously false and Senators hearing the testimony knew that the public was being lied to.
How about this exchange?
Senator Wyden: “Does the N.S.A. collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?”
Clapper: “No, sir. Not wittingly.”
However, it was done “wittingly” when you demand all of the calls for all citizens, right? Clapper will argue that he simply defines collecting data differently from the vast majority of humanity. However, courts regularly reject such subjective views of the truth. The point of the answer was to assure the public that they have nothing to worry about — the same message being given by members now that the truth has come out. Clapper’s testimony was for the public to hear and believe — even though Senators knew it to be untrue. Keep in mind that we have two surveillance programs now being reported — one collecting all call information and one involving email data.
Clapper has recently said that his testimony was “the least untrue” statement that he could make. Yet, of course that would still make it an untrue statement — which most people call a lie and lawyers call perjury. Indeed, when Roger Clemens was prosecuted for untrue statements before Congress, he was not told of the option to tell the least untrue statement on steroid use.
What is remarkable is that, while such hearings are presented as spontaneous, senators routinely send their questions in advance to officials. That is what Wyden did with Clapper so he knew this question was coming. Afterward, Wyden gave him a chance to correct his statement and he did not.
Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the N.S.A. director, has reportedly also given such false statements. N.S.A.’s general counsel, Rajesh De, called rumors of such spying merely “false myths” and that the suggestion that the “N.S.A. is spying on Americans at home and abroad with questionable or no legal basis.”
There is clearly an effort by Feinstein and others to ignore this testimony to avoid having to deal with their own culpability. The same was true with torture. Congressional members knew of the program while feigning outrage in public. They then worked with the White House to quash any hearings or investigations that would implicate their own involvement.
The result is that the Justice Department will continue to prosecute ordinary citizens for relatively small inconsistencies in testimony or statements to investigators. However, high-ranking officials in both branches will have a license to lie because it is not a lie when no one is willing to acknowledge the truth.
Our leaders have embraced that core view of Lenin that “A Lie told often enough becomes the truth.”
Source: NY Times
In response to one of the anonymous commenters, Lindsey Graham is from SC, not NC. Unfortunately the difference between those states is shrinking. Further, although I’m sure it was a joke, Rand Paul is not the son of Ayn Rand (although she is his namesake)
OT (sort of)…
This could prove interesting:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/13/cia-lawsuit-stalling-war-crimes-inquiry
Undercover CIA agent sues agency over stalled probe of alleged war crimes
Undercover officer accused of war crimes by the CIA says agency halted an investigation that could have exonerated him
by Spencer Ackerman in Washington
Thursday 13 June 2013 14.05 ED
“Following a specific overseas assignment/activity, John Doe was wrongfully accused of participating in, committing and/or possessing information about war crimes,” the lawsuit reads. “Other CIA employees were also accused.”
“In connection with internal investigations of John Doe, CIA employees, either with or without authority, initiated physical and electronic surveillance of him, some of which were unlawful,” the lawsuit alleges.
“The surveillance included harassment tactics undertaken by local law enforcement who were cooperating with the CIA. Other tactics involved corruption of electronic devices such as computers and cellphones. The Federal Bureau of Investigation opened an investigation into CIA’s activities involving John Doe.”
It adds: “A criminal inquiry was also opened and investigated by the Department of Justice. Without ever interviewing John Doe the matter was closed and prosecution was declined in or around 2011 – 2012,” the lawsuit charges.
All the lawsuit says about John Doe’s identity is that he is a “former member of the US armed forces and currently serves as a covert paramilitary officer” for the CIA. From 2002-2011 John Doe repeatedly deployed overseas for missions including “offensive operations against individuals designated or viewed as enemies of the United States”.
John Doe wants the court to compel the CIA inspector general to complete the stalled investigation, which Doe alleges has stalled his career. The inspector general’s office, Doe alleges, is “purposefully refusing to administratively close its investigation in order to discredit or otherwise cause harm to [Doe’s] career”.
