Greenwald: Obama's NSA "Reforms" Are Little More Than A PR Attempt To Mollify The Public

[Purveyor]

Glenn Greenwald
The Guardian, Friday 17 January 2014

In response to political scandal and public outrage, official Washington repeatedly uses the same well-worn tactic. It is the one that has been hauled out over decades in response to many of America's most significant political scandals. Predictably, it is the same one that shaped President Obama's much-heralded Friday speech to announce his proposals for "reforming" the National Security Agency in the wake of seven months of intense worldwide controversy.

The crux of this tactic is that US political leaders pretend to validate and even channel public anger by acknowledging that there are "serious questions that have been raised". They vow changes to fix the system and ensure these problems never happen again. And they then set out, with their actions, to do exactly the opposite: to make the system prettier and more politically palatable with empty, cosmetic "reforms" so as to placate public anger while leaving the system fundamentally unchanged, even more immune than before to serious challenge.

This scam has been so frequently used that it is now easily recognizable. In the mid-1970s, the Senate uncovered surveillance abuses that had been ongoing for decades, generating widespread public fury. In response, the US Congress enacted a new law (Fisa) which featured two primary "safeguards": a requirement of judicial review for any domestic surveillance, and newly created committees to ensure legal compliance by the intelligence community.

But the new court was designed to ensure that all of the government's requests were approved: it met in secret, only the government's lawyers could attend, it was staffed with the most pro-government judges, and it was even housed in the executive branch. As planned, the court over the next 30 years virtually never said no to the government.

Identically, the most devoted and slavish loyalists of the National Security State were repeatedly installed as the committee's heads, currently in the form of NSA cheerleaders Democrat Dianne Feinstein in the Senate and Republican Mike Rogers in the House. As the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza put it in a December 2013 article on the joke of Congressional oversight, the committees "more often treat … senior intelligence officials like matinee idols".

MORE...

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/17/obama-nsa-reforms-bulk-surveillance-remains

[peacebird]

1. Lipstick on a pig

[Thinkingabout]

2. Obama spoke on NSA, explained why information is analyzed, and though it does

Meet the needs of some, he can not bow to the wishes of some since he is charge of protecting a nation. Some parts of our national security has been compromised but it does not mean he calls a halt to our security.

[riderinthestorm]

15. The NSA hasn't stopped any terrorist attacks. Its not about security, its about economic imperialism

The NSA spies on our allies like Germany because they are our global economic competitors, not because Angela Merkel is talking to Al Qaeda.

The sooner the NSA defenders wrap their brains around the FACT that the NSA is really a tool for the global economic elite, the better.

Its also used for control and domination of political enemies as well as to fabricate evidence trails against people.

But as a security tool? No way.

[Thinkingabout]

19. Since the NSA does not give details of their analysis publically you do not have any proof

NSA has not been instrumental in preventing terrorist attacks. Are they going to provide that information to the public? No, it is not in the interest of our national security. Control also is coming from the anti NSA group of which I will not be controlled. There has been fabrication of facts from the anti NSA group. Don't think for a moment I have not read and looked at lots of information, common sense needs to prevail here.

[riderinthestorm]

21. Nope, you're wrong. NSA director Alexander has admitted he's lied about the NSA stopping attacks

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/15/1247400/-NSA-Director-Admits-He-Lied-About-Surveillance-Thwarting-54-Terror-Plots#

Nobody's making up "facts". Alexander himself admits he lied before Congress.

[Thinkingabout]

22. If you listened to President's speech and others connected with NSA they do not give details.

[woo me with science]

17. Oh, please. It was NEVER about "protecting a nation."

In fact, it is by definition a vicious assault on our Constitution and our nation. It is the use of "Terra!" to dismantle our Constitutional protections and implement a surveillance state.

Why?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024352872

Why do plutocrats put a sweeping, Constitution-assaulting, spying infrastructure into place? To create total information awareness, power and control; to spy on competitors and politicians; to facilitate their corporate predatory agenda; to prevent investigation of their abuses by a free press; and to crush dissent by protesters and the citizens they are systematically exploiting, stripping of their rights, and impoverishing.

