As the world joins in opposition to the U.S. attack on privacy worldwide, President Barack Obama has to face awkward meetings with world leaders of allied countries who were subjects of his surveillance. Some reports have stated that Obama personally approved the monitoring of Angela Merkel’s telephone three years ago. Now, the National Security Agency (NSA) is insisting that Obama did not order the monitoring personally. I am not sure what is worse: that Obama ordered interceptions of allied leaders like Merkel or that the surveillance state is so large that functionaries now have the discretion to order such surveillance. Merkel may not find it as more assuring that Obama didn’t order her monitoring than the notion such she is just another target delegated to discretion of lower level officials. It is also not clear if Mike Rogers is going to suggest that Merkel should also thank us for the monitoring.
NSA and the White House will only say that it is not currently monitoring Merkel’s phone calls as opposed to prior surveillance of our ally. The most chilling aspect of the response is the suggestion that this is just another delegated act from Obama. After all, he delegated the decision of which citizens should be killed on his unilateral authority under his Kill List policy. It is all part of our new Security State. Killing citizens, surveilling allied leaders, seizing the records of Americans from email and phone systems . . . it is all the new normal of delegated presidential authority. I have previously written about the dangers of the Imperial Presidency established by Obama. However, what is even more chilling is how absolute presidential powers become delegated absolute presidential powers. Such delegation not only gives presidents like Obama some deniability in scandals like this but allow for the expansion of such programs under a thousand faceless functionaries. Of course, the Administration is also pursuing a scorched earth policy against reporters and whistleblowers in the hopes of avoiding any future need to explain itself to anyone.
Even in the face of global condemnation, the cult of personality surrounding Obama continues to silence any significant opposition from Democrats. We have allowed the creation of a security state employing hundreds of thousands with hundreds of billions of invested public funds and giant annual budgets. It is a system that is designed to be used, not to remain dormant. We are not just the protected class but the targeted class of such surveillance. It is a system that runs on any source that could be a threat or reveal information of a threat — a standard that allows monitoring of friends and foes alike.
The Germans are of course upset because such surveillance happens to violate German law, but that has hardly proven a barrier in the United States. In expanding these programs, we appear to have transcended the rule of law to embrace a new model of a security state. We have gotten to the point that we not only treat our own laws as increasing discretionary but treat the laws of other nations as equally discretionary. Diplomatic principles are no more inviolate as civil liberties in the new world being fashioned around counter-terrorism. Once transparency has been achieved in the United States, it is inevitable that the world will then look unacceptably opaque to our security forces.
What is most striking from comments like those of Rogers is that we appear completely clueless or willfully blind to the view of our actions by other nations. Since we do not doubt our motivations, we cannot understand why anyone would be uncomfortable with our actions. As with drone strikes and assassination units, our view might change if other countries engaged in the same actions by ordering special forces to kill targets in the United States or unleashing drone attacks or seizing all of our phone records. As we break down legal walls and limits, we are returning the world to a diplomatic version of the state of nature. At that point, we will be left with the simple rule of “might is right.” It is the original law of the jungle and it is perfectly sustainable for the strongest amongst us. Having realized Nixon’s dream of an Imperial Presidency, Obama seems to have moved on to extending Teddy Roosevelt’s Big Stick policy to cover the world and the world leaders.
Source: National Post
Mike
how could you not like golf? it sounds like so much fun
“Mike
how could you not like golf? it sounds like so much fun”
Pete,
Most of my friends golf and it would be nice to spend time with them. however, it is far too expensive, people get up at unGodly hours to play and my days are too busy to cut out five hour blocks. Also leading up to my heart transplant most of my muscle strength atrophied and when I went out to a driving range I found I was lucky if I could hit a drive 35 to 50 yards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plausible_deniability
@anonymously posted – So does that mean that they are going to take issue with Benjamin Netanyahu and Tamir Pardo having AMDOCS and COMSYS spying on US citizens and it’s leaders? Including Mr. Obama’s (et al) spy-proof phone too?
NSA recruiters appeared at the University of Wisconsin last summer. The recruiting session didn’t exactly go completely wrong, but the NSA recruiters will not soon forget it. Audio of the session was recorded. Students peppered the NSA recruiters with some tough questions, and unlike the coiffed heads on Sunday morning talk shows, did not give up and did not cut the recruiters any slack. The tenor of the questons was on the order of, “When you say that, are you lying or just not telling the truth.” I particularly liked the part when the student worked on pinning them down on defining “adversary.” The audio has been posted on SoundCloud.
https://soundcloud.com/madiha-1/students-question-the-nsa-at
Feinstein is the worse person in Congress regarding the NSA. The Senator one state north, Ron Wyden, is the best.