OT:
New CIA Deputy Director hosted ‘Erotica Nights’ at bookstore
Published time: June 13, 2013 17:03
http://rt.com/usa/cia-deputy-director-erotica-haines-654/
The CIA’s new deputy director has an unusual resume: President Barack Obama on Wednesday nominated a woman who previously hosted “Erotica Nights” at a Baltimore bookstore, during which she would light candles and read erotic prose to her guests.
Avril Danica Haines, deputy assistant to the president and deputy counsel for national security affairs, will soon begin her work as the first female deputy CIA director, replacing Michael Morell. While working in the White House, Haines approved many of the CIA’s covert actions.
But after she was nominated to become the CIA’s new deputy director, surprising details about her previous employment emerged. About 20 years ago, Haines dropped out of graduate school at Johns Hopkins University and opened an erotic bookstore, which she called Adrian’s Book Café, The Daily Beast reports.
The Baltimore bookstore regularly featured “Erotica Nights”, during which Haines would light candles, serve dinner and feature readings of erotic prose. The events cost $17 for singles and $30 for couples.
In an interview with the Baltimore Sun, Haines said she was initially worried that only “dirty old men” would show up to the readings and that her friends accused her of “just wanting a mass orgy in your bookstore.” She defended her work, claiming that erotica can improve relationships.
“Erotica has become more prevalent because people are trying to have sex without having sex,” Haines, who was in her 20’s during the interview, told the Sun. “Others are trying to find new fantasies to make their monogamous relationships more satisfying. What the erotic offers is spontaneity, twists and turns. And it affects everyone.”
The Sun reporter attended an event at the bookstore, during which Haines read an explicit passage from a racy book titled “The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty”, which vividly detailed a sexual encounter during which a character lost her virginity.
Haines’ bookstore did not exclusively sell erotic novels; she stocked titles of many genres, but the erotic readings garnered the most attention.
Although a history of erotic readings may not be as sensational as former CIA director David Petraeus’ affair with his biographer, Haines’ past is now sparking significant media attention. Howard Barstop, a former neighbor of Haines, was surprised to hear about the woman’s erotic nights, but spoke highly of her, the Daily Beast reports.
CIA Director John O. Brennan told the Washington Post that Haines “knows more about covert action than anyone in the US government outside of the CIA”. The 43-year-old White House lawyer will be the first female in CIA history to serve as deputy director. But while her missions may be covert, her past employment has become an open book.
I don’t care how many good things you say about her I am still skeptical of NSA officials.
itchinBayDog1, June 13, 2013 at 12:00 pm
“Rand Paul, son of Ayn Rand, may be in our camp.”
guess what, the Aynish are all in “your” camp.
We Aynish like our profit but we like our liberty even more. Profit means nothing without freedom.
Blouise,
I’m still chuckling…
===
fbi-director-mueller-senate-nsa-live
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/13/fbi-director-mueller-senate-nsa-live
Lies, lies and more lies? (The truth is so damned “inconvenient”…)
26m ago
Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah says the Supreme Court has found in the Jones case that it’s unconstitutional to stick a GPS on a vehicle to track a potential suspect. Geolocation of non-suspects has been found to be unconstitutional, he says.
SO on this phone metadata the government is collecting: does that metadata include geolocation?
I hadn’t thought of that, Mueller says. I have to check.
Chaffetz says he should have been prepared for the question because the reps submitted the questions ahead of time.
“Is there a database of geolocation information that is warehoused by our federal government?” Chaffetz asks.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Mueller says.
Mueller apologizes for not prepping for the question. He says he’ll get back to him within the week.
My favorite: Horton Hears A YOU
NSA surveillance as told through classic children’s books
As news of the NSA’s secret surveillance programs spread this weekend, Twitter did what it does best: mockery. User Darth asked followers to contribute titles for #NSAKidsBooks, which were then turned into beautifully hilarious works of art. Darth has kindly allowed us to share them
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/gallery/2013/jun/09/nsa-kids-books-twitter-pictures
The Listening Tree and others…
Rand Paul, son of Ayn Rand, may be in our camp.