What is the NSA really for?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024215519

"Clear evidence of collusion between TransCanada and the federal government assisting local police to unlawfully monitor and harass political protestors”
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023049508

Corporate Espionage and the Secret War Against Citizen Activism
http://www.democraticunderground.com/111643982

NSA Spying Not Very Focused on Terrorism: Power, Money and Crushing Dissent Are Real Motives Ops
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023923016

Keiser Report: CIA, NSA & Economic Espionage (E498) (second half with Greg Palast)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017146372

Spooky Business: Corporate Espionage Against Non-profits
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024106205

NSA data could be most useful for connected types on Wall Street.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022983519

NSA spied on EU's Anti Trust Chief
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024204596

2011: Wall Street firms spy on protesters with police in tax-funded center
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023286585

OUTRAGEOUS: Our Tax Money Funds Gov Surveillance Center In Lower Manhattan--& Wall St Is Part Of It!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2178769

Report Details How Counter Terrorism Apparatus Was Used to Monitor Occupy Movement Nationwide
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12527647

NSA Monitors Porn Habits To Discredit 'Radicalizers'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024099994

How FBI Monitored Occupy Movement
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101651867

FBI started surveillance of Occupy before it occupied
http://sync.democraticunderground.com/10022930860

Wall Street Protesters Complain of Police Surveillance
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101618930

Whoop, There It Is... 'Evidence Homeland Security Coordinated Occupy Crackdown' -
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002462465

ACLU discovers FBI is labeling peace activists as 'potential terrorists'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4500788

Why is FBI Manufacturing Reasons to Arrest Occupy Protesters, Ignoring White Supremacist Violence
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12522821

DHS Tracked Occupy Wall Street to 'Control Protesters
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101463537

'Occupy' crackdowns coordinated with federal law enforcement officials
http://www.examiner.com/top-news-in-minneapolis/were-occupy-crackdowns-aided-by-federal-law-enforcement-agencies

FBI uses new powers to bug anti-war groups
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x237625

ACLU: FBI instructs police to suppress peaceful protests
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x253574

Ridiculous FBI list: You might be a domestic terrorist if ...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1790765

American Protesters Declared Enemy for Weapons Testing Purposes; Rules of Engagement
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2132808#2139011

DoD Training Manual: Protests are "Low-Level Terrorism"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/100227662

NSA, DEA fabricating evidence trails to imprison Americans using spying.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023406605

ACLU: On revenge and the NSA
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023491532

On the Espionage Act charges against Edward Snowden Glenn Greenwald
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023066929

US Uses Espionage Act To Convict Manning Using Words Added In 1990: "with a computer"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023375845

Fed Court: Just changed interpretation of Espionage Act to cover leaks that are NOT Harmful To USA
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023365713

Obama's abuse of the Espionage Act is modern-day McCarthyism
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023413935

NY Times: White House Uses Espionage Act to Silence Employees, Press
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101616764

Obama Has Charged More Under Espionage Act Than All Other Presidents Combined
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023080388

A Nation of "Suspects"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x5011487
http://www.truth-out.org/nation-suspects/1314810046

That magic word, "terrorism." The government's identification of those needing further scrutiny
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022730456#post13

Do You Like Online Privacy? You May Be a Terrorist
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002257966

"Arrogant complaining about airport security is one indicator Transportation Security Administration officers consider when looking for possible criminals and terrorists"
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/04/15/tsa.screeners.complain/

Top US counterterrorism official: drone critics are Al Qaeda enablers
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002279862

[ProSense]

3. Greenwald is a

"Greenwald: Obama's NSA "Reforms" Are Little More Than A PR Attempt To Mollify The Public"

...clown. First he says, that it's a "PR attempt." Then he dimisses the attempt to fix it as a "scam." Next, he says:

To be sure, there were several proposals from Obama that are positive steps. A public advocate in the Fisa court, a loosening of "gag orders" for national security letters, removing metadata control from the NSA, stricter standards for accessing metadata, and narrower authorizations for spying on friendly foreign leaders (but not, of course, their populations) can all have some marginal benefits. But even there, Obama's speech was so bereft of specifics – what will the new standards be? who will now control Americans' metadata? – that they are more like slogans than serious proposals.