Feinstein’s “aha moment”: If they’re spying on Merkel, they’re probably spying on me!
http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/policy-and-strategy/330995-feinstein-blasts-nsas-spying-on-foreign-leaders
Feinstein vows ‘total review’ of NSA
By Jeremy Herb – 10/28/13 04:49 PM ET
Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Monday called for a “total review” of all intelligence collection programs as she criticized the National Security Agency for spying on foreign leaders.
“It is abundantly clear that a total review of all intelligence programs is necessary so that members of the Senate Intelligence Committee are fully informed as to what is actually being carried out by the intelligence community,” Feinstein said.
Feinstein has been one of the NSA’s staunchest congressional defenders amid the uproar over its phone records surveillance, but she said that the spying on foreign leaders without President Obama’s knowledge was a “big problem.”
“Unlike NSA’s collection of phone records under a court order, it is clear to me that certain surveillance activities have been in effect for more than a decade and that the Senate Intelligence Committee was not satisfactorily informed,” Feinstein said in a statement. “Therefore our oversight needs to be strengthened and increased.”
Feinstein said that she planned to initiate a major review into all of the intelligence community’s collection methods.
“The White House has informed me that collection on our allies will not continue, which I support,” she said. “But as far as I’m concerned, Congress needs to know exactly what our intelligence community is doing.”
Feinstein said she was “totally opposed” to NSA collection of intelligence on leaders of U.S. allies.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders have expressed outrage over reports that the NSA was spying on Merkel since 2002 and that it spied on 35 world leaders.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Obama was not told of the intelligence gathering on world leaders until this summer.
Feinstein called for the president to be required to approve the kinds of intelligence collection on foreign leaders that was detailed in reports over the past week.
“Unless the United States is engaged in hostilities against a country or there is an emergency need for this type of surveillance, I do not believe the United States should be collecting phone calls or emails of friendly presidents and prime ministers,” Feinstein said.
The Senate Intelligence panel has been preparing to mark-up legislation to reform the NSA’s data collection practices in the wake of the uproar over its phone metadata collection.
The House Intelligence Committee has the NSA director and other top intelligence officials testifying in a rare open hearing on Tuesday as they also prepare to craft legislation.
@Mike Spindell – Dawkins! Ugh! I don’t wish for him what happened to Hitchens… Molested by a Church of England priest or something worse?
What if he were wrong?
http://youtu.be/WAQlsS9diBs
Yeah Phoebe (or is it feebee?) was really pissed about that little clusterphuq… I was pretty cheesed off too. After seeing Junior walking hand-in-hand with the sheik, his dealings with them at Arbusto Oil, Capitol Police guarding their embassy in DC, why would anyone not see the phuqing forest? Because of the gotdam trees? Can you imagine that what you said could be true? The WHOLE country GROUNDED not even a flying-squirrel could take off and here the bin Laden Family getting out of dodge post-haste! Talk about owing favors to someone! You think that coke-head and his heart-transplant partner-in-crime will ever face war crimes over this?
@Prairie Rose – Wow you got this really Sarah Palin vibe going on about Barry huh? Imagine this: Remember that Chuck Norris movie in where the terrorists come to your neighborhood and shoot it up? Well Barry is ostensibly preventing this from happening. At least for now. Since it is likely that some people I call THE OTHERS may have played a very well-defined role in 9/11 I would think that we need to spy on anyone who has any dealings with them INCLUDING but not limited to Angela Merkel. I mean her country (et al) did try to take over the world once just some 68 years ago. It appears THE OTHERS are pro-‘that country’ (and party) and are not to be trusted even if some were once our Presidents.
Aren’t you even curious as to who Angela was talking to so much that the NSA was interested? Under FISA at least one party has to be an American I think or at least talking conspiratorially about USA. Not sure… She should set herself free of guilt. Like Sybok said ins Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989): Let us explore it… together. Each man [woman] hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me… and gain strength from the sharing. 😎
@Blouise – To catch a CIA officer lurking in your backyard you can use a 60′ cabled X-10 with IR capability (x-10.com). They are really cheap and easy to hide. But if he/she is from the OTHER CIA just simply throw a bag of play money cash and some oil cans out there. If you hear a made dash to pounce on it then you got yourself an OTHER! 🙂
No seriously, use your tradecraft skills. There’s a kids game called CSI fingerprint kit at Walmart or Toys-R-Us. Just dust the bottles. Then after you print the neighborhood kids usual suspects (i.e. invite them to your house and hand them a bottle of soda-pop and make sure you get it back from them) then you have your culprits. Or you could just set your DVR to record your X-10 video feed. They also have PIR motion detectors built in. All under $100 bucks.
