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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPresident Obama’s Dragnet (New York Times Editorial)
Within hours of the disclosure that the federal authorities routinely collect data on phone calls Americans make, regardless of whether they have any bearing on a counterterrorism investigation, the Obama administration issued the same platitude it has offered every time President Obama has been caught overreaching in the use of his powers: Terrorists are a real menace and you should just trust us to deal with them because we have internal mechanisms (that we are not going to tell you about) to make sure we do not violate your rights.
Those reassurances have never been persuasive whether on secret warrants to scoop up a news agencys phone records or secret orders to kill an American suspected of terrorism especially coming from a president who once promised transparency and accountability. The administration has now lost all credibility. Mr. Obama is proving the truism that the executive will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it. That is one reason we have long argued that the Patriot Act, enacted in the heat of fear after the 9/11 attacks by members of Congress who mostly had not even read it, was reckless in its assignment of unnecessary and overbroad surveillance powers.
Based on an article in The Guardian published Wednesday night, we now know the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency used the Patriot Act to obtain a secret warrant to compel Verizons business services division to turn over data on every single call that went through its system. We know that this particular order was a routine extension of surveillance that has been going on for years, and it seems very likely that it extends beyond Verizons business division. There is every reason to believe the federal government has been collecting every bit of information about every Americans phone calls except the words actually exchanged in those calls.
A senior administration official quoted in The Times offered the lame observation that the information does not include the name of any caller, as though there would be the slightest difficulty in matching numbers to names. He said the information has been a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats, because it allows the government to discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in terrorist activities, particularly people located inside the United States.
MORE...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/opinion/president-obamas-dragnet.html?%20pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp&
Response to Purveyor (Original post)
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Cha
(297,229 posts)In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)MotherPetrie
(3,145 posts)No blaming some MINION in his administration. The buck stops with Obama. And if you had a problem with Bush doing this, you better have the same problem with Obama doing it.
brentspeak
(18,290 posts)Obama has twice renewed the Patriot Act. He and he alone is responsible for its misuse since Bush left office.
randome
(34,845 posts)Congress authorized this. The Patriot Act authorized this. A judge authorized it.
Obama does not OWN this. He is guilty of, if anything, using the tools that Congress gave the Presidency but there is plenty of 'blame' to go around.
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[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
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MotherPetrie
(3,145 posts)BlueCheese
(2,522 posts)No more empty explanations that insult our intelligence. End this overreach immediately.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)indepat
(20,899 posts)used or track or punish political enemies, anti-war protesters, anti-Wall Street protesters or the likes of those on Nixon's enemies list. No siree, big brother would never abuse its power to suppress life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness or to foster partisan political endeavors.
TampaAnimusVortex
(785 posts)who had done no wrong...
This administration also puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we provide. I will provide our intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to track and take out the terrorists without undermining our Constitution and our freedom. That means no more illegal wiretapping of American citizens. No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime. No more tracking citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war. No more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient.
Maven
(10,533 posts)Was it worth it, Mr. President? Was this really the legacy you wanted?
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)It is about fucking time that the media took notice of this creeping fascism.
Let the shameless propaganda sink. Any good German who urges you to circle the wagons around Party to defend THIS deserves nothing but contempt.
This is a chance to begin to reverse the march to corporate fascism if we will just, at long last, stand TOGETHER as Americans against the unconscionable.
marions ghost
(19,841 posts)to find Freedom?
Marble surveillance camera--by Ai Wei Wei
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WeiweiCam
WeiweiCam
WeiweiCam is a self-surveillance project by artist Ai Weiwei that went live on April 3, 2012, exactly one year after the artist's detention by Chinese officials at Beijing Airport.[1] At least fifteen surveillance cameras monitor his house in Beijing[2] which, according to Ai, makes it the most-watched spot of the city.[3] He described his decision to put himself under further surveillance as a symbolic way to increase transparency in the Chinese government.[4] WeiweiCam consisted of four webcams that sent a live 24-hour feed publicly viewable from the website weiweicam.com.[5] 46 hours after the site went live Ai Weiwei was instructed to shut down WeiweiCam by Chinese authorities.[6][7] During the time weiweicam.com was live it received 5.2 million views.[8] (Wiki)
forestpath
(3,102 posts)marions ghost
(19,841 posts)"Essentially, the administration is saying that without any individual suspicion of wrongdoing, the government is allowed to know whom Americans are calling every time they make a phone call, for how long they talk and from where.
This sort of tracking can reveal a lot of personal and intimate information about an individual. To casually permit this surveillance with the American public having no idea that the executive branch is now exercising this power fundamentally shifts power between the individual and the state, and it repudiates constitutional principles governing search, seizure and privacy. "
(from NYT editorial)