Obama Lied About NSA Spying Program

Political Realities ^ | 09/09/13 | LD Jackson

[LD Jackson]

Since the time the world learned how the NSA was conducting a massive program to intercept communications, phone calls, emails, etc., President Obama has assured there was no problem. He told us we need to trust the government to do the right thing, to get the balance right between protecting our country and protecting the privacy of American citizens. Not that I have ever trusted President Obama, but the more we learn, the more the distrust builds. There is a lot we are not being told about the way our government is operating.

For instance, did you know that the Bush administration made a specific request of the court that oversees the NSA's spying program? They wanted to place a ban on the government being able to search specifically for American's communications inside the database built up by the NSA. FISC granted that request and implemented the ban. That was in 2008, again at the request of the Bush administration. Did you also know that the ban has been lifted, this time in response to a request by the Obama administration? I thought not, as President Obama has not been forthcoming with that information. Hat tip to Doug Ross.

Washington Post - The Obama administration secretly won permission from a surveillance court in 2011 to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency’s use of intercepted phone calls and e-mails, permitting the agency to search deliberately for Americans’ communications in its massive databases, according to interviews with government officials and recently declassified material.

In addition, the court extended the length of time that the NSA is allowed to retain intercepted U.S. communications from five years to six years — and more under special circumstances, according to the documents, which include a recently released 2011 opinion by U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, then chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

What had not been previously acknowledged is that the court in 2008 imposed an explicit ban — at the government’s request — on those kinds of searches, that officials in 2011 got the court to lift the bar and that the search authority has been used.

Together the permission to search and to keep data longer expanded the NSA’s authority in significant ways without public debate or any specific authority from Congress. The administration’s assurances rely on legalistic definitions of the term “target” that can be at odds with ordinary English usage. The enlarged authority is part of a fundamental shift in the government’s approach to surveillance: collecting first, and protecting Americans’ privacy later.

“The government says, ‘We’re not targeting U.S. persons,’ ” said Gregory T. Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. “But then they never say, ‘We turn around and deliberately search for Americans’ records in what we took from the wire.’ That, to me, is not so different from targeting Americans at the outset.”

Tell me again how we should trust the Obama administration.

This is another example of President Obama speaking with a forked tongue. He speaks with great platitudes, but his actions are something else entirely. He tells us we need to trust our government, but at his administration's specific request, the NSA is now allowed to search for our phone calls, emails, text messages, etc. in the communications it has collected. I guess that doesn't constitute a targeting of Americans by their own government. Their twisting of the definitions of certain words in the English language defies logic.

I would really like to find something else to write about. It would be easy to get depressed, thinking about all the things the government is doing behind our backs. Not that I am naive enough to not know every administration does some things under the cover of secrecy, but President Obama declared his administration would be the most open and honest administration in American history. Instead, we have an administration completely devoted to secrecy. Their claim of openness and honesty is a joke that has been perpetrated upon the American people. I don't know about you, but I'm not finding that to be so funny.

[Hotlanta Mike]

Obama is the new Stasi...

[Diogenesis]

[Chode]

that's not news... news, would he him telling the truth!!!

[ThunderSleeps]

Right now obama’s minions are doing things we (average citizens) think only other, bad governments would do.

[Hoodat]

What hasn’t he lied about?

[Mr. K]

Odumbass says “don’t worry, we are only COLLECTING information- not listening to it all”

Well that is not exactly the point.

The point is that if they collect everything they don’t HAVE TO listen to it all (impossible anyway).
They just have to wait until you do something they don’t like, and THEN go back and look at your specific records...

[PoloSec]

How about a list of things Zero has not lied about...I would start the list, but have nothing to contribute.

[The Sons of Liberty]

Obama Lied About NSA Spying Program

0bama lied? This is news? A snake does what a snake does, why should that be surprising?

[Diogenesis]

Obama-the-undocumented Moslem did NOT lie about
siding with Islam first, every morning and five times a day.

He was honest about his religion until Stefanopoulous
directed him back to lying.

[cpdiii]

Those that believe in the Constitution of The United States have now become the “Enemy of the State.”

[Graewoulf]

“Jellyfish Spine” Boehner as Speaker of the House is essential to Obama’s continued destruction of the US Constitution.

Nothing will change as long as cave-in artists Boehner and Cantor are in leadership roles in the US House of Representatives.

If Boehner is replaced as Speaker with a fighter such as Col. Allen West, then the Articles of Impeachment for B. Hussein Obama, aka Barry Soetoro, can be quickly issued.

The problem is not with Obama, as he is just doing what Communist Trrants are trained to do.

The problem is not with Boehner, as he loves to lose and wallow in the disgrace of being the worst Speaker of the House, EVER.

The problem lies with our sorry, spineless, RINOs in the House who refuse to replace Boehner with a proven fighter.

BTW, the members of the House can choose anybody to be their Speaker, even if that person is not a current Member of the House.

[Sal]

The problem lies with our sorry, spineless, RINOs in the House who refuse to replace Boehner with a proven fighter.

I have it from my Congressman that they had the votes to replace Boehner but couldn't get anyone to run against him. IMO that was because he had stripped some conservatives of their committees and, if anything went wrong and they lost, any potential candidate would work in a closet and have no committees...

It's also true that whoever takes that position is going to be oppo researched back to the first grade and probably be subject to threats we can only imagine.

BTW, the members of the House can choose anybody to be their Speaker, even if that person is not a current Member of the House. Maybe that would have been enough to get somebody like West to run since he'd have no committees to protect and he'd be pretty hard to intimidate.

In any case Boehner says he's going to step down from the speakership after the '14 election. I guess he thinks he needs to protect BO that far...