The Klayman Complaint alleges First Amendment, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment violations. The ACLU suit omitted the Fifth Amend allegation. I would add the Ninth Amendment for privacy as well and the 14th Amendment for the liberty interests etc. even though many of the defendants are federal actors. Note too: they sue for monetary damages in this suit and not just for declaratory and injunctive relief as was the relief sought in the ACLU case in NY. If you Google: Klayman v. Obama you can find the entire Complaint.
This Klayman case is also a class action suit.
The manner in which these cases are brought, framed and litigated matters a great deal to the future of liberty in America and the world. This is bigger than the Pentagon Papers case by far. It is bigger than Dred Scott and like Dred Scott may trigger rebellion.
Review your Second Amendment rights and opportunities. Get a guide dog who can aim if you have partial blindness.
Google the website for NC Congressman Walter Jones and look at his letter sent to Obama and others. I tried to publish part of it here on the blog last night.
Civil libertarians will find some strange bedfellows on this privacy invasion scandal and some of our friends have already gone snake on us. Included in the snake in the grass list are: old lady Feinstein, Al Frankin, Boehner (he was already a toad), and of course the legal advisor who betrays his wife Toobin.
Snowden is not a clown and neither was Daniel Ellsberg.
Here are the first few pages of the Complaint filed two days ago in the Federal Court for the District of Columbia by Larry Klayman:
CLASS ACTION AMENDED COMPLAINT
Plaintiff, Larry Klayman, a former U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor, and Plaintiffs Charles and Mary Ann Strange (collectively “Plaintiffs”) bring this action on their own behalf and on behalf of a class of persons defined below. Plaintiffs hereby sue Barack Hussein Obama, Eric Holder, Keith B. Alexander, Lowell McAdam, Roger Vinson, Verizon Communications, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”), and the National Security Agency (“NSA”), (collectively “Defendants”), in their personal and official capacities, for violating Plaintiffs’ constitutional
rights, Plaintiffs’ reasonable expectation of privacy, free speech and association, right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures, and due process rights, as well as certain common law claims, for directly and proximately causing Plaintiffs mental and physical pain and suffering
3
and harm as a result of the below pled illegal and criminal acts. Plaintiffs and members of the class pled below allege as follows:
INTRODUCTION
1. This is an action for violations of the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. This is also an action for violations of privacy, including intrusion upon seclusion, freedom of expression and association, due process, and other illegal acts. Plaintiffs bring this action on behalf of themselves and all other similarly situated consumers,
users, and U.S. citizens who are customers and users of Defendant Verizon Communications (“Verizon”).
2. This case challenges the legality of Defendants’ participation and conduct in a secret and illegal government scheme to intercept and analyze vast quantities of domestic telephonic communications. Specifically, on June 5, 2013, The Guardian posted a classified order from
the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court directing Verizon to turn over, “on an ongoing daily basis,” the following tangible things: “All call detail records or “telephony metadata” created by Verizon for communications (i) between the United States and abroad;
or (ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.”
3. This would give the NSA over one hundred millions phone records on a daily basis. The information would also include a list of all the people that Verizon customers call and who called them; how long they spoke; and perhaps, where they were on a given day. Further, there is nothing in the order requiring the government to destroy the records after a certain
amount of time nor is there any provisions limiting who can see and hear the data.
4. The order, issued and signed by Judge Roger Vinson, violates the U.S. Constitution and also federal laws, including, but not limited to, the outrageous breach of privacy, freedom of speech, freedom of association, and the due process rights of American citizens.
5. This surveillance program was authorized and ordered by the President and primarily undertaken by the NSA and the other Defendants, intercepting and analyzing the communication of hundreds of millions of Americans. Prior to this disclosure and revelation, Plaintiffs and class members had no reasonable opportunity to discover the existence of the surveillance program or the violation of the laws alleged herein.
6. Defendant Verizon maintains domestic telecommunications facilities over which hundreds of millions of Americans’ telephone communications pass every day. They also manage some of the largest databases in the world containing records of most or all communications made through their myriad telecommunications services and operations.