Yeah my ADD prevents me from doing anything that takes more than 8-seconds of my attention. I know Nick could do stakeouts but I would be climbing the walls if it went beyond a day (BTDT). I’d me smoking cigars, drinking Java, and playing on Internet. Partner would say “Did you see that?” “No I didn’t… what did I miss…” “Oh just about everything!”
I found a great “Q” like guy on YouTube. I swear he used to be a DS&T geek but he won’t admit to it. He invented these glasses that will block your face on any modern surveillance camera. You can’t see anything with naked eye but the camera sees a huge white flare around your face. He’s kinda’ goofy though… Google KIPKAY.
Hey have you figured out the Kryptos riddle yet?
You wanna’ know where Barry is gonna’ build his POTUS library?
Google Earth coordinates: 41°47′23″N 87°35′59″W
I lay good odds on it!
SOTB, My neighbor was a pro @ Chipanee Country Club in Bristol, Ct. A lotta ESPN people play there now. The pro was a blue collar Pollack[and he called me wop] like me. He was a real mentor for me. I would caddy, clean clubs, shag balls on the range. Leo would give me the cheapskates to caddy because he knew I was good, and then Leo would give me a tip these doctors, lawyers, politicians would not. We would laugh @ the a-holes. Leo would give me soda, snacks, whatever. He always wanted to teach me to golf. He would have given me clubs, let me golf whenever I wanted. It’s a beautiful old course. Sadly, I never took him up on it. Golf was a job for me. I started when I was 12. I also umpired men’s softball games starting @ 12. Again, a great mentor, ex-Marine, would work the plate and I had the bases. It wasn’t until I was in my 30’s I realized how much I learned about people, adults people. I was way ahead of the curve on that. So, while I always thought it serendipitous that I became a PI, maybe it wasn’t. I played baseball and football in high school and CYO basketball. We’re of the age where you played ALL sports in your youth. I was a ham n’ egger b-ball player, but I liked playing, so CYO was my chance to play. No shame.
@Nick – Yeah it was Yogi. That is one funny line though!
Hey talking about golf, I do live near one, unlike Mike S. I like taking shortcuts through it but the cops have blocked off the road. It’s a very old one too. I think Samuel Colt use to play there. I really don’t play well. My boss got me into a “Scramble” and I told him not to depend on me competitively because I absolutely suck at it. But just like you I can fake almost anything for a while until exposed. Just like this guy: JARED
“Yeah sister you’re right. I’m hooked on that stuff ever since Tom Clancy finished his bucket list. You know I’ve never finished any of his books? ” (SOTB)
I knew it! We are kindred souls for I haven’t either … I get bored.
Justice Holmes,
“I don’t care who started this. It is now Obama’s responsibility.”
I agree. It was wicked for Bush to start it, but what does that say about Obama’s moral compass for continuing it? Do these things make him equally bad as Bush or worse?
“It is now Obama’s responsibility.”
I’d also say, “And ours.” We need to clean house on the Hill.
Is this, finally, an impeachable offense, the stuff of high crimes and misdemeanors?
Sigh.
“@Blouise – I did not actually hear the “functionary” comment. I thought he meant some No Such Agency GLG-20 like “Fiedler” (aka Jack Black) in the EOS movie. (That GLG-20 link is way too funny!)” (SOTB)
I’m sure he did mean an NSA guy/gal … I decided, all on my own, that he meant Bush Jr. … one can do that when the functionary is unnamed.
As to terrorists and Merkel … I was just pulling your leg. After all, Bush Jr. helped all those Saudi’s fly out of the country on 9/11 … who knows how many terrorists or terrorist enablers were hiding in plain sight on that plane?
Honest to god, I think the other CIA lives in the stand of evergreens in my backyard and, if the trash I find there every Sunday morning is any indication, they’re cheap drunks.
BTW … where is Obama building his Library?
Yeah I knew you were out there. I lurk a lot too. Sometimes I stay away from obvious threads until someone invokes my moniker. Like saying Candyman three times fast – 🙂
Yeah buddy… I get ya’ on the work thing… Actually, as usual, I’m supposed to be working now myself. Something about JT’s blogs that attract me like a moth to flame. I can’t resist certain subject matter – I can see Blouise going: “Yeah I know just what that is too!” Yeah sister you’re right. I’m hooked on that stuff ever since Tom Clancy finished his bucket list. You know I’ve never finished any of his books? I’m about to wach OP CENTER on YouTube tonight. I hope it’s good…
SOTB, It’s either a Stegelism or Yogism, I’ll go w/ Yogi.
@Nick Spinelli – “Half the lies they tell about me aren’t true.” You should have said this. But since you didn’t what famous Baseball great did?