The hearing this week on the massive surveillance programs targeting the communications of all citizens was the latest in the increasingly bizarre world of American politics. We have a Constitution that prohibits warrantless searches and seizures. We have a government — and a President — who previously misled us about the existence of such programs. We have Senators who knew of the prior deception and even perjury sitting in a hearing on the latest account from our leaders. Now, these same politicians are speaking openly about seizing every single telephone call. Rather than denying the program, they now refer to it as a harmless “lock box,” the way that Al Gore once referred to the social security accounts. What was particularly interesting is the statement of General Keith Alexander, the director of the National Security Agency, that disclosures by Edward Snowden “will change how we operate”. Indeed, in light of the Snowden disclosures, Alexander has stopped the prior denials of the Administration and is now speaking of “reforms.” That is precisely why most people view Snowden as a whistleblower despite the demands of the President and members of Congress that he be tracked down and put away for good. Even more interesting is the appearance of James Clapper, director of National Intelligence, who previously acknowledged perjury before the Senate. Rather than raise the perjury or demand his prosecution, Senators engaged in friendly exchanges with Clapper as if nothing had happened. This is clearly under the belief that the public has a remarkably short attention span and the media will follow the lead of the White House. Indeed, reporters for the most part did not even mention that Clapper is thought by many to be an unprosecuted felon due to his prior testimony or that his last major testimony on this very subject was to deny such programs. There was not even laughter when Clapper said that he was working to find ways to “counter the popular narrative” of any dangers in this surveillance. That “popular narrative” of course also includes his prior false testimony.
While Democratic senator Ron Wyden and Democrat Mark Udall continue to fight for civil liberties against such surveillance, their colleagues have continued to work with the White House to recast the scandal in a less threatening light — thus the adoption of such reassuring terms like “lock boxes.” Alexander told the Committee “I believe it is in the nation’s best interest to put all the phone records into a lockbox – yes.”
While acknowledging that Snowden forced reforms, both Clapper and Alexander denounced him to the obvious support of Senators like Dianne Feinstein who were embarrassed by the disclosures.
Clapper admitted (in contradiction to the President’s past comments) that violations have occurred in these programs and that “on occasion, we’ve made mistakes, some quite significant.” This appears to refer to the unlawful surveillance and not his admitted false testimony.
As expected, Feinstein and others are suggesting procedures as “reforms” that would still allow virtually limitless surveillance. It is part of the new spin from the White House of creating a facade of new procedures (largely under the control of the Administration) while continuing the programs and protecting people like Clapper.
Feinstein said her bill would indeed preserve the program of collecting and storing phone records of all Americans while joining in the criticism the media and Snowden. She did not of course vent any criticism for the man in front of her who lied under oath or the officials responsible for limitless seizures of telephone records. After hiding the programs and misleading the public, she now assures the public that they are entirely lawful and nothing to worry about.
It was a hearing completely detached from the public and from the constitutional questions raised by these programs. The problem is Snowden, the media, and even the public — not the governing elite in America’s Animal Farm.
Source: NSA
“The Constitution is just a piece of paper”. gw Boosh
Whatever caused the owner of Lavabit to shut down his operation rather than do whatever it was the spooks wanted him to do remains a mystery.
From http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/09/27/what-court-orders-led-email-service-lavabit-which-snowden-was-reportedly-using-to-shut-down/
The questions that Feinstein prevented Wyden from asking
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/09/27/the-other-questions-senator-ron-wyden-wants-answered-on-nsa-surveillance/
“At a hearing convened by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, chair of the committee, Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, ensured that a second round of questions would not be asked of the distinguished witnesses present—NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Assistant Attorney General James Cole.
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, Democratic Senator Mark Udall and even Republican Senator Susan Collins had more questions to ask, but, instead of allowing more oversight to take place at an alleged oversight hearing, Feinstein suggested the committee get to the expert witnesses from the second panel. This effectively ensured Alexander, Clapper and Cole did not have to face Wyden or Udall again in the hearing.
Wyden submitted the questions he wanted to ask. ”
…………. and then the questions..
The test for NSA activities is the US Constitution. The rest is lies. I will now address some of their attempts to change the narrative.
Fear mongering–If these fine gentle people do not want terrorist attacks coming to the US, hands down, the most effective strategy USG should take is to stop bombing Muslim nations whose resources or strategic location we would like to control. We can stop trying to regime change them as well. Drones, cluster bombs, double taps and dirty deeds are not influencing hearts and minds towards the good. That has to be obvious by now.
It is also significant that Alexander won’t lie to Congress about cell phone location tactics. They have learned the lesson that when they lie about specific tactics, they will be shown to have lied by their own documents. The answer is, yes they are doing this.
Interestingly, these fine exemplars of power keep repeating a known lie as propaganda. They claim that “intelligence” agencies aren’t doing anything illegal. Oh, really? Jesus Christ, even the FISA court said that is false. They also try framing this as an issue of public anger. It is that, but actually it is foremost an issue of unlawful actions. I am hoping that Congress is not persuaded to allow NSA, OGA and friends to work on destroying our Constitution in order to have a Roman imperial fortress to garrison the earth. That is crazy.
The limit on their actions is not fear, not public anger, not garrison earth. It is the law. They are breaking it.
Sen. Diane Feinstein’s Husband Selling Post Offices to Cronies on the Cheap
Wednesday, 25 September 2013 11:31 By Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/19042-senator-diane-feinsteins-husband-selling-post-offices-to-cronies-on-the-cheap
To quote famed short seller David Einhorn: “No matter how bad you think it is, it’s worse.” On the “corruption among what passes for our elites” front, this story about self-dealing in the privatization of the Postal Service gives an indication of how bad things really are.