7. Defendant Verizon has opened its key telecommunication databases to direct access by the NSA and/or other government agencies, intercepting and disclosing to the government the contents of its customers as well as detailed communication records over one hundred million of its customers, including Plaintiffs and class members. On information and belief,
Defendant Verizon continues to assist the government in its secret surveillance of over one
hundred million of ordinary Americans citizens just on a daily basis.
8. Plaintiffs and members of the class are suing for declaratory relief, damages, and injunctive
relief to stop this illegal conduct and hold Defendants, individually and collectively,
responsible for their illegal collaboration in the surveillance program, which has violated the
law and damaged the fundamental freedoms of American citizens.
If someone could download that new Complaint filed in DC mentioned by Dredd above, it would be good. I opened that tab on the page 3 thing but it would not open. The District of Columbia is a questionable forum to be bringing this suit because you have all of those judges on the DC Court of Appeals who want to be nominated by the defendant Obama (in this suit) to the Supreme Court. Who is the judge assigned to the case? I will go on Pacer and try to find the documents. We are not going to get any help from the lame, the old, the contented Koch Brother retainees in Congress. The lawsuits may be our best hope. Boycott Verizon.
All you Don’t Tread on Me (Moonies) et al need to stop yer’ b’ing & moaning about Mr. Obama and his dirty little secret (i.e. Prism etc.). He’s not sanctioning this thing to look up YOUR skirt. He is thinking like Michael Coreleone in the God Father: “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
By spying on EVERYONE, including our so-called friends (i.e. AMDOCS parent country), he can get a bead on what’s REALLY happening out there. Trust me Al-Kaka does NOT use cellphones, Internet, etc when they KNOW the USA spooks are watching (i.e. “chatter”). Even encryption is pointless with the script-kiddies in Fort Mead and Utah running several acres of super-computers to break it.
Didn’t we learn from the raid on Abbotabad by CIA/ST-6 that UBL was using old floppy disks and text editor to type operational commands? His runners would upload them at Internet cafe’s but most of them where printed on paper and palmed to others or left at dead drops.
So this so called “surveillance program” is aimed at OTHERS who don’t have any common sense NOT to use this high-technology while Big Brother is watching. That’s usually the high-tech conspirators/traitors that think Obama is listening to little Al-Kakas in caves in SW ASIA or here in CONUS. No… he wants to listen to the REAL enemies of the state like sayanims, katsas, and other so-called “friends” who would dance under bridges while we burn (i.e. http://tinyurl.com/qcpn76t). Or pay terrorists surviving families with their oil-dollars while we protect them at their embassy walking hand in hand down the street (i.e. http://tinyurl.com/pjz2pw7)
Another federal lawsuit, this one a class action, was filed in the District of Columbia.
It points out that the NSA is a military outfit at paragraph 13.
The ACLU lawsuit filed in the federal court in NY points out that the NSA is a military outfit at paragraph 12.
That all Americans are spied on by the military can’t be good.
How about them
cowboysheroes.One could argue he/Jones is lying but 1st you’d need to know what he is saying.
I think this below is worth the time to watch/listen & post it for others:
Video: Alex Jones Rips Into Bilderberg at Fringe Festival
http://www.prisonplanet.com/video-alex-jones-rips-into-bilderberg-at-fringe-festival.html
Bron,
Most people, meaning more than half, think this is wrong. Thanks for adding your voice to others! Don’t give up yet. The administration is pouring out propaganda and it both is and isn’t working. More revelations are coming. It ain’t over yet!
Congress can read the classified intelligence from the floor of their chambers. Yes they will lose their job and lots worse, but they can’t be prosecuted for doing this and they need to do it.
What’s funny is that everyone thinks PRISM is a new idea. They have been doing this for DECADES via contractors like AT&T and AMDOCS (i.e. Israelis). They also have been using ECHELON in foreign countries to get around the laws against domestic intelligence thing. Even the FBI has it’s CARNIVOIRE vacuum cleaner. Has everyone forgotten a few years back the NSA having an AT&T employee in San Francisco to plug in one of these intelligence vacuum cleaners into their man fiber trunk (Google: Room 641A)?
