Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Fri Jun 7, 2013, 06:49 AM Jun 2013

Obama’s Unparalleled Spy State

http://www.alternet.org/surveillance-facebook-google


US President Barack Obama walks down the West Wing Colonnade in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, June 5, 2013. Obama called for "meaningful reform" and respect for universal rights in Bahrain, during talks with Crown Prince Salman

Now we know for sure: The Obama administration has presided over the most thorough expansion of the domestic surveillance state of any U.S. presidency. Even as the nation was still absorbing the news, broken by Glenn Greenwald at the Guardian on Wednesday night, that the National Security Agency has been routinely collecting phone call records for millions of Americans, the Washington Post and the Guardian published articles revealing even broader government snooping powers: Since 2007, the NSA and the FBI have had the power to watch nearly every aspect of our online life as well.

The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time.

The nine companies are Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple. (PalTalk, according to the Post, “hosted significant traffic during the Arab Spring and in the ongoing Syrian civil war.”)

The program is code-named PRISM, and while it was created during the administration of George W. Bush, the Post reports that it has experienced “exponential growth” under Obama.
19 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

Fumesucker

(45,851 posts)
3. I blame the Naderites, the most evil and foul creatures to ever ooze across this planet
Fri Jun 7, 2013, 07:04 AM
Jun 2013

Only the despicable treachery of those vile vermin allowed the forces of evil to triumph over good.

Fumesucker

(45,851 posts)
11. Just doesn't have the same ring does it?
Fri Jun 7, 2013, 07:43 AM
Jun 2013

When I came to this planet website I didn't really plan to stay so long or I would have picked a less obvious handle.

6000eliot

(5,643 posts)
2. It makes me sick that people supposedly on the left are trying to pin this on Obama.
Fri Jun 7, 2013, 07:03 AM
Jun 2013

Both parties made this happen, and most Americans gladly went along. The time to get angry was OVER TEN YEARS AGO! Now they are just carrying water for the far right.

marmar

(76,990 posts)
12. The time to stop this was four years ago.
Fri Jun 7, 2013, 07:54 AM
Jun 2013

No, you can't pin it all on Obama, but you can't absolve him of blame either, n'est-ce pas? These Bush initiatives have been carried on, and some pumped up on steroids.


 

burnodo

(2,017 posts)
13. "Now they are just carrying water for the far right."
Fri Jun 7, 2013, 08:15 AM
Jun 2013

Is everything you people disagree with carrying water for the far right?

treestar

(82,383 posts)
4. It's kind of hilarious how the entire state apparatus of the federal government
Fri Jun 7, 2013, 07:05 AM
Jun 2013

becomes the current President's. As if they invent it all anew each time there is a new President.

Fumesucker

(45,851 posts)
8. Exactly, Smirk and Sneer had nothing to do with intelligence failures before 9/11
Fri Jun 7, 2013, 07:18 AM
Jun 2013

And it was so unfair of radical leftists to blame them for it.

 

randome

(34,845 posts)
6. Hello? Legal warrant? Congressional review every 90 days since 2006?
Fri Jun 7, 2013, 07:09 AM
Jun 2013

But I suppose Obama the Kenyan Dictator should not be surprised to have this pinned on him.

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

 

randome

(34,845 posts)
15. It's reviewed by a committee of both Democrats and Republicans.
Fri Jun 7, 2013, 08:18 AM
Jun 2013

There is a special FISA court that reviews this. There is a judge who approves the warrant.

With that many layers of review, I'm satisfied.

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

 

Savannahmann

(3,891 posts)
9. I have no control over anything that came before me.
Fri Jun 7, 2013, 07:34 AM
Jun 2013

I have no means of influencing anything that happened before I arrived on site as an individual, or as a leader. I can only decide how things will happen from now on. President Obama had nothing to do with how things got started. The morons who fired up this mess were idiots who tore up the Constitution on a daily basis.

President Obama is smarter. Unlike Bush and the morons around him, President Obama not only studied Constitutional Law, but taught it. I would expect that an idiot like Bush would not give a damn about the Constitution, nothing he did showed that he had any understanding of it's importance. President Obama on the other hand, has had the power since 2009, and most importantly, is well versed, has taught countless students the importance of the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

The 4th Amendment.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized


Where is the probable cause that justifies the seizing of the records for every single person in the nation? Where is the idea that we are protected from improper listening to our conversations, and examinations of our personal messages?

Bush was an idiot, we said so for eight long years. We protested his shredding of the Constitution, we objected to his spying program. We know he lied, and we shouted it from the rooftops. We elected a Constitutional Scholar, a Constitutional professor, who was as smart as Bush was dumb, to end this crap. I elected him to set things right, and to end the unconstitutional practices of Bush and the cabal.

Make no mistake, I don't hold Bush blameless. But he is an idiot, and it is easier to understand how an idiot would screw up something he doesn't understand than to excuse a Genius like Obama who taught that individual civil liberty is important. A child should not have a gun, because a child doesn't understand how dangerous it is. A child makes a mistake, and if not excusable, it is at least a mitigating circumstance when the question of punishment comes up. An adult has no such excuse. A brilliant adult like President Obama knows better, and did it anyway. Democrats who know better did it anyway.

KurtNYC

(14,549 posts)
16. this means that the NSA and FBI have gathered all kinds of proprietary information
Fri Jun 7, 2013, 08:18 AM
Jun 2013

eg. the formula for coca cola, Apple's next move in cell phones, pre-order information for next Christmas's retail inventory, etc. etc. So a corporation with connections inside the NSA can know exactly what their competitors' next moves are, how much they pay their key employees, who has health issues and everything else.

Such information can also be used to profit heavily in the stock market.

If there was ever a doubt this kills it -- the game is rigged.

Response to KurtNYC (Reply #16)

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Obama’s Unparalleled Spy ...