By way of backstory: the Postal Service is being plundered through the device of a completely fabricated financial crisis. The mail provider has been widely declared to be broke, but that’s utter hogwash. Congress has created the appearance of financial ill health via a 2006 measure which astonishingly makes it prepay retiree benefits 75 years in advance. Yes, you read that right. It has to fund benefits now for workers who haven’t even been hired. The Postal Service is the only agency subject to this absurd requirement. If that were eliminated, and the Post Office charged stopped pricing business mail (meaning all that junk you get) at a loss, the Postal Service would be profitable. The Save the Post Office site sets forth the forces behind the campaign to turn the Post Office into a looting opportunity public-private partnership, including Pitney Bowes, DHL, Federal Express, UPS, and USPS supplier Ursa Major.
EastBayExpress, via publishing a section from a new e-book by Peter Byrne called Going Postal (um, sadly the same as used by Mark Ames for his important book on workplace shootings), tells us how the husband of powerful Sen. Diane Feinstein, Richard Blum, is feeding at the Postal Service privatization trough. Blum is the chairman of C.B. Richard Ellis (CBRE) which has the exclusive contract to handle sales for the Post Office’s $85 billion of property. Bryne summarizes the finding of his investigation:
…
• Sen. Feinstein has lobbied the Postmaster General on behalf of a redevelopment project in which her husband’s company was involved.
…
There’s more damning detail in the book extract. I strongly urge you to read it in full. This case shows how open our ruling classes have become in stealing from the public at large. And the worst is that even if this story were to get traction, it’s highly unlikely anyone has the guts to cut a super powerful couple like Blum and Feinstein down to size.
Liberals seem not to understand that, in order to advance in power, one has to earn their bones. GW was re-elected, not charged with treason for 9/11 or the illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Ditto Obama, Clintoon, Poppy, snd Saint Reagan. LBJ not only avoided sure prison for corruption, he got to be president. Nixxon wasn’t charged with treason for getting Madame Nhu to sabotage the Paris Peace talks, he became president.
Face it: you have to earn your bones to get ahead in our system.
Well said, Justice Holmes.
Sounds like the Americans are finally implementing a version of the KGB, although split amongst several agencies.
When other nations do it, it is bad; when America does it, it is good.
The fact that Clapper was sent to testify before Congress again is clear evidence of how little respect the WH has for Congress and the fact that Clapper has not been arrested for contempt of Congress shows how little respect Congress has for itself.
As to the danger the Republic is in, it isn’t from terrorists but rather from elected officials who are only too happy to make lying under oath legal for government officials and fraud by bankers legal while the rest of us unimportant individuals are spied on night and day.
Now the a democrats and the a republicans have common ground! The American People are the enemy and the Constituion is the problem.
http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/09/27/ron-wydens-past-provocative-hearing-question-on-cell-site-location/
http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/09/27/whoa-whoa-whoa-stop-dianne-feinstein-misstates-the-2011-violations/
And from Greenwald’s article today and not to be forgotten:
“But there are two members of that Committee who actually do take seriously its oversight mandate: Democrats Ron Wyden and Mark Udall. Those two spent years publicly winking and hinting that the NSA under President Obama was engaged in all sorts of radical and abusive domestic surveillance (although – despite the absolute immunity protection they enjoy as Senators under the Constitution – they took no action, and instead waited for Edward Snowden (who had no such immunity) to bravely step up and reveal to the American people specifically what these two Senators kept hinting at).”
Elaine,
Just think of all those contractors and sub-contractors out there. Look how easily Snowden got his job.
I wonder how many of them sought the job simply to game the system and make a few bucks. The problem could be mammoth.
If the press doesn’t hold politicians accountable, the Feinstein’s can just smirk, and the Wyden’s say why bother, nobody gives a rat’s ass. Maybe if someone could turn this into a reality show w/ duck calls it might motivate people.
Again a plug for This Town. This is how DC now operates. The press is supposed to keep folks like this in the public eye but they are lapdogs for this administration. Seymour Hersch has ripped the press a new one regarding their horseshit.
RT @dgalinko If Feinstein says meta data non intrusive, she should release 5 yrs of her own to the public
Juan Cole responded with: “& her husband’s”
About that metadata:
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/383578013440290817
Have a Nice Day, N.S.A.
By VANESSA BARBARA
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/27/opinion/have-a-nice-day-nsa.html?_r=0&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1380301475-MKhfxPLF/vKGyYyzVXzQbQ
It may often seem that those of us attempting to end this out of control govt/wallst corruption are not making progress.
I don’t believe that is the case.
It’s hard to see the progress but it’s happening.
Just keep clubbing them over the head with the info.
Blouise,
And how about spying on the journalists who actually have the audacity to investigate to find out the truth of what’s been going on and to write about it?
“The NSA inspector general, in the letter dated Sept. 11, detailed 12 investigations that found the NSA’s civilian and military employees used the agency’s spying tools to search for email addresses or try to snoop on phone calls of current or former lovers, spouses and relatives, both foreign and American.” (from Elaine’s post @11:45pm)
What a ruse from NSA’s inspector general. What about getting insider trading info for personal use or even for selling to interested parties. Come on … the violations could be mammoth but not to worry, 12 investigations into snooping on spouses are underway.
Come on … Clapper, the big boss, has no qualms about committing perjury, why in the world would those who work for him be anymore law abiding than he is?
As for Alexander’s “reforms” … whoosh go the doors in his Star-trek fantasy world.
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/9/26/matt_taibbi_on_how_wall_street