I smell a RED Herring in this Snowdon fella’. I’m pretty sure it’s a honeypot-esque mission for PRC/MSS consumption. I’ll bet Snowden’s in Beijing right now feeding Geng Huichang a load of…(bleep). How in the world can this so-called spook violate his NDA and get away with it? He’s only 29. He doesn’t even rate a pimple on someone’s (more spookish) hiny!
So he went through Camp Peary and the Sherman Kent School. Then went to Fort Meade, got disgruntled and decided to just drop-kick his NDA into the toilet and his butt straight into a SuperMax with Robert Hanssen with a life sentence in SOLITARY? Or failing that having John O. Brennan order a sanction to have Academi quietly drop into PRC to silence the prick (ala Raymond Allen Davis recently)?
Jill:
I guess I just thought people wanted liberty, for whatever reason they dont. I think most people are timid souls, or at least I do now, who want security and certainty. So what if the government wire taps every electronic communication device I own? They are keeping me safe say the timid souls.
I guess I now know how Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, the German people just didnt give a sh*t. I have spent many hours wondering why and it comes down to something that simple, they cared more for their security than they did about their liberty.
If Mitt Romney were in the Whitehouse right now and this came to light, the left would be whipping us into a frenzy and Mitt would probably be on his way to the congress to tender his resignation, as well he should.
And if the IRS had been screwing around with the ACLU or moveon.org? They would be calling for the resignation of the top people and prison terms.
In a just world, he and most of his administration would be in prison awaiting trial for violating their Constitutional oath.
We need to kick his a$$ down Pennsylvania Ave so he can deliver his resignation to congress. On the way back he should stop at the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial and beg forgiveness for what he and his administration have done to the ideal that was America.
He should probably also go the National Archives and read the original Declaration and Constitution, apparently those arent taught at Harvard Law School.
Gene H.
Thanks. Correct. The link was in it twice. Duh!
p.s. the NSA aside is my satire about the whole thing.
The Federal District Court of the Southern District of New York is being asked to hold that the collection of Metadata and information on United States citizens, and on the entity suing, i.e. the ACLU of NY, is in violation of the federal statute passed by Congress which only applies to foreigners and is in violation of the Constitution, to-wit, the First and Fourth Amendments. The summary of this claim found in the Complaint are effectively stated as follows:
“To the extent necessary to decision and when presented, the reviewing court shall decide all relevant questions of law, interpret constitutional and statutory provisions, and determine the meaning or applicability of the terms of an agency action. The reviewing court shall—
(1) compel agency action unlawfully withheld or unreasonably delayed; and
(2) hold unlawful and set aside agency action, findings, and conclusions found to be—
(A) arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law;
(B) contrary to constitutional right, power, privilege, or immunity;
(C) in excess of statutory jurisdiction, authority, or limitations, or short of statutory right;
….”
end
So, this Federal District Court Judge is being asked to hold that the huge programs implemented by your government are not in accordance with law, are contrary to your constitutional rights, powers, privileges or immunities and are in excess of any statutory right. It will be interesting to see how a Federal District Judge can rule in favor of the government on this matter. One wonders if Eric Holder is not in chambers with the Judge as we speak, “speaking off the record”.
If anyone knows the name of the judge assigned to the case and if you know anything about the background of the judge, please advise the bloggers here.
Countdown to the end of America as we knew it. Hope for the best with this lawsuit and others.
Good article AP. “Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) said lawmakers learned “significantly more” about the spy programs at the National Security Agency (NSA) during a briefing on Tuesday with counterterrorism officials. ….
Lawmakers are barred from revealing the classified information they receive in intelligence briefings, and Sanchez was careful not to specify what members might have learned about the NSA’s work.”
——————
My tax dollars, my info, and they can’t tell me?
The trouble with being in that kind of bubble is that there isn’t anyone that you can talk to that would just roll their eyes an and tell you, “‘Retta, that is so much BS, you go back and ask them this, this, and this.”