I guess he wanted a longer speech in which the President spelled out the details of every single proposal. They're "positive steps" and "slogans."

Silliness.

[woo me with science]

4. +10000 This is an attempt at an advertising solution, not a real solution.

Last edited Sat Jan 18, 2014, 11:49 PM - Edit history (1)

Corporate goals are very different from the goals of representatives. This is what happens when an ostensibly representative, Constitutional government is sold to banks and corporations.

Now that we have Corporatists instead of Representatives in office, their goal has shifted from following the Constitution and *representing* our rights, to *marketing* to us the anti-democratic, profit-generating assaults they have already decided to implement.

[Cali_Democrat]

5. Greenwald unhappy with Obama?

Shocking.

Oh....just in case people forgot....love posting this.....

http://extremeliberal.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/glenn-greenwald-supported-president-bush-as-he-signed-the-patriot-act/

Glenn Greenwald Supported President Bush As He Signed The Patriot Act!

[rhett o rick]

7. That's what you got? An ad hominem attach on Greenwald? You support the Republicans

on this issue? Clapper is a conservative Republican and you choose his side.

Ad hominem attacks are the bottom of the barrel.

Obama said there was nothing wrong at the NSA. Then he said he would have Clapper investigate himself. Now he says he will institute changes. This should only mollify the naive among us.

[Cali_Democrat]

8. Fuck Ron Paul. nt

[NuclearDem]

11. I think you picked the wrong talking point off the list.

[rhett o rick]

14. Your choice of the authoritarian side may look expedient but you will not be rewarded by the 1%.

You choose to side with the following? Tell me which one favors the 99%.

Tim Geitner, Lawrence Summers, Ben Bernanke, William M. Daley, Jeff Immelt, Dave Cote, Jeb Bush, Robert Gates, Gen Stanley McChrystal, Jacob Lew, Jeremiah Norton, Gen Petraeus, John Brennen, Chuck Hegal, Michael Taylor, James Comey, James R. Clapper, Robert Mueller, Rahm Emanuel, Penny Pritzker

Blind faith can only carry you so far.

[Whisp]

23. lol at the assclown pic.

fuck the pathetic weasel paulite.

[joshcryer]

6. Greenwald should drop something big.

I'm afraid he's out of ammo though if this is all he's got.

[Egnever]

9. Well theres a surprise.

[PowerToThePeople]

10. As long as all the collected data is not permanently destroyed,

it is all just bullshit talk to placate the public.

[Octafish]

12. NSA won't give up its hold on info for the privileged class without a real overhaul.

Ultimately, the radical essence of the NSA – a system of suspicion-less spying aimed at hundreds of millions of people in the US and around the world – will fully endure even if all of Obama's proposals are adopted. That's because Obama never hid the real purpose of this process. It is, he and his officials repeatedly acknowledged, "to restore public confidence" in the NSA. In other words, the goal isn't to truly reform the agency; it is deceive people into believing it has been so that they no longer fear it or are angry about it.

Thanks for the heads-up on the central issue of our time, Purveyor!

[SidDithers]

13. Greenwald. LOL...nt

Sid

[randome]

16. Greenwald hiding in Brazil (and 'blaming' that on his being gay) is little more than a PR attempt...

...to avoid his tax problems.

There. Fixed that for you, Glenn.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]“If you're not committed to anything, you're just taking up space.”
Gregory Peck, Mirage (1965)[/center][/font][hr]

[Rex]

18. I'm not sure what he is reforming, since for months not we've been told there is nothing wrong.

At least it pissed off the authoritarians. It is funny watching them foam over GG and Snowden.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

20. But, it was a nice CYA speech loaded with platitudes about privacy and "security".

And, of course, scary bogeymen.