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Showing Original Post only (View all)Obama Was Wrong: NSA Employees Have Deliberately "Abused" Their Power - Slate [View all]
Obama Was Wrong: NSA Employees Have Deliberately "Abused" Their PowerBy Ryan Gallagher | Slate
Posted Friday, Aug. 23, 2013, at 5:29 PM
<snip>
In recent weeks, government officials have insisted that Americans need not worry about NSA surveillance because there are no cases of the system being wilfully abused. But new details have emerged showing these assurances to be blatantly falsein yet another twist that is sure to undermine trust in the NSA oversight regime.
On Friday, Bloomberg reported that NSA analysts have deliberately ignored restrictions on their authority to spy on Americans multiple times in the past decade. According to Bloomberg, an average of one case of intentional abuse per year has been documented in internal reports. Given that the NSA intercepts billions of communications weekly, the number of reported deliberate abuses is small. However, that there are any documented cases at all is highly significant because of how this contradicts statements made by both current and former senior officials in the aftermath of a series of stories about vast NSA spy programs based on leaked secret documents.
NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander claimed at a New York cybersecurity conference earlier this month that no one has wilfully or knowingly disobeyed the law or tried to invade your civil liberties or privacy. A similar statement was made by the head of the Senate intelligence committee tasked with conducting oversight of the NSA. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said on Aug. 16 that the committee had never identified an instance in which the NSA has intentionally abused its authority to conduct surveillance for inappropriate purposes.
In an Aug. 9 news conference, President Obama stated, too, that abuse had not been occurring. All the stories that have been written, what you're not reading about is the government actually abusing these programs and listening in on people's phone calls or inappropriately reading people's emails, Obama said. Two days later, this statement was enthusiastically reiterated by former NSA chief Gen. Michael Hayden, who appeared on Face of the Nation. There have been no abuses under him <President Obama> or under his predecessor <President Bush>, Hayden insisted.
According to the Bloomberg report...
<snip>
More: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/08/23/bloomberg_report_nsa_employees_have_deliberately_abused_their_power.html
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Obama Was Wrong: NSA Employees Have Deliberately "Abused" Their Power - Slate [View all]
WillyT
Aug 2013
OP
Obama is wrong? But Obama is the change we've been waiting for. Does-not-compute. Does-not-compute.
Pterodactyl
Aug 2013
#1
He made a mistake. Surely by now you must know that Obama is only human. Many inside of gov.
kelliekat44
Aug 2013
#11
I know that one is a favorite of Republicans, Libertarians, & Conservative "Reagan Democrats",
bvar22
Aug 2013
#24
Reagan gets credit for the line, which is why Republicans like it so much
LearningCurve
Aug 2013
#28
no, we need to reign them in- a lot. just like the NSA. cut the fuck out of their funding.
cali
Aug 2013
#7
An average of one case out of billions a year? Isn't that to be expected? No system functions
pnwmom
Aug 2013
#8
They are collecting metadata on all the calls, so in that sense they're spying on all of us.
pnwmom
Aug 2013
#39
Oh, I've done that. Also, I DON'T support anyone, in any way, INCLUDING OBAMA,
Th1onein
Aug 2013
#45
But only to make sure their spouses aren't cheating! Or, to help the DEA arrest pot smokers.
Warren DeMontague
Aug 2013
#26
There. It's been said. Having BEEN said, can we now approach the problem with some semblance
cherokeeprogressive
Aug 2013
#46