James Comey's Troubling Answers on Surveillance and Transparency

[xchrom]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/175223/james-comeys-troubling-answers-surveillance-and-transparency#axzz2YviLbfZu



If James Comey is confirmed to be the next director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, he will naturally find himself at the center of the rapidly evolving debate over government surveillance.

The FBI is often the organization making applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which, as we’ve learned thanks to Glenn Greenwald at The Guardian, is authorizing all sorts of broad, and deeply troubling, surveillance. For instance, it was the FBI who made the now-infamous application to FISC mandating that Verizon turn over all of its telephonic metadata to the National Security Agency.

This means members of the Senate Judiciary Committee had a serious obligation to press Comey on this issue—not least because, despite his bold stance against the very worst excesses of the Bush administration’s surveillance techniques, he still approved several other problematic surveillance programs.

To their credit, some senators did so. Comey’s responses, taken in total, were quite troubling—and signified that the administration isn’t ready for the “debate” that President Obama claimed he wanted about the government’s surveillance programs.



Read more: James Comey's Troubling Answers on Surveillance and Transparency | The Nation http://www.thenation.com/blog/175223/james-comeys-troubling-answers-surveillance-and-transparency#ixzz2YvlTzXiw
Follow us: @thenation on Twitter | TheNationMagazine on Facebook

[Pholus]

1. An excellent article. Thanks. nt

[Thinkingabout]

2. What debate did Obama want to have on surveillance, tbe part about warrantless wiretapping?

I am not so impressed by articles by Greenwald who more interested in promoting his own agenda rather than the full story. Greenwald articles are suspect.

[chimpymustgo]

5. What do you see as the agenda Greenwald is promoting?

[Thinkingabout]

6. Since most of Americans knew about the collection of phone call records then the patsy Snowden did

not reveal anything to the ones with the knowledge already. So what was the point for Snowden to so his spy and lie, to embolden a base who needs information to stir them up, to get more donations from guberment fearmongers who feeds off talking points such has occurred presently. Like cognitive dissonance, say something long enough and often enough and it sticks with some folks, well it failed with me. Like as in your name portrays.

[bvar22]

7. NO. That is complete bullshit.

Most Americans did NOT know that FISA was rubber stamping blanket warrants to seize and store data on Millions of Americans without any Probable Cause.

I Pay Attention,
and THAT revelation made me gasp in surprise and outrage.
I was also very disturbed to learn that FISA approved Every Single Warrant Request last year.

[DefenseLawyer]

3. Thank goodness we found a Republican that could take care of us. n/t

[Waiting For Everyman]

4. K&R

Tice wasn't enthused about him either.

[Catherina]

8. That's some debate they're having with us. Thanks for this great article n/t

[Octafish]

9. Mr. Comey helped Jose Padilla get the 'Treatment'

Torture works, according to Mr. Comey in 2004:

"We now know much of what Jose Padilla knows, and what we have learned confirms that the President made the right call and that that call saved lives." -- James Comey, Deputy Attorney General; press conference



Nothing to debate when one's brain's been reduced to oatmeal.

How U.S. Interrogators Destroyed the Mind of Jose